A report published September 1, 2021 by analytics provider Intelligize (“Report”) revealed that companies were “all over the map” when it came to current disclosure practices on Environmental Social and Governance (“ESG”) issues and that their executives and other professionals showed a “troubling” lack of knowledge about ESG issues.
The survey responses came
Litigation seeking to broaden the application of Pennsylvania’s Environmental Rights Amendment, Pa. Const. art. I, §27 (“ERA”) was rejected on August 6, 2021, when the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania dismissed an amended petition for review filed by the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (“PEDF”) challenging the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ (“DCNR”) State Forest Resource Management Plan (“SFRMP”). Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (“PEDF”) v. Commonwealth, No. 609 M.D. 2019 (Pa. Cwmlth. 2021).
PEDF sought declaratory relief regarding DCNR’s SFRMP published in 2016. Specifically, PEDF asked the Commonwealth Court to: (1) declare certain statements made by DCNR in the SFRMP in violation of the ERA, and (2) compel DCNR to amend the SFRMP to make it comport with DCNR’s responsibilities to manage the resources consistent with its duties as a trustee under the ERA. According to PEDF, in 2016, DCNR amended its SFRMP to support management decisions based on economic principles. PEDF also raised issues related to DCNR’s mission statement regarding extraction and sale of oil and gas for the benefit of DCNR and the Commonwealth. Additionally, PEDF asked the Commonwealth Court to require DCNR to include an evaluation of the degradation of resources caused by past and present oil and gas development in the SFRMP, and to implement measures into the SFRMP that remedy the alleged degradation.
The Commonwealth Court granted DCNR’s preliminary objections and dismissed all counts. With respect to the requests by PEDF to declare DCNR is in violation of the ERA based on specific statements in the SFRMP, the Commonwealth Court held that the SFRMP does not create legal requirements or regulations, meaning DCNR is not mandated to take any actions by the SFRMP. Therefore, the Commonwealth Court found declaratory judgment would be inappropriate. Similarly, the SFRMP lacked “concreteness” with respect to whether PEDF’s claims were ripe for review. As such, PEDF’s claims would bring the court into “the realm of speculation and conjecture.” Finally, the Commonwealth Court determined that the relief seeking general pronouncements of law with respect to DCNR’s statements runs against the proscription against advisory opinions, because there was no justiciable dispute or controversy within the meaning of the Declaratory Judgments Act. 42 Pa.C.S. §§7531-7541.
The first installment of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), which will be completed in 2022, was released on August 9, 2021. As it has in the run up to previous important Conferences of the Parties (COPs) under the UNFCCC, the IPCC released an updated report in the middle
A number of signs point to the fact that public companies should expect increased scrutiny on whether their environmental-related ESG offerings, practices and controls are consistent with their disclosures, claims and marketing material.
SIGN #1: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) announced that New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal will become the next
Many public companies are keeping a close watch on potential GHG regulations because the shape of these regulations can significantly affect their regulatory and reporting obligations and thus affect their ESG obligations. There is a significant difference between two recent proposals on that front.
CARBON TAX: The concept of a carbon tax is simple: fossil fuels bear a cost — climate change, as well as air pollution — that is not reflected in their price and thus “hidden”. A carbon tax would increase the price to reflect that hidden cost — by, say for example, $50 per ton of carbon dioxide emitted — and the market would work its magic to move the entire economy away from fossil fuels.
Yet for all their elegance and push for by economists, carbon taxes are politically unpopular.
Opponents of carbon taxes argue that a carbon price affects all of society, and therefore it increases costs for every energy consumer, without providing an immediate alternative. That means a publicly traded company that would not normally worry about – or report regarding – EPA obligations in the abstract turns out would have reporting and compliance obligations under a carbon tax regime and, therefore, a larger ESG burden.
This is likely why Biden’s climate plan leaves out a domestic tax on carbon, which for decades economists have championed as the gold standard of climate change mitigation.
Continue Reading ESG Watch: Carbon Tax vs. Clean Energy Standard
In a previous post, we reported on the Climate Risk Disclosure Act of 2021 (the “Act’) being placed on list of all bills reported from committee and eligible for House floor action, some sweeping changes required by that Act, and the Act’s uncertain future in the Senate.
This Part II focuses on the effect
On July 13, 2021, the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board approved a rulemaking to establish a program to limit the CO2 emissions from fossil fuel-fired electric generating units (EGU) located in the Commonwealth.
The stated purpose of the final-form rulemaking is “to reduce anthropogenic emissions of CO2, a greenhouse gas (GHG) and major contributor to climate
On Wednesday, April 28, the U.S. Senate voted to effectively reinstate Obama-era methane regulations by approving a resolution nullifying the Trump-era methane emission rule “Oil and Natural Gas Sector: Emission Standards for New, Reconstructed, and Modified Sources Review.” The September 2020 Trump Administration rule rolled back Obama-era oil and gas emission rules by rescinding methane
On Earth Day, April 22, 2021, President Biden announced that the U.S. will aim to cut carbon emissions in half by the year 2030 compared to 2005 levels. This is significantly higher even than goals established by President Obama during his tenure. The virtual Leaders Summit on Climate where the announcement was made took place on Thursday and Friday and was attended by 40 other world leaders. The U.S. rejoined the Paris climate agreement in Biden’s early days in office, and this announcement drives towards addressing its goals.
The administration has not yet rolled out a specific plan for how the U.S. will meet this goal. However, we can expect that the reduction efforts will touch almost every industry in one way or another with terminology such as “economy-wide” and “multiple pathways” used to describe reaching the target. Additionally, a Fact Sheet released by the administration describes various ambitious initiatives across many sectors including:
Federal agencies aren’t required to hand over draft documents related to the harm an EPA rule would pose to endangered plants and animals, the Supreme Court ruled in U.S. Fish and Wildlife Serv. v. Sierra Club , U.S., No. 19-547.
In a 7-2 decision, and the first majority ruling led by Justice Amy Coney