Inflation Reduction Act
Senate Considers FERC's Role in Hydrogen Pipeline Development
Last week, the Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources (SENR) held a hearing on “ Federal Regulatory Authorities Governing the Development of Interstate Hydrogen Pipelines, Storage, Import, and Export .” Chaired by Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), the Committee considered...
Environmental Essentials: Texas Air Permitting Round-Up
Bracewell Partner Whit Swift reviews the recent activity on three separate air permitting topics and how each development could impact members of the regulated community: EPA Orders objecting to Texas Title V permits; the TCEQ Commissioners’ evaluation of requests for...
The Progressive Case
Public budgets are under pressure – made worse in this period of high inflation. These factors, combined with the increased need for infrastructure improvements, has prompted the public and private sectors to seek pragmatic ways to improve the procurement process...
Solar, Hydrogen and Storage: A Heady Mix for the Middle East
The Middle East’s oil and gas has put the region at the heart of the energy sector the last 100 years. These resources, plus plentiful sunshine, will see it continue to play a major role into the energy transition —...
Litigation and Enforcement Impact of the SEC's Proposed Rules on Climate-Related Disclosure
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Proposed Rules on Climate-Related Disclosure, released March 21, 2022, represent a significant change in public company disclosure requirements and, if adopted, will have far-reaching effects not only on all public companies but also on those...
CCS and the Role of Project Finance
The UN Climate Change Conference in 2021, known as “COP26”, highlighted the scale of global carbon emissions and the speed with which they must be addressed in order to meet net zero targets by 2050. Carbon capture and storage (“...
Corporate Governance Considerations Under the SEC's Proposed Climate Disclosure Rules
As we have noted previously , the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s recently proposed rules governing climate-related disclosures, if adopted as proposed, would represent a sea change to the existing public-company disclosure regime. We focus here on the corporate-governance aspects...
Hurdles Ahead for the SEC's New Climate Disclosure Proposal
On March 21, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released its much-anticipated proposed rule on climate-related disclosure and accounting, “Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors.” The scope and obligations of the 140-page proposal are gradually becoming clearer—and...
Attestation: Practical Reflections on What the SEC Climate Proposal Will Require
Among the many changes set forth in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed rules governing climate-related disclosures are the attestation requirements 1 covering registrants’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions disclosures. This article provides a general overview of these attestation requirements...
Summary Outline of SEC's Proposed Rule on Climate-Related Disclosure and Accounting
The SEC’s proposed rule on climate-related risks includes amendments to both the financial reporting requirements (Reg S-X) and the narrative disclosure requirements (Reg S-K). The proposal interlinks the new requirements, drawing aspects of the required narrative disclosures into the financial...
Merchant Risk and the Energy Transition: Tensions in the Capital
Debt vs. Equity As part of the series of articles on the expansion of merchant risk in the traditional project finance market and its interplay with the energy transition, this article will explore the tensions between equity and debt providers...
The SEC's Proposed Rules on Climate-Related Disclosures – What to Do Now: A Guide for In-House Counsel Facing the Proposed Rules
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s recently proposed rules governing climate-related disclosures, if adopted as proposed, would represent a sea change to the existing public-company disclosure regime. The rules would require that public companies include the following, among other disclosures...
TIFIA – The Impact of the Infra Act
For the last couple of decades, many US greenfield transportation projects have benefited from “TIFIA” financing. The Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 1998 (“TIFIA” or the “Program”) created a credit program to facilitate the financing of large transportation...
The US Government Has a New Stopwatch for Cyber Incident Reporting: What You Need to Know Now
Amid the escalating conflict in Ukraine and concerns of Russian cyber threats to the United States, President Joe Biden recently signed a $1.5 trillion government spending deal with serious cybersecurity reporting obligations for critical infrastructure operators intended to shore up...
A Second Life for Batteries
The surge in the deployment of utility-scale and electric vehicle batteries requires a regulatory regime to govern what we do with all these batteries once no longer fit for their initial purpose. The existing regimes in the EU and UK...