Yesterday, the Department of Labor "released a final rule under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) . . . [that] clarif[ied] that fiduciaries may consider climate change and other environmental, social, and...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
It has been publicly reported that the SEC is considering dropping “Scope 3” GHG emissions from the mandatory climate disclosures that were proposed last March. Such a development--a major change to the key policy initiative...more
Last Friday, the SEC re-opened the comment period on its climate disclosures rule--"The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors"--for a period of "14 days following publication of the...more
Today's edition of the New York Times featured an opinion piece that critiqued ESG investing--and not from the perspective that "values" investing is economically counter-productive. (For that viewpoint, the editorial page...more
In remarks delivered today to the SEC Investor Advisory Committee, SEC Commissioner Pierce--one of the Republican appointees to the Commission--offered a critique of the proposed SEC rule re: "greenwashing," which is the...more
Today, SEC Chairman Gensler testified before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. His remarks were wide-ranging, and touched upon a number of different SEC priorities--but Chairman Gensler made sure...more
During the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on the nomination of Delaware Supreme Court Justice Montgomery-Reeves to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, certain Republican Senators, including Grassley (R-Iowa) and Lee...more
Climate Change Tort Litigation -
Beginning in 2017, an array of state and local governments have pursued claims against major fossil fuel producers — particularly the major oil companies (Chevron, Exxon, BP, Shell, and...more
Recently, the SEC issued its five-year strategic plan for public comment. This strategic plan covers a wide variety of topics, ranging from adapting to new technology to plans for increasing internal SEC workforce...more
8/31/2022
/ Climate Change ,
Comment Period ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Investors ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Public Comment ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Strategic Planning
The New York Times has reported that the State Financial Officers Association has "push[ed] Republican state treasurers, who are mostly elected officials and who are responsible for managing their state's finances, to use...more
Last week, the two Republican Commissioners of the SEC availed themselves of the opportunity presented by the ability to comment on the Financial Accounting Foundation's Strategic Plan Draft for Public Comment to again voice...more
Yesterday, the state treasurer of West Virginia formally barred his state from conducting business with five major financial institutions because, according to him, "[e]ach financial institution . . . has published written...more
On July 20, 2022 the SEC issued a press release concerning the resolution of an administrative proceeding in which the defendants "violated certain antifraud and reporting provisions of the federal securities laws and []...more
Earlier this week, President Biden delivered a speech identifying certain executive actions he planned to undertake in order to advance his agenda of combatting climate change. These included: (1) "$2.3 billion to help...more
7/25/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
CFTC ,
Clean Energy ,
Climate Change ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Policies ,
Executive Orders ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
West Virginia v EPA
The European Parliament has now "endorsed labeling some gas and nuclear energy projects as 'green.'" This designation will now enable these energy projects to have "access to hundreds of billions of euros in cheap loans and...more
The Supreme Court, in West Virginia v. EPA, effectively limited the ability of the EPA to issue significant regulations designed to address climate change absent further Congressional action. And any Congressional...more
On June 22, 2022, in response to the SEC's release of its regulatory agenda , Republican SEC Commissioner Hester M. Peirce vigorously objected to the policies and regulatory goals announced by the Biden Administration's SEC. ...more
On June 2, 2022, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a Request for Information ("RFI") for "public comment on climate-related financial risk to better inform its understanding and oversight of...more
The AMF, the stock market regulator in France, recently reiterated its call for stricter regulation on a Europe-wide basis of the entities providing ESG ratings and other services. Specifically, the AMF stated that the...more
Today, the SEC issued two complementary press releases announcing certain proposed rules. First, the SEC announced "proposed amendments to enhance and modernize the Investment Company Act 'Names Rule'" that would "extend the...more
A non-profit research group, First Street Foundation, recently released data that calculates the wildfire risk for each property in the United States (excluding Alaska and Hawaii). Notably, according to First Street...more
The SEC's Climate and ESG Task Force has now issued its first enforcement action. The SEC has brought a 76-page complaint in federal district court against Vale, S.A., a Brazilian mining company, alleging that Vale "ma[de]...more
In a speech delivered on May 6, 2022 to the Annual Conference on Financial Market Regulation, SEC Chairman Gensler again re-affirmed his support for the SEC's recent proposed mandatory climate disclosures.
...more