On May 23, 2025, Maine’s Governor Janet Mills signed into law “An Act to Require Landowners to Report Their Participation in a Forest Carbon Program or Project” (H.P.3 – L.D. 39; codified at 12 MRSA § 8881, sub-§2-A-C; 12...more
Two weeks after setting a nationwide deadline for removal of lead pipes, the Biden administration is imposing strict new limits on dust from lead-based paint in older homes and child-care facilities....more
New York Attorney General (AG) Letitia James is suing JBS USA Food Company and JBS USA Food Company Holdings under New York’s consumer protection laws for allegedly attempting to boost consumer sales by making sustainability...more
REGULATORY ISSUES & UPDATES - Mandatory Climate Change Reporting Requirements Under the New European ESRS E1 - The implementation of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards poses risks for reporting companies,...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
On October 7, 2023, California took a significant step toward promoting transparency and integrity of voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) and climate-related claims by enacting Assembly Bill 1305: the Voluntary Carbon Market...more
Massachusetts will soon see significant updates to the energy codes that govern the construction and alteration of buildings throughout the Commonwealth. As required by the 2021 climate bill, the Massachusetts Department of...more
Holland & Knight Partner Jennifer L. Hernandez, leader of the firm's West Coast Land Use and Environmental Group, recently authored an industry report for the Center for Jobs & The Economy, whose mission is to identify and...more
Take my predictions with a grain of salt, because I still remember saying that Ronald Reagan would never fool enough voters to get elected, but it seems very likely at this point that Maura Healey will be the next Governor of...more
The 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), wrapped up earlier this month in Glasgow, Scotland, after two weeks of negotiations. While attention was focused on national pledges to reduce...more
Signed into law by California Gov. Gavin Newsom on May 20, 2021, and taking immediate effect as an "urgency statute," Senate Bill (SB) 7 revives and expands the previously enacted Environmental Leadership Development Project...more
Late last month, the Washington Legislature passed the “Climate Commitment Act”, a piece of sweeping climate legislation that includes, among other provisions, an economy-wide cap-and-trade system. Washington was not far...more
The Washington Legislature passed Senate Bill 5126, the Climate Commitment Act, on April 24, 2021, which establishes a greenhouse gas emissions cap-and-invest program for utilities, industrial facilities, and other operations...more
On March 26, 2021, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed Chapter 8 of the Acts of 2021, An Act Creating a Next-Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy (the Act), into law, cementing the Commonwealth's status as...more
In January, when Governor Baker vetoed the Legislature’s effort to go big on climate, my colleague Zach Gerson made clear that the bill was not even “mostly dead.” I am pleased to say that Zach’s diagnosis was correct. The...more
While the presidential transition has focused attention on the energy and environmental policy initiatives that likely will be undertaken by the Biden-Harris Administration, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts continues to...more
On January 4th, as the legislative session came to a close, both houses of the Massachusetts legislature passed “An Act Creating a Next-Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy.” My colleague, Seth Jaffe, posted on...more
Over the past four years, while the Trump Administration did everything possible to ignore climate change, optimists continued to find progress at the state level. And while President-elect Biden has put together an A-team on...more