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
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
In a recent lecture delivered at Columbia Law School/Business School at the "Going Public in the 2020s" conference, SEC Commissioner Uyeda bemoaned "the general decline in the number of public companies over the past...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
Regulatory Developments -
During the past several weeks, there have been a couple of notable developments in connection with the SEC’s proposed climate disclosures rule, “The Enhancement and Standardization of...more
Three bills have recently been proposed by a trio of California state legislators concerning ESG financial disclosures and investing. The first, SB 253, would "require all large corporations that do business in California to...more
Last week, SEC Commissioner Uyeda delivered an address in which he "focus[ed] on issues related to asset managers' use of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment strategies." While his talk addressed many...more
Climate Change Litigation: Beginning in 2017, an array of state and local governments began pursuing claims against major fossil fuel producers — particularly the major oil companies (Chevron, Exxon, BP, Shell, and...more
Today, Chair Powell of the Federal Reserve delivered a speech at the Symposium of Central Bank Independence in Stockholm, Sweden, in which he stated that the Federal Reserve is "not, and will not be, a 'climate policymaker,'"...more
Recent developments in the Court of Chancery concerning a corporate board’s duty to monitor and provide oversight over a corporation’s operations, so-called Caremark claims, are likely to intersect with the Securities and...more
12/19/2022
/ Caremark claim ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
DE Supreme Court ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Discovery ,
Duty to Monitor ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Proposed Rules ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
S&P recently purchased Shades of Green, which has been described as "the largest external reviewer of sustainable bond and green financing frameworks." This acquisition emphasizes the recent strategic move by major ratings...more
SEC Enforcement: In its yearly summary of enforcement activity, the SEC chose to highlight ESG-related issues as one of only a handful of subject matter areas that the SEC is focused on, indicating the significant priority...more
12/14/2022
/ Climate Change ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Energy Sector ,
Enforcement ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Sustainability
Last week, SEC Commissioner Peirce delivered a lengthy speech at the American Enterprise Institute, in which she extensively criticized the climate disclosure rules proposed by the SEC. Her critique deliberately extended...more
Public companies initiating the year-end reporting process will need to consider, and in many cases take steps to address, a number of significant developments and issues. To assist companies in this process, Mintz has...more
12/9/2022
/ Annual Meeting ,
Breach of Duty ,
Clawbacks ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Protection ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Insider Trading ,
Privacy Laws ,
Proxy Advisors ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Shareholders ,
Stock Markets ,
Supply Chain ,
Ukraine
The SEC recently announced its yearly summary of enforcement activity. Among the items it chose to highlight were its efforts to enforce ESG-related issues. ESG was one of only a handful of subject matter areas that the SEC...more
Regulatory Developments. During the past month, there have been two notable developments in connection with the SEC’s proposed climate disclosures rule — “The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for...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