On January 24, 2024, Senators Tester (D-Montana) and Sinema (I-Arizona) submitted a letter to the SEC concerning the SEC's proposed “Climate Disclosure Rule,” which would mandate, among other things, disclosures of greenhouse...more
Federal Regulatory Developments -
In a recent filing with the Office of Management and Budget, the Securities & Exchange Commission disclosed that the vote by the SEC Commissioners as to whether to issue the SEC’s...more
1/3/2024
/ Climate Change ,
Disclosure ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
OMB ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Sustainability
A number of significant regulatory, legal, market, and ESG-related developments and issues will affect how public companies approach the upcoming year-end reporting process. As in past years, Mintz has prepared an in-depth...more
12/18/2023
/ 10b5-1 Plans ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) ,
Clawbacks ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Cybersecurity ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Form 10-K ,
Form 8-K ,
Nasdaq ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Risk Management ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Shareholder Meetings ,
Trading Plans ,
Year-End Planning
The Securities & Exchange Commission recently disclosed, in a filing with the Office of Management and Budget, that the vote by the SEC Commissioners as to whether to issue the SEC's proposed climate disclosures is expected...more
According to a recent ESG report from the Conference Board, the number of major companies issuing climate change risk factor disclosures has increased significantly over the past two years. Specifically, of the companies in...more
Federal Regulatory Developments -
The SEC has still not issued its final climate-related disclosure rule (originally proposed in March 2022), despite prior indications that it would do so in the fall of 2023. Recently, SEC...more
The Mintz Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Working Group developed this ESG primer to provide an overview of the current state of affairs in the United States with respect to the ESG issues that businesses...more
10/30/2023
/ Affirmative Action ,
Antiboycott Requirements ,
Boycotts ,
CFTC ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Enforcement ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Fossil Fuel ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Greenwashing ,
Net Zero ,
New Regulations ,
Rulemaking Process ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Shareholders ,
State and Local Government ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Students for Fair Admissions v University of North Carolina
Earlier this week, the SEC's Division of Examinations released its 2024 examination priorities. While many of these priorities are expected, and reflect the goals articulated by the SEC in prior years, there is a noticeable...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 25, 2023, the SEC announced a settled administrative proceeding against a major investment advisor in which it agreed to pay a $19 million civil penalty for, effectively, greenwashing activities--i.e., pretending...more
Yesterday, September 26, 2023, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), along with six other Democratic Senators and eighteen Democratic Congressmen, sent a letter to SEC Chairman Gensler concerning the SEC's proposed climate...more
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
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
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
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
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
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)
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