Inflation Reduction Act
FERC Issues Proposal to Overhaul Transmission Planning and Cost Allocation
On April 21, 2022, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) issued a much-anticipated Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) proposing changes to its transmission planning and cost allocation policies that are intended to promote the more efficient and cost-effective...
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...
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 (“...
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 Shifting Energy Policy Zeitgeist and Investment Implications
On March 24, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) made an unexpected and bipartisan about-face on its freshly updated policies for considering the environmental impacts of natural gas infrastructure projects like pipelines and liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities. 1...
Challenging Policy on Climate Change Grounds
Divisional Court split on challenge against UK Export Finance’s decision to provide finance to the Mozambique LNG Project In R (on the application of Friends of the Earth Limited) (the “ Claimant ”) v The Secretary of State for International...
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...
Army Corps Issues Notice of Nationwide Permit 12 Review and Seeks Stakeholder Input
On March 24, 2022, the Department of the Army and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) (collectively “Army”) announced their intent to publish a Notice (the “Notice”) in the Federal Register initiating a formal review of Nationwide Permit (“NWP”)...
"A Clash of Two Congressionally Constructed Titans": Fifth Circuit Declares Bankruptcy Court Victorious Over FERC in In re Ultra Petroleum Corporation
On March 14, 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (the “Fifth Circuit”) revisited the issue of the rejection of filed-rate contracts in bankruptcy where such contracts are governed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”)...
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...
Oil Spot Trading: Whose Terms Apply - The Incorporation of English Jurisdiction Clauses in Oral Agreements
Spot trading of oil is often done at speed and over the phone, with confirmatory written terms arriving after the sale. The practice has inherent legal risk – the terms of the deal may be uncertain and incomplete. In Addax...