An ongoing shift from coal to natural gas in electricity generation will require new pipelines to supply gas-fired plants, but social media is helping to galvanize increasingly vocal public opposition to new energy infrastructure projects.

Natural gas captured a substantial share of the electricity market from coal last year, thanks in large part to low prices caused by the shale gas boom and resulting domestic supply glut. “Gas has been winning the new generation battle,” said Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Philip Moeller at the Platts Northeast Energy Markets Conference on 23 April.

While coal has recaptured some market share as natural gas prices have edged back up above $4.00 per million Btu (MMBtu), impending Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules are expected to further shift power generation from coal to gas, creating the need for new infrastructure that is better suited to a changing power sector.

Read more on Breaking Energy.

The UN investigation of Iran’s nuclear program is stalled because the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency refuses to have its “hands and legs” bound by Iranian demands, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said.

In an exclusive interview, the head of the United Nations investigation into allegations that Iran seeks nuclear weapons offered a frank assessment of the difficulties that have brought the decade-old investigation to a standstill.

After clearing up a series of issues concerning Iran’s atomic program, the IAEA probe is stalled over questions about the military dimensions of the Islamic Republic’s atomic work and about access to a key site at a military testing ground. Iran has refused since August 2008 to answer these questions.

Read more on Breaking Defense.

The Blonds are known for combining couture-level embellishment with Bob Mackie kitsch. The duo’s Swarovski-covered corsets have become signatures for many a pop star (Rihanna, Katy Perry, to name a few).

Designers Phillipe and David Blond’s latest creation was a commission for superstar Beyoncé’s latest world tour, The Mrs. Carter Show, and although the set list provides no new material (sad face), she’s retired her vintage Thierry Mugler for a provocative new number by the pair that’s making news the world over. Yeah, we’re talking about that crazy sparkly boob corset. We chat with the designers about the shocking look, their inspiration behind it, and working for Queen Bey.

Fashionista: Who was the first star to wear one of your design?

Read more on Fashionista.

If Tommy “I will run you over in the street” Belesis ever beats those fraud charges, the first thing he does is contact the writer of this letter to sign up for a 2-week intensive course that involves shadowing the master around campus (there is much to learn). The rest of you: take notes.

Read more on Dealbreaker.

As many of our readers know, 2012 was the year of the Clifford Chance Mommy. If you’re unfamiliar with her tale, she wrote an epic departure memo that detailed a day in a harried mother’s life (e.g., waking up at 4 a.m. to start her day and going to sleep the next day at 1:30 a.m., only to do it all over again, ad infinitum). This woman made many people question their own sense of work/life balance, and led others to wonder if they could ever have a meaningful family life while working in Biglaw.

At some firms, you’ll have a fighting chance of achieving that goal.

The Yale Law Women are out with their annual list of the top ten family friendly firms. We cover this list every year (see our posts from 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, and 2008). This year’s list has changed dramatically from last year’s: only half of the firms have returned, with five new firms joining them.

Which firms made the cut? Which firms had the best options available to both men and women? Let’s take a look at the latest ranking for the most family-friendly firms….

Read more on AbovetheLaw.

Somehow, in 2013, yet another magazine has decided it would be a good idea to put a Caucasian model in literal blackface for a fashion editorial. This time, the culprit is Vogue Netherlands. (In the recent past, Numéro, L’Officiel and Vogue Paris, have all come under for using blackface.)

Model Querelle Jansen stars in the May 2013 issue’s “Heritage Heroes,” sort of a retrospective editorial of some of Marc Jacobs’s work for Louis Vuitton. The styling of each look is, we guess, somehow meant to illustrate the inspiration of a particular collection. Marc Jacobs found inspiration in African-American cultural icons for his Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 collections–Grace Jones and Josephine Baker, respectively. Vogue Netherlands decided that the best way to convey those inspirations would be with some white models, black face paint and wigs of what looks like black hair, worn throughout. A caption from the editorial translates to “This collection is inspired by the style of the Parisian showgirl Josephine Baker, mixed with tribal influences.”

Read more on Fashionista.

One of the Army's first AH-64E Apache Guardian helicopters on training exercises near Fort Lewis, Washington.

CAPITOL HILL: Congress has asked the Army to explain why it has officially taken delivery of at least seven AH-64E Apache Guardian helicopters that don’t have transmissions installed yet, AOL Defense has learned. An unidentified subcontractor to Boeing which makes the helicopter, fell behind on building the transmissions and is now trying to catch up, but until it does, the high-tech gunships are unflyable.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) mentioned the Apache transmission issue in one sentence of a 190-page report released last month, as reported by our colleagues at Inside Defense. But the problem remained unfixed as of yesterday, when Hill staff first learned of it during an Army briefing on the service’s 2014 budget. Both Congress and AOL Defense are now waiting on further explanation from the Army.

“The question is, are they still behind, [and] why would the Army be taking delivery of aircraft that aren’t complete?” one Hill staffer told AOL Defense. “Normally the government doesn’t sign for an aircraft that is missing a major component, and the contractor doesn’t get paid for it until it’s complete…. Boeing obviously needs to get a handle on this.”

The staffer did not expect the taxpayer to have to bear any additional costs for the helicopters, since Boeing and its subcontractor should pay to install the belated transmission out of their own pockets. The bigger concern is the delay to an important Army program.

Read more on Breaking Defense.

Enormous finds offshore Brazil have drawn global attention to the promise of sub-salt oil and gas, but Houston-based Swift Energy is seeking to attract partners to a sub-salt prospect much closer to home.

Swift is seeking deepwater players as future partners in a potential sub-salt find in the “onshore” US Gulf of Mexico, under its Lake Washington field, which lies in water depths of 10-15 feet just off the southeastern Louisiana shore. It says the sub-salt prospect could hold as much as 350 million barrels of oil equivalent.

“There’s a good probability of finding a Lake Washington below Lake Washington,” said company president Bruce Vincent at the Independent Petroleum Association of America’s Oil and Gas Investment Symposium in New York on Monday..

But the risky nature of this sort of exploration means that Swift will not proceed without first securing a partner, or partners, with experience drilling in deep water. “There’s a lot of deepwater players that have had a lot of success in the sub-salt,” said chief executive Terry Swift. “Most of them are very big, and we’re looking for that kind of balance sheet, we’re looking for that kind of expertise, and someone who wants that size of a prize.”

Read more on Breaking Energy.

The basketball tournament may be over, but ATL March Madness still has one more round of voting. It all comes down to this. After four rounds of voting, we finally have our finals set. And it’s not the matchup I would have predicted.

Negotiating the harsh realities of a challenging economy is a tall order, and our readers think the two firms in the finals are the best equipped to come out on top.

No word yet on whether the partners of either firm in the finals have decided to get inked up if they win.

Read more on AbovetheLaw.

Photo: HARRY_LOUIS Instagram

So in case you were wondering whether Marc Jacobs and 25-year-old porn star Harry Louis are still an item, it appears that they are.

To celebrate Jacobs’s impending 50th birthday, the buff duo hit the beach in Rio, Made In Brazil is reporting. They wore suits that leave very, very little (although, um, “little” is not the word we’d use to describe anything about Louis) to the imagination. Louis wore a white Speedo covered with hearts, while Jacobs went for a more demure, yet no less tiny, grey pair. And damn, Marc Jacobs! Ripped at 50.

Read more on Fashionista.