On March 31, 2025, a coalition of environmental groups in New York filed a lawsuit to compel the New York Department of Environmental Conservation ("DEC") to issue regulations implementing the Climate Leadership and Community...more
Last week, we posted about New York State’s enactment of the Climate Change Superfund Act. We promised to continue to monitor developments concerning climate superfund legislation and to update readers as necessary. It’s been...more
In an Enforcement Notice released on December 5, 2024, the California Air Resources Board (“CARB”) announced that it will not take enforcement action against companies subject to California’s Climate Corporate Data...more
President Trump’s reelection sent shockwaves through the renewable energy community. With campaign pledges to dismantle Biden-era climate programs funded by the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law...more
REGULATORY ISSUES & UPDATES - Mandatory Climate Change Reporting Requirements Under the New European ESRS E1 - The implementation of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards poses risks for reporting companies,...more
On October 7, 2023, California Governor Newsom signed two landmark bills into law, Senate Bill (SB) 253 and SB-261, imposing new requirements on large companies doing business in California to publicly report their annual...more
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law two key climate bills as part of the California legislature’s broader Climate Accountability Package. The two laws—Senate Bill No. 253 (SB 253) and Senate Bill No. 261 (SB...more
The California State Senate and State Assembly recently approved two bills, Senate Bill 253 and Senate Bill 261, that could require thousands of companies doing business in California to disclose greenhouse gas ("GHG")...more
Two climate-related regulatory programs affecting business and industry in Washington state took effect on January 1, 2023. First, the Climate Commitment Act introduces an economywide emissions cap-and-invest program. Second,...more
Take my predictions with a grain of salt, because I still remember saying that Ronald Reagan would never fool enough voters to get elected, but it seems very likely at this point that Maura Healey will be the next Governor of...more
Continuing its leadership in the battle against climate change, California takes a big step forward by requiring transparency concerning the carbon footprints of the nation’s largest corporations doing business in the state. ...more
The City of San Diego’s approval of underground utility lines was incomplete because its Climate Action Plan checklist improperly allowed certain non-occupancy projects to avoid greenhouse gas emission (GHG) consistency...more
On Monday, December 20, 2021, for the second time in three years, the Washington State Legislature sued Governor Inslee over his line-item vetoes related to climate change policy. ...more
Late last month, the Washington Legislature passed the “Climate Commitment Act”, a piece of sweeping climate legislation that includes, among other provisions, an economy-wide cap-and-trade system. Washington was not far...more
On March 1, the Transportation Climate Initiative jurisdictions released a draft “model rule” that would provide a template for individual state rules governing the operation of the TCI Program. Although only three states...more
While the presidential transition has focused attention on the energy and environmental policy initiatives that likely will be undertaken by the Biden-Harris Administration, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts continues to...more
On December 21, 2020, three of the states participating in the Transportation Climate Initiative – Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island – and the District of Columbia released a Memorandum of Understanding describing...more
On December 1, 2020, the Maine Climate Council released its final report, Maine Won’t Wait, A Four-Year Plan for Climate Action (the “Climate Plan”). In June 2019, Maine Governor Janet Mills signed legislation creating the...more
On August 23, Massachusetts joined the eight other states in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in announcing a plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by an additional 30 percent by 2030 relative to 2020 levels....more