Earlier this month, Governor Newsom announced his support of a sweeping climate bill enacted by the California legislature that would compel major companies operating in California to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions. ...more
On September 20, 2023, the SEC approved amendments to the "Names Rule," which were initially proposed in May 2022. Although the stated "purpose of the Names Rule," according to the accompanying Fact Sheet distributed by the...more
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
Public media reports have stated that the SEC’s Enforcement Division has been “sen[ding] document requests, including subpoenas” to asset managers in connection with ESG marketing. Apparently, these actions by the SEC’s...more
This week, an investor brought a lawsuit against Target Corporation in connection with allegedly "false and misleading statements concerning Target's Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) and Diversity, Equity, and...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
Today, a state court judge in Montana issued a long-awaited ruling in which the court found that the "Plaintiffs have a fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment, which includes climate as part of...more
Yesterday, on July 19, 2023, the CFTC held its second voluntary carbon markets convening, approximately a year following the initial voluntary carbon markets convening on June 2, 2022. The stated purpose of the meeting is...more
Last week, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing entitled "Protecting Investor Interests: Examining Environmental and Social Policy in Financial Regulation." As indicated by the title of the hearing, the...more
This week, Congressmen Jim Jordan (R-OH), Thomas Massie (R-KY), and Dan Bishop (R-NC), sent a letter on behalf of the House Committee on the Judiciary to three major asset managers and two non-profit organizations (the...more
Much ink has been spilled about ESG laws and regulations targeted at the investment of public funds, and rightfully so. Yet, there has been little discussion of novel requirements imposed on banks that simply hold state or...more
Last week, the CFTC solicited whistleblowers in connection with "potential [] fraud and manipulation" in "voluntary carbon markets," particularly in circumstances "in which high-quality carbon credits, also known as carbon...more
SEC Commissioner Uyeda, one of two Republican commissioners on the Securities & Exchange Commission, delivered remarks yesterday at the Society for Corporate Governance's National Conference, in which he broached the idea...more
This week, the Securities & Exchange Commission indicated--through an update to a GSA website --that the proposed climate change disclosure rule would likely be finalized and released in October 2023. This date is congruent...more
Much of the current debate about ESG initiatives and how companies consider the impact of climate change on their operations appears to operate in a vacuum, untethered to the real world, where pundits and politicians opine on...more
Recently, SEC Commissioner Peirce--one of the Republican appointees to the Securities & Exchange Commission--delivered a speech to Eurofi (a European think tank focused on financial regulation) in which she extensively...more
Today, the Supreme Court denied the writ of certiorari filed by the major oil companies in a pair of significant climate change cases. Specifically, the fossil fuel companies had sought review of a decision by the Third...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
Today, Governor DeSantis (R-FL) signed into law an anti-ESG bill that, among other things, bars managers of the state's pension fund from considering ESG factors when making investments. Instead, pecuniary factors are the...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)
SEC Commissioner Lizarraga, one of the recent Democratic appointees to the Securities & Exchange Commission, delivered a speech on April 18 at the annual public policy symposium of the North American Securities Administrators...more
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
State and Local ESG Regulation.
Despite recent public statements by notable Republican federal officials, including an SEC Commissioner, that have expressed considerable skepticism towards the SEC’s proposed ESG...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 month, the SEC issued its list of examination priorities for 2023. Among the list of six priorities identified by the SEC in its press release was "Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)." Specifically, the SEC...more