Regulatory & Legislative

On March 6, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued new rules aimed at standardizing climate-related disclosures by public companies. Commonly known as the SEC climate disclosure rules, they require companies to provide detailed information about their climate-related risks, governance practices, and strategies. Specifically, the rules mandated that companies report their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including Scope 1 emissions (direct emissions) and Scope 2 emissions (indirect emissions from purchased energy); however, the rules faced immediate pushback from various stakeholders, including industry groups and political opponents. In April 2024, the SEC announced a stay of the implementation of the regulations pending judicial review.

At its latest open meeting on February 20, 2025, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued an order directing PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (PJM) and the PJM Transmission Owners (PJM TOs) to demonstrate why the PJM Tariff’s lack of clear rules for co-location arrangements is acceptable or to explain the Tariff changes they would propose to address co-location issues (Show Cause Order). FERC’s Order is focused on the PJM region because there are several contested FERC proceedings involving co-location arrangements in PJM. However, FERC has indicated that it intends to act quickly on co-location arrangements across its jurisdiction. Accordingly, the results of the PJM Show Cause proceeding will likely serve as precedent in other RTO and non-RTO regions under FERC’s jurisdiction. 

Hands of a meat factory worker gathering packed meat on a convey

On October 16, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced expanded guidance for animal slaughtering and processing industry inspections (NAICS 3116). Notably, this new guidance document supersedes OSHA’s previous inspection guidance specific to a subset of this NAICS, poultry slaughtering and processing establishments (NAICS 311615).

OSHA states that the goal of the update is to significantly reduce injuries and illnesses resulting from occupational hazards through a combination of enforcement, compliance, assistance, and outreach.

Green energy investment trends

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…

Showcase meat raw products in a supermarket

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 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.