Green Building Law Update

Environmental Law and Sustainability for Business

Archives: Codes and Regulations

Subscribe to Codes and Regulations RSS Feed

EPA (Finally) Finalizes Phase I Environmental Site Assessment Rule

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Codes and Regulations, Environmental
On December 15, 2022, EPA took final action to amend the All Appropriate Inquiries Rule to reference ASTM International’s E1527-21 “Standard Practice for Environmental Site Assessments: Phase I Environmental Site Assessment Process” and allow for its use to satisfy the requirements for conducting all appropriate inquiries under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, … Continue Reading

FTC Seeks Public Input on Update to Green Guides for Environmental Claims

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Environmental, Federal, greenwashing
The Federal Trade Commission announced last Wednesday that it is seeking public comment on updates and changes to the Green Guides for the Use of Environmental Claims. In an era when charges of greenwashing and green hushing are proliferating across social media while at the same time governments are mandating ESG including environmental disclosures by businesses, … Continue Reading

Maryland is the First State to Regulate Carbon

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Climate Change, Codes and Regulations, GHG
Maryland has enacted the most rigorous state law in the country reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and otherwise addressing ESG stewardship including climate change. Businesses can and should treat this as the greatest responsibility and opportunity of our time. Literally resetting the trajectory of Maryland’s economy, making sweeping changes to the Old Line State’s already … Continue Reading

Government Proposes Federal Contractors and Their Suppliers Disclose GHG Emissions

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Federal, greenhouse gas
The Federal government is proposing the Federal Supplier Climate Risks and Resilience Rule, which will require major Federal contractors publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate related financial risks and set emissions reduction targets. The implications of this reach far beyond only Federal contractors impacting nearly every sector of the US economy, as contractors calculate … Continue Reading

Low Embodied Carbon Concrete is Here

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Climate Change, ESG, GHG, State
The golden opportunity in ESG may be in concrete. Embodied carbon refers to the greenhouse gas emissions associated with materials’ manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance, and disposal. In a building, there is “upfront” embodied carbon in construction and then operational carbon largely from energy consumption. Embodied carbon is particularly important because it contributes more climate changing … Continue Reading

The “Social Cost of Carbon” is Back

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Climate Change, Codes and Regulations, ESG, GHG, greenhouse gas
On November 11, 2022, shortly after this blog was posted EPA proposed a rule to regulate emissions of methane. While the proposed rule is itself worthy of discussion, readers of this blog may be particularly interested in a key technical feature of the announcement, that EPA has introduced a new approach to estimating the social cost … Continue Reading

SEC Longstanding Disclosure Related to Climate Change Remains

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Climate Change, ESG, Federal
Whilst much of the popular media is all but obsessed with the March 21, 2022, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposed ESG Rules to Enhance and Standardize Climate-Related Disclosures that will among other matters require companies for the first time to disclose greenhouse gas emission data, we continue to work with companies in complying with … Continue Reading

California Appeals Board Gender Diversity Loss

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in ESG, State
Last month, the California Secretary of State appealed the decision by a California Superior Court striking down as unconstitutional California’s board diversity law, which required all publicly traded companies headquartered in the State to include a minimum number of female directors. In 2018, Women on Boards (Senate Bill 826) was signed into law to advance … Continue Reading

FTC Says Updated Green Guides are Coming

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in ESG, Federal, Green Washing, greenwashing
With allegations of greenwashing all but de rigueur, businesses should be on the alert for the soon to be released Federal Trade Commission’s updated Green Guides. This year companies are being publicly challenged and having their reputations tarnished for greenwashing, in some instances for deceptive misrepresentations, others for unintentionally misleading, and more often than not, … Continue Reading

EPA Proposes Designating PFAS as Hazardous

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Environmental, ESG, Federal
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to designate two of the most widely used per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as the “Superfund” law. The proposal applies to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), including their salts and structural isomers, actually, a group of … Continue Reading

New Maryland Regulation all but Shuts Down Phase ll Environmental Site Assessments

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Environmental, State
The Maryland Department of the Environment has adopted regulations for the first time requiring the person conducting an environmental assessment, even when they are not the owner of the property (e.g., possibly a prospective contract purchaser of land or a consultant engaged in a lending transaction) to report suspected oil to MDE immediately, but not … Continue Reading

Phase 1 Standard for All Appropriate Inquiries in Limbo

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Codes and Regulations, Environmental, Federal
It is hugely significant that the Phase l Environmental Site Assessment standard is in limbo because that assessment is conducted in the vast majority of the 5.6 million commercial real estate transactions each year in the United States (i.e., including for a real estate purchaser to avoid liability under the Superfund law). The U.S. Environmental … Continue Reading

Maryland’s New Corporate Diversity Law Violates the Equal Protection Clause

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Codes and Regulations, ESG, State
Corporate diversity is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.  Maryland has published, for public comment, regulations implementing the corporate diversity law enacted by the legislature in 2021. But the proposed regulations are unconstitutional on their face, violating the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and Article 24 of the Maryland … Continue Reading

Supreme Court Rules Against EPA Reining in Power of Agencies

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Climate Change, Federal, GHG, greenhouse gas
In a decision that will rein in agency power across the federal government, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that Congress did not clearly authorize the EPA to adopt broad rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electric utility power plants. Specifically, the high court held, “Congress did not grant EPA in Section 111(d) of … Continue Reading

Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act to be Enforced June 21

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Codes and Regulations, ESG, Federal, Solar Panel
Congress passed, and on December 23, 2021 President Biden signed into law, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. The new law that will be enforced beginning June 21, 2022 has implications for imported cotton and tomatoes and most significantly for solar panels. The Act, codified at 22 U.S.C. §6901, establishes a rebuttable presumption that any … Continue Reading

SEC Charges Mining Company with Misleading Investors in its ESG Disclosures

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Codes and Regulations, ESG
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last month charged Vale S.A., a publicly traded Brazilian mining company and one of the world’s largest iron ore producers, with making false and misleading claims about the safety of the Brumadinho dam including through its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures. According to the SEC’s complaint, for years, … Continue Reading
LexBlog