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
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
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)
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
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
Today marks the 52nd Earth Day celebration, initially commenced in 1970 as citizens around the nation, and the world, gathered to demand stronger protection for the environment: cleaner water, air and land. As in 1970, the...more
4/25/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Comment ,
Risk Factors ,
Risk Management ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Yesterday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) proposed groundbreaking rules intended to enhance and standardize climate-related disclosure requirements for public companies. The SEC’s climate...more
3/23/2022
/ Annual Reports ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Foreign Private Issuers ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Comment ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
Regulation S-X ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Upon taking office in January, the Biden Administration immediately prioritized climate change and environmental justice, fulfilling President Biden’s campaign promise. In the past two weeks, President Biden reiterated those...more
11/16/2021
/ Clean Air Act ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
IFRS ,
Infrastructure ,
International Standards ,
Methane ,
Paris Agreement
On May 20, President Biden issued his Executive Order on Climate-Related Financial Risk (“Order”) which requires federal agencies to assess the potential impacts of climate change on public and private financial institutions...more
In an extended Earth Day event, President Biden hosted the virtual Leaders Summit on Climate (“Summit”) on April 22 and 23, seeking to unite nations around the world in the goal of reducing global greenhouse gas (“GHG”)...more
4/28/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Brazil ,
Canada ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Clean Air Act ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
FSOC ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Infrastructure ,
Japan ,
Proposed Legislation ,
U.S. Treasury ,
UK
As part of his comprehensive climate change agenda, President Biden convened a task force to assess the social cost of greenhouse gases. At the end of February, the task force published an interim report estimating the “cost”...more
3/24/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Carbon Taxes ,
Climate Change ,
Cost-Benefit Analysis ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Obama Administration ,
Public Health ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Trump Administration