PODCAST: Energy Infrastructure under the Trump Administration — C&M's Trump: The First Year Series
Client Alert | 1 min read | 09.27.17
In the latest podcast for Crowell & Moring’s “Trump: The First Year” series, Richard Lehfeldt, partner in the firm’s Energy Group, and Diana Jeschke, counsel in the group, sit down to discuss energy infrastructure issues under the Trump Administration. Richard previously worked as counsel for the Energy and Power Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Diana was an attorney advisor to administrative law judges Carmen Cintron and David Coffman at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Discussed in this 16-minute podcast:
- An overview of energy infrastructure.
- Who makes decisions about energy infrastructure, where does the funding originate, and what factors go into those decisions.
- An overview of distributed generation and microgrids.
- Case studies: NYU and Princeton University, and what lessons to take from them.
Click below to listen or access from one of these links:
PodBean | SoundCloud | iTunes
Insights
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On November 7, 2025, in Thornton v. National Academy of Sciences, No. 25-cv-2155, 2025 WL 3123732 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2025), the District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation complaint on the basis that the plaintiff’s allegations that he was fired after blowing the whistle on purported illegally discriminatory use of federal funding was not sufficient to support his FCA claim. This case appears to be one of the first filed, and subsequently dismissed, following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcement of the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative on May 19, 2025, which “strongly encourages” private individuals to file lawsuits under the FCA relating to purportedly discriminatory and illegal use of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in violation of Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025). In this case, the court dismissed the FCA retaliation claim and rejected the argument that an organization could violate the FCA merely by “engaging in discriminatory conduct while conducting a federally funded study.” The analysis in Thornton could be a sign of how forthcoming arguments of retaliation based on reporting allegedly fraudulent DEI activity will be analyzed in the future.
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