California lawmakers recently took a step towards regulating the integrity of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) strategies. If the law passes, it will impact carbon emissions reporting and compliance activities in California. Senate Bill 285 (SB 285), which is set for a hearing on April 2, 2025, aims to establish standards for CDR strategies to ensure
Environmental Health and Safety Changes Anticipated Under the New Administration
As President Trump begins his second term, companies should prepare for significant shifts in environmental health and safety (EHS) regulations and enforcement. This alert outlines key anticipated changes, including leadership transitions, potential staffing impacts, using executive orders to change agency priorities, and regulatory rollbacks.
1. Leadership Changes
Department of Labor (DOL): The DOL is
The Biden Administration and U.S. Agencies Publish a Joint Policy Statement and Principles on Voluntary Carbon Markets
Action
On May 28, 2024, the U.S. Departments of Treasury, Agriculture, Energy, and White House representatives published a joint Policy Statement on voluntary carbon markets (VCMs). The Policy Statement sets out seven principles to guide engagement with VCMs, and the principles are designed to ensure that VCMs are effective, fair, and equitable, and instill market
SEC Approves Long Awaited Climate Disclosure Rules
On March 6, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) approved the long awaited and controversial Climate-Related Disclosure Rules. The proposed rules were originally published in March 2022 and have undergone significant revisions since then. Per the SEC, “The final rules will become effective 60 days following publication of the adopting release in the Federal Register, and compliance dates for the rules will be phased in for all registrants, with the compliance date dependent on the registrant’s filer status.” While the final rules will be phased in over the next decade, certain parts are set to take effect for large companies in 2025.
Under the landmark final rules, registrants, which includes large accelerated filers, accelerated filers, and non-accelerated filers, will have to disclose Scope 1 and 2 emissions that have a “material” impact on their business strategy, results of operations, or financial condition. Additionally, the rules require registrants to disclose the following:
- Where a registrant has undertaken activities to mitigate or adapt to a material climate-related risk, a quantitative and qualitative description of material expenditures that directly result from such mitigation or adaptation activities;
- A registrant’s activities, if any, to mitigate or adapt to a material climate-related risk including the use, if any, of transition plans, scenario analysis, or internal carbon prices;
- Any oversight by the board of directors of climate-related risks and any role by management in assessing and managing the registrant’s material climate-related risks;
- Any processes the registrant has for identifying, assessing, and managing material climate-related risks and, if the registrant is managing those risks, whether and how any such processes are integrated into the registrant’s overall risk management system or processes;
- Information about a registrant’s climate-related targets or goals, if any, that have materially affected or are reasonably likely to materially affect the registrant’s business, results of operations, or financial condition;
- The capitalized costs, expenditures expensed, charges, and losses incurred as a result of severe weather events and other natural conditions; and
- The capitalized costs, expenditures expensed, and losses related to carbon offsets and renewable energy credits or certificates if used as a material component of a registrant’s plans to achieve its disclosed climate-related targets or goals.
Continue Reading SEC Approves Long Awaited Climate Disclosure Rules
Coming Soon: California Climate Disclosure Bills
California Governor Gavin Newsom recently pledged to sign two groundbreaking climate disclosure bills into law. These bills will mandate most large U.S. companies to reveal their complete emissions along their value chains and report on their financial risks and adaptation measures related to climate change.
The California Senate bills, SB 253 (“Climate Corporate Data Accountability
A Nation Divided: The ESG Fight at the Federal and State Level
What is “ESG”?
“ESG” is perhaps the most divisive acronym of this year’s legislative session. But what does it mean?
“Environmental, Social, Governance” is a framework used to evaluate investments and business decision’s impacts on the environment and society. ESG criteria considers things like a company’s carbon footprint and employee wellbeing. ESG practices are being
Updates to SB 253: California’s Comprehensive Carbon Disclosure Legislation
As previously reported, California may soon pass the most stringent Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) disclosure requirements in the nation, surpassing even the current U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) proposed rules.
Since the California Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act (aka “SB 253”) was introduced by Senator Scott Wiener, it has undergone several changes.
California Hydrogen Updates
As we previously covered in our blog last week, both the Federal and certain State governments are proposing legislation to subsidize or otherwise enhance the use of hydrogen as an alternative fuel to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from selected “hard to abate” industrial sectors such as heavy industry, transportation and marine shipping. Last week’s blog
Federal Hydrogen Fuel Bills Summary
As economies pivot away from reliance on petroleum, the use of hydrogen is increasingly considered as a key component in a portfolio of alternative fuels and developing technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is the first of a multi-part blog series on federal and state legislation being considered to stimulate “energy transition.” This blog
EPA bets on CCS in proposed regulations under Clean Air Act
The Biden administration just announced draft regulations that would require most coal-fired and gas power plants to capture and sequester up to 90 percent of their carbon emissions by the middle of the next decade, a move with the potential to transform the U.S. electricity sector and perhaps offer a boost to the fledgling domestic