Pressure from consumers, investors, and regulators to provide climate, environmental, and sustainability disclosures is increasing, but it is important for companies to ensure such disclosures are accurate, verifiable, and not misleading to avoid claims of “greenwashing” – making false or unsupportable claims regarding how a company and its products are environmentally friendly or have a
On August 28, 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released an updated guidance document regarding the substantiation of all animal-raising and environment-related claims on meat and poultry packaging. This new guidance marks the first update regarding these types of claims since 2019. The guidance provides establishments with information on how to use and substantiate
The Texas Attorney General recently issued Opinion KP-0467 (the “Opinion”) addressing “whether a person who negotiates a lease for property for the development of a wind power project on behalf of another, for compensation, must have a license from the Texas Real Estate Commission (“Commission”).”
Put simply, do Texas landmen need a Texas real estate license to negotiate wind leases?
On April 9, 2024, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (the “Court) handed down its unappealable judgment in a landmark climate case. Although directed at the Swiss government, the judgment extends to all Council of Europe member states and obligates them to revise their climate policies.
On March 6, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) adopted rules requiring registrants to disclose certain climate data in annual reports.
The rules were originally proposed in 2022, and the final language adopted scales back some of the earlier proposal’s more onerous reporting requirements (including Scope 3 emissions reporting).
The Texas Legislature, primarily responding to the unprecedented ERCOT system load shed event during 2021’s Winter Storm Uri, enacted far-reaching system and wholesale market reforms during its 2021 and 2023 legislative sessions. These reforms broadly seek to bolster electric system resilience and reliability while incentivizing, through wholesale market reforms and other out of market actions
Developers of renewable energy projects, many of which are built on agricultural land, should understand local laws and restrictions on foreign ownership and investment in these parcels. Roughly half of US States have express limits on foreign investment in or purchase of privately held agricultural land. A large swath of the Midwest, plus states in the mid-Atlantic and Florida, among others, have some restrictions. Between January and June of 2023, fifteen states enacted restrictions on foreign ownership of land.
Earlier this summer, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) introduced a groundbreaking order—Order No. 2023—aimed at reforming the generator interconnection process in response to the evolving landscape of energy resources, market dynamics, and emerging technologies across the nation.
Industry reaction to the substance of the new rules has been mixed, but it is
Developers of renewable energy projects generally haven’t concerned themselves with the Davis-Bacon Act, the Great Depression-era federal law that mandates the paying of prevailing wages to laborers on public works projects; however, if the Department of Labor (DOL) gets its way, that might soon change.
ESG and Renewable Energy
As corporations experience increased pressure from shareholders, consumers, employees, and the federal government to adopt Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) goals, many are procuring renewable energy as one way of meeting environmental targets. In 2022, more than 96% of S&P 500 companies published an ESG or other formal sustainability report.[1] In addition to voluntary goals and initiatives, the Securities and Exchange Commission is in the process of finalizing enhanced and standardized climate and ESG disclosure requirements for publicly traded corporations. As a result, corporate renewable energy power procurement is expected to account for nearly 40% of the projected utility-scale wind and solar project growth through 2023 and 2024 in the United States.[2]