SEC Commissioner Uyeda, one of the Republican appointees to the Securities & Exchange Commission, recently stated (in remarks at the 2025 “SEC Speaks” Conference) that the SEC should not rescind the climate disclosure rule...more
Federal Regulation On April 8, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order that sought to target actions undertaken by individual US states to combat climate change, for the stated purpose of ensuring “American energy...more
On April 24, 2025, the Eighth Circuit ordered that the litigation over the validity of the SEC's climate disclosure rule be “held in abeyance.” This order was in response to a submission by a coalition of blue states that...more
On March 27, 2025, as expected, the SEC under the Trump administration abandoned the climate disclosure rule promulgated by the Biden administration, specifically stating in a court filing that it would no longer defend the...more
As expected, the SEC under the Trump Administration has abandoned the climate disclosure rule promulgated by the Biden Administration. Specifically, as stated in a court filing today, “the Commission has determined that it...more
3/28/2025
/ Appeals ,
Biden Administration ,
Climate Change ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Final Rules ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Trump Administration
According to a recent report, the climate disclosure rules recently promulgated by the European Union will compel more than 3,000 U.S. companies to file mandatory climate-related disclosures. This fact demonstrates the...more
On October 7, 2023, Governor Gavin Newsom of California signed into law two climate disclosure bills passed by the California Legislature. These laws now require that "by January 1, 2025 . . . businesses with total annual...more
On September 21, 2023, Judge Kacsmaryk (N.D. Texas), a famously conservative Trump-appointed jurist, upheld a Department of Labor rule promulgated by the Biden Administration that enables employee retirement plans to consider...more
9/28/2023
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Biden Administration ,
Chevron Deference ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Fiduciary ,
Investment ,
Investment Adviser ,
Retirement Plan ,
Rulemaking Process
On September 12, 2023, SEC Chairman Gensler testified before the Senate concerning a number of significant issues for the SEC. Among them was the SEC's still-pending rule on climate risk disclosures, which was first proposed...more
It has been publicly reported that the SEC's Enforcement Division has been "sen[ding] document requests, including subpoenas" to asset managers in connection with ESG marketing. This development is entirely unsurprising, as...more
About two weeks ago, former SEC Commissioner Robert Jackson, currently a professor at NYU Law, stated during an April 27 webinar hosted by a carbon accounting firm that "it looks like the [climate disclosure] rule is going to...more
It has been publicly reported that the Biden Administration's EPA will shortly "announce limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that could compel them to capture the pollution from their smokestacks." In...more
4/25/2023
/ Biden Administration ,
Carbon Capture and Sequestration ,
Clean Energy ,
Climate Change ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Natural Gas ,
Power Plants ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Renewable Energy ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Last week, SEC Chairman Gensler testified before the House Committee on Financial Services. As part of his talk, which addressed a number of topics--including, inter alia, artificial intelligence and crypto--Chairman Gensler...more
Today, President Biden issued the first veto of his presidency. This action had been heavily telegraphed in advance and was widely expected. Nonetheless, this veto is extraordinarily significant....more
Last fall, the Biden Administration's Department of Labor ("DOL") issued a regulation ("Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights") that, according to a White House press release,...more
As we have noted previously, a number of Republican politicians had previously identified antitrust law as a potential counter to ESG efforts, particularly if companies began to coordinate a response to climate change. Even...more
Last Thursday, the Biden Administration proposed that all federal contractors (except those receiving less than $7.5 million annually in contracts) be required to, among other things, disclose their GHG emissions....more
Last week, the two Republican Commissioners of the SEC availed themselves of the opportunity presented by the ability to comment on the Financial Accounting Foundation's Strategic Plan Draft for Public Comment to again voice...more
Earlier this week, President Biden delivered a speech identifying certain executive actions he planned to undertake in order to advance his agenda of combatting climate change. These included: (1) "$2.3 billion to help...more
7/25/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
CFTC ,
Clean Energy ,
Climate Change ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Policies ,
Executive Orders ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
West Virginia v EPA
The Supreme Court, in West Virginia v. EPA, effectively limited the ability of the EPA to issue significant regulations designed to address climate change absent further Congressional action. And any Congressional...more
On June 2, 2022, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a Request for Information ("RFI") for "public comment on climate-related financial risk to better inform its understanding and oversight of...more
Recently, the States of Idaho and Utah --both controlled by the Republican Party--sent letters to S&P, one of the three major credit rating agencies, objecting to its inclusion of ESG criteria in its assessment of the...more
In a speech delivered on May 6, 2022 to the Annual Conference on Financial Market Regulation, SEC Chairman Gensler again re-affirmed his support for the SEC's recent proposed mandatory climate disclosures.
...more
The SEC has received two comment letters from members of Congress--one from the House of Representatives and one from the Senate--criticizing its proposal for mandatory climate disclosures....more
On March 21, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) unveiled its long-anticipated proposed rules on climate disclosures, entitled “The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for...more
3/31/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
GHG Auction ,
Proposed Rules ,
PSLRA ,
Risk Management ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)