LATEST INSIGHTS

Stack of papers paperwork on office desk table. With copy space.
Climate Change
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New SEC Climate Disclosure Mandate Faces Pushback

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last week approved the implementation of standardized climate disclosure rules (posted here) for publicly traded companies and in public offerings. No longer can companies simply post potential risks on their websites or through emails; rather, they must now include them in official SEC filings such as annual reports and registration statements.

The overarching goal is intended to enhance transparency concerning how companies address environmental and climate threats. The SEC’s decision was also the result of investors’ demand for …

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Flames rise from the flare stack towers in South Africa
Emissions
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Minimizing Methane: New Studies Find Methane Emissions Significantly Higher than Previously Thought

A new report by the International Energy Agency, released on March 13, found that for the third year in a row, methane released by the fossil fuel industry rose to an almost record high in 2023. 

Methane emissions are a significant contributor to global warming, second only to carbon dioxide. Although methane is better at trapping heat into the atmosphere, trapping almost 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide over a two-decade period, it is relatively short-lived, making it an attractive way to more efficiently …

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Indiana Waving Flag
PFAS
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Will Industry Push Back Proactively on Potential PFAS-Use Restrictions?

Over the past seven years, our blog has reported extensively on PFAS developments, litigation, and regulations — most of which has focused on the attention surrounding potential risks associated with PFAS, and the scrutiny given to that chemical class by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Today we are providing a wrinkle seldom seen recently in the PFAS world: a proposed law that would protect PFAS uses.  

This week, state of Indiana senators chose to abandon a bill that reportedly would have excluded thousands of the …

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Low angle view of airplane flying against sky,Tallinn Airport,Estonia
Clean Air Act / Climate Change
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FAA to Implement Final Rules for Most Large Aircraft to be Built

As part of the United States Aviation Climate Action Plan – which strives to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions for United States Aviation by 2050 – the Federal Aviation Administration announced earlier this month its final rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from most large aircraft in U.S. airspace. 

The new rules go into effect on April 16, and requires aircraft built after January 1, 2028 to incorporate more fuel efficient technologies. The rule applies to aircraft of certain sizes, regardless of the fuel …

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Close up of conveyor belt in bottling plant
PFAS / Regulations
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Regulatory States: Further Limitations on PFAS-Containing Products Now in Effect

Right out of the gate in 2024, we’ve seen several states further regulate the sale of PFAS-containing products. On Jan. 1, a Connecticut statute took effect prohibiting the sale or promotion of any “food package to which PFAS has been intentionally introduced during manufacturing or distribution in any amount.” The law defines “food packaging” to mean “any package or packaging component that is applied to, or in direct contact with any food or beverage.”

Connecticut defines “intentionally introduced” to mean any “deliberately utiliz[ing] regulated metal …

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Smoke stacks at a power plant.
EPA
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SCOTUS Poised to ‘Shove Thy Neighbor’ on EPA Law

In March 2023, the EPA issued its final Good Neighbor Plan, the last in a series of legislations designed to reduce emissions of ozone-forming nitrogen oxide (NO2) which cross state borders. Specifically, the Plan was intended to assist 23 identified states to maintain the EPA’s 2015 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for smog (ground-level ozone) production into downwind states, by reducing NO2 from electric generating units and industrial plants. Smog, of course, has been identified for decades as a cause for whole gamut of respiratory …

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Crypto Currency Mining Rig
Cryptocurrency
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Feds Zero in on Energy-Guzzling Crypto Mining Giants

As closely monitored by ELM over the last couple of years, the expansion of cryptocurrency mining in the United States has resulted in the industry simply devouring the country’s energy resources (see here for general background on cryptocurrency mining effects on energy use, and here for an explainer on the federal government’s increased attention to crypto’s energy use).

Some analysts have concluded that the crypto mining industry releases between 25 and 50 million tons of CO2 annually – roughly the same amount as the U.S. …

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A River Runs Through Glacier National Park in Montana
Climate Change / Legislation
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Green Amendments and the Rise of Environmental Constitutional Rights

There has been a recent push across the country placing “green amendments” at the forefront of the fight to combat climate change and promote environmental justice. Analogous to the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights, such as freedom of speech or freedom of religion, a green amendment is an amendment to a state Constitution’s Bill of Rights that guarantees its citizens the inalienable right to clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment. These amendments serve to create a constitutional mandate that every citizen has a …

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Flag of California
California
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California Air Resources Board Receives Legal Challenge to the State’s New Climate Disclosure Laws

Last week, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) was named as a defendant in a new U.S. District Court, Central District of California lawsuit challenging California’s two new climate disclosure and financial reporting laws introduced late in 2023 — Senate bills SB 253 and SB 261.

The case is Chamber of Com. Of the U.S. v. Calif. Air. Res. Bd., C.D. Cal., No. 2:24-cv-00801, complaint 1/30/20. The basis for plaintiffs’ lawsuit claims the two new laws unconstitutionally require disclosure by qualifying public and privately held …

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Net full of salmon being hauled onto purse seiner
Emerging Issues
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The Fishing Case that Could Put the Chevron Doctrine Out to Sea

On January 17, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, No. 22-451, an environmental-law dispute concerning fishery management in federal waters.       

The case reached the court via a petition of four commercial fishing companies challenging a federal fisheries regulation, the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which provides that the National Marine Fisheries Service can require private vessels to “carry” federal observers onboard to allow for the enforcement of the agency’s regulations (federally-prescribed fishing “catch” limits being the most …

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