A district court granted DOI's and the Army Corps of Engineers' motion to dismiss a lawsuit concerning construction of a wind farm off the coast of New York. Four homeowners sought to halt construction, claiming that onshore trenching associated with the project would worsen existing perfluoroalkyl ...
The D.C. Circuit granted in part and denied in part a petition to review FERC orders that permitted the creation of a new energy transmission service across several states in the Southeast. The first, the Deadlock Order, was adopted when the commissioners deadlocked 2-2 on whether the overall propos...
Curtis, Fisch, and Robertson's article, Do ESG Mutual Funds Deliver on Their Promises, is a timely and insightful piece with several important conclusions.
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing is a strategy for allocating investment funds on the basis of the extent to which the operations of a company, or a portfolio of companies, affect the environment, advance social justice, or follow good corporate governance practices. It is of intense and increasing interest to millions of investors who seek to minimize financial risks and maximize their financial returns. It also appeals to investors who seek to align their investments with their core personal values.
Corporations have received growing criticism for their role in climate change, perpetuating racial and gender inequality, and other pressing social issues. In response, shareholders are increasingly focusing on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) criteria in selecting investments, and asset managers are responding by offering a growing number of ESG mutual funds. But are these funds giving investors what they promise? This Article provides a unique picture of the current ESG environment with an eye to informing regulatory policy.
The Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review (ELPAR) is published by the Environmental Law Institute’s (ELI’s) Environmental Law Reporter in partnership with Vanderbilt University Law School. This Comment highlights the results of the ELPAR article selection process and reports on the environmental legal scholarship for the 2021-2022 academic year, including the number of environmental law articles published in general law reviews versus environmental law journals, and the topics covered in the articles.
The D.C. Circuit vacated DOE's 2020 rule establishing more stringent energy efficiency standards for commercial packaged boilers, and its 2022 supplemental document responding to the court's previous remand order that it address comments raised during the rulemaking process. Industry groups argued D...
A district court adopted a magistrate judge's findings and recommendations to grant in part and deny in part cross-motions for summary judgment in a lawsuit concerning the Forest Service's approval of a vegetation management project in the Kootenai National Forest. An environmental group had argued,...
A district court granted summary judgment for the State Department in a lawsuit concerning documents related to the agency's handling of the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement. A nonprofit group filed a FOIA request, seeking three documents concerning the "Circular 175" process for the agreement. The Depa...
The European Union’s (EU’s) recent proposal for a new regulation on EV batteries is a groundbreaking effort, the first to focus on the entire value chain to improve product sustainability and safety throughout the life cycle. Battery producers inside and outside of the EU will have to meet a series of requirements, starting from carbon footprint declaration and related labeling to complying with life-cycle carbon footprint thresholds, for having their products placed in the EU market.