In October 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law the Climate Corporate Accountability Act (SB 253) and the Climate‐Related Financial Risk Act (SB 261), jointly referred to as the Climate Accountability...more
The Biden-Harris Administration recently issued a suite of new rules aimed at addressing water and air quality, reducing methane emissions, protecting environmental justice communities, and accelerating the nation’s...more
6/12/2024
/ Air Pollution ,
Air Quality Standards ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Clean Air Act ,
Clean Water Act ,
Climate Change ,
Coal Ash ,
Department of the Interior ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Final Rules ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
MATS ,
Methane ,
New Rules ,
Offshore Wind ,
Power Plants ,
RCRA ,
Renewable Energy ,
Toxic Chemicals ,
Wastewater ,
Water Quality
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recent rulemakings for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have far-reaching implications for a broad range of industries, regulated entities, and regulatory bodies. First,...more
5/2/2024
/ CERCLA ,
Contamination ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Drinking Water ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Groundwater ,
Hazardous Substances ,
PFAS ,
Popular ,
Public Health ,
Toxic Chemicals ,
Water Quality
On April 4, 2024, the SEC issued a stay of its final climate-related disclosure rules. The SEC adopted the long-awaited final rules in March after receiving more than 24,000 comment letters....more
On March 6, 2024, in a 3-2 vote along party lines, the SEC adopted the long-awaited final rules on climate-related disclosures. The proposed rules faced intense public scrutiny over the last two years, with the SEC receiving...more
3/12/2024
/ Climate Change ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Emerging Growth Companies ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Reporting ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
Risk Assessment ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Smaller Reporting Companies ,
Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
On October 7, 2023, Governor Newsom signed into law California Senate Bill 253 (SB 253), the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act. With the passage of SB 253, California takes the lead in implementing greenhouse gas...more
What a difference a year makes.
A highlight of the 2022 proxy season was the increased shareholder focus on a number of ESG topics, including more than 100 “E”-related shareholder proposals related to climate change,...more
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) recently announced plans to change its methodology for its Environmental & Social Disclosure QualityScore (ISS QualityScore). The revised ISS QualityScore is expected to take effect...more
On May 25, 2023, the United States Supreme Court held that the term “waters of the United States” (“WOTUS”)—as used in the federal Clean Water Act (“CWA”), 33 U.S.C. § 1362(7)—means “streams, oceans, rivers, and lakes” and...more
6/8/2023
/ Clean Water Act ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Federal Jurisdiction ,
Inland Waterways ,
Navigable Waters ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Sackett ,
Sackett v EPA ,
SCOTUS ,
Significant Nexus Test ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
Waters of the United States ,
Wetlands
The Biden Administration’s Executive Order 14096, “Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All,” launched significant new policies to further integrate environmental justice throughout the federal...more
The Biden-Harris Administration continues to build on early efforts to integrate environmental justice with federal agency actions through a new executive order, Executive Order 14091, Further Advancing Racial Equity and...more
In preparation for the 2023 proxy season, proxy advisory firms Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) announced updates to their voting guidelines for investors, effective on January 1, 2023, and February 1,...more
2/7/2023
/ Audits ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Glass Lewis ,
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) ,
Proxy Season ,
Proxy Statements ,
Proxy Voting ,
Proxy Voting Guidelines ,
Publicly-Traded Companies
Companies considered to be “major” or “significant” US federal government contractors soon may be required to provide climate disclosures as part of the Biden Administration’s suite of policies designed to achieve net-zero...more
12/13/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Climate Change ,
Comment Period ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Net Zero ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Disclosure ,
System For Award Management (SAM) ,
Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
Recent actions by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) aim to institutionalize environmental justice as a key agency function and support development of tools, guidance and policies to advance it. A newly formed...more
Election Day is rapidly approaching, and control of both the US House of Representatives and the Senate is on the line. The Democrats have a razor-thin majority that could quickly shift as a result of the midterms....more
California lawmakers ushered in a robust suite of climate legislation at the end of the term in August, dedicating $54 billion to climate programs over the next five years. The state’s demonstrated dedication to climate...more
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the Biden Administration’s signature legislative achievement, includes several provisions aimed at fighting climate change by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The law represents the...more
9/2/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Carbon Capture and Sequestration ,
Clean Energy ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Justice ,
Federal Funding ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) ,
Investment Tax Credits ,
Mineral Leases ,
Oil & Gas ,
Popular ,
Production Tax Credit
Governor Newsom recently signed Senate Bill 54 (“SB 54”), heralding an unprecedented commitment to reducing plastic production and consumption in California. The Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer...more
Future federal environmental settlements are likely to include more creative remedies to address the impacts of violations on communities, thanks to recent policy changes at the US Department of Justice (DOJ)....more
7/25/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Clean Air Act ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Environmental Violations ,
New Rules ,
Regulatory History ,
Settlement ,
Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP) Policy
In one of the most significant environmental opinions of our time, the Supreme Court held in West Virginia v. EPA that Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act does not give the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authority to...more
7/11/2022
/ Clean Air Act ,
Clean Power Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Power Plants ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Regulatory History ,
SCOTUS ,
West Virginia v EPA
On May 26, 2022, the United States Supreme Court ruled to allow the Biden Administration to continue using the social cost of carbon estimates in its regulatory analyses, developed pursuant to President Biden’s Executive...more
On May 12, seventeen states filed a petition for review of EPA’s decision to reinstate California’s authority to set its own motor vehicle emissions standards. The petition was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C....more
The Biden Administration will propose a rule “in the very near future” requiring major vendors supplying products and services to the federal government to report their greenhouse gas emissions and other climate-related...more
The path to advancing environmental justice (EJ) just got a lot clearer, thanks to a new digital mapping tool created by the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). CEQ released a “beta” version of the Climate and...more
On April 28, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced an action against Brazilian mining company, Vale S.A., in relation to an environmental and social catastrophe: the collapse of its Brumadinho dam in...more