Industrials Regulatory News and Trends

Welcome to Industrials Regulatory News and Trends. In this regular bulletin, DLA Piper lawyers provide concise updates on key developments in the industrials sector to help you navigate the ever-changing business, legal and regulatory landscape.

Micron announces DRAM megafab. On October 4, Micron Technology, Inc. announced its plans to build a “megafab” – a massive fabrication facility – to manufacture DRAM (dynamic random access memory) semiconductor chips in Clay, New York, near Syracuse. The $20 billion first phase of the construction is forecast to be complete by 2030, with manufacturing starting as soon as 2025. Ultimately, the megafab will include four 600,000 SF cleanrooms, making it the largest such facility in the US, and Micron expects that the facility will generate about 50,000 jobs in New York state. Micron President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra noted that the plant could not have been built without federal grants and tax breaks arising from the CHIPS and Science Act as well as $5.5 billion in incentives from the state of New York over the life of the project. “I am grateful to President Biden and his Administration for making the CHIPS and Science Act a priority,” he said. In recent weeks, encouraged by the federal grants and tax breaks in the CHIPS Act as well as state-based incentives, other major chip manufacturers have announced big factory projects in Ohio, Texas, Arizona and Indiana, and Micron recently announced it will build another new plant in Idaho.

FCC imposes five-year disposal requirement on satellite operations to curb space junk. The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates commercial satellite operations, ruled on September 29 that satellite operators in low-Earth orbit must dispose of their satellites within five years of completing their missions. The new rules, the agency said, shorten the decades-old 25-year guideline for deorbiting satellites after their missions, taking an important step in a new era for space safety and orbital debris policy. The FCC pointed out that defunct satellites and other space debris now fill the space environment, creating challenges for current and future missions. There are more than 4,800 satellites operating in orbit as of the end of last year, and the vast majority of those are commercial low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. The new five-year rule for deorbiting satellites will mean more accountability and less risk of costly collisions that increase debris, the agency noted.

US approves all states’ vehicle charging plans. On September 27, the US Department of Transportation said that it has now approved the electric vehicle charging station plans for all 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, which cover about 75,000 miles of highways. The November 2021 $1 trillion infrastructure bill provides $5 billion to help states install EV chargers along interstate highways over five years. States now have access to more than $1.5 billion to help build EV chargers, the department said. The Biden White House announced earlier this month that it had approved 35 of the 50 state plans. Although the department is not dictating exactly what the states should do in terms of charges, the department has said in the past that states should fund DC Fast Chargers, that stations should have at least four ports capable of simultaneously charging four EVs, and that EV charging infrastructure should be located every 50 miles along interstate highways and be located within one mile of highways.

Permitting reform may still be alive in the US Congress, despite setback. A proposal by Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) for permitting reform failed to be included in the short-term government funding bill that passed Congress October 30, but the effort still has some life in it. Lawmakers from both parties have signaled that they would be willing to work with Senator Manchin on the issue, possibly putting together a reform package that would include the change. Permitting reform generally refers to a way to write into law a reduction in the time and expense of environmental reviews of energy projects. An overhaul to the nation’s permitting laws was originally promised to the senator in exchange for his support for the climate, healthcare and tax bill last month. But the deal fell apart in the aftermath of the Inflation Reduction Act.