Green Building Law Update

Environmental Law and Sustainability for Business

Tag Archives: solar panel

Selling the Sun: Sale of a House with Solar Panels is Fraught with Peril

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Environmental, ESG, Green Building, Solar Panel
  There are more than 3 Million houses in the U.S. with solar panels installed on the roof.  The Inflation Protection Act of 2022 extended the 30% federal tax credit for residential solar panels through 2034 which is predicted to more than triple that number of solar installations. And as those houses are each year … 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

FTC Regulates What You can Say about Your Solar Panels

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in ESG, Solar Panel, Sustainability, wind turbine
A business that generates renewable energy, say, with solar panels, but sells the Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) for that renewable energy may not then claim it “uses” renewable energy. The Federal Trade Commissions has prescribed that such would be deceptive. That guidance from the FTC is not new, but as both onsite and offsite renewable … Continue Reading

ESG Often Led by Renewable Energy

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Energy, ESG, Solar Panel
Businesses often ask about including green power in ESG efforts. We suggest rephrasing the query such that it is about using renewable energy to reduce the environmental harms associated with fossil fuel energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase the supply of renewable energy and foster a just transition to an ESG driven economy. Businesses do … Continue Reading

Nevada Stops Subsidizing Net Metering

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Environmental, Green Building, Sustainability
Photovoltaic panels provide electricity at yak herder's house in Bhutan
In the final days of 2015, Nevada became the front line in the nationwide debate over energy policy when the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada cut rates for net metering impacting homeowners with rooftop photovoltaic panels. The 113 page draft order found that under existing net metering rates other ratepayers were subsidizing net metering customers … Continue Reading
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