Energy

Introduction: On November 18, 2021, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) issued a notice of inquiry seeking comments on various aspects of currently accepted reactive power compensation mechanisms and alternative compensation methodologies, including for those resources that interconnect at the distribution level but offer reactive power capability in support of transmission.  The NOI may foreshadow FERC’s adoption for the first time of a uniform standard for reactive power compensation, displacing the current fragmented reactive power federal pricing environment.

11.22.21 Last week, EPA transmitted four important documents to the EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) for peer review that included updated health assessments for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS). This peer review, which will start on December 16, will inform EPA’s development of a Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) Goal and a future, legally enforceable National Primary Drinking Water Regulation for PFOA and PFOS under the Safe Drinking Water Act. As noted in the PFAS Strategic Roadmap: EPA’s Commitments to Action 2021-2024, EPA intends to release a proposed drinking water regulation for PFOA and PFOS in fall 2022. These scientific documents will provide the underpinnings for that important regulation.

The White House-2

On Oct. 6, 2021, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) announced Phase 1 of a proposed two-phase rollback of the most significant substantive changes included in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rule-making finalized by former President Donald Trump’s administration in 2020. Those 2020 changes were the first overhaul of the NEPA regulations…

Last week, EPA and the Army Corps proposed a new rule to define what constitutes “waters of the United States.”  Déjà vu all over again.
Under the proposal, the agencies:
are exercising their discretionary authority to interpret “waters of the United States” to mean the waters defined by the longstanding 1986 regulations, with amendments to…

Labeling of meat and poultry products has been the subject of numerous lawsuits, in which labels claiming products are, for example, “natural,” “humanely-raised,” “antibiotic-free,” are alleged to be fraudulent, amongst other allegations.  With the expansion of meat and poultry products produced from cultured cells derived from animals instead of the traditional methods of food production…

lawn mower

On Oct. 9, 2021, California Gov. Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 1346, which will require the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to develop regulations to prohibit engine exhaust and emissions from small off-road engines (SORE), such as lawn mowers, portable generators, and the profusion of other equipment utilizing small gasoline engines for power,…

Close up pen on paperwork and woman hand calculate finance.

Dave Curran, ESG and Law Institute executive director and co-chair of the Paul, Weiss ESG Advisory Practice, and Paul, Weiss executive compensation partner Jean McLoughlin wrote an article published in NACD Private Company Directorship on November 21. The article, “Tying Pre-IPO Compensation to ESG Commitments,” discusses the steps emerging, pre-IPO companies should take to develop…

ESG lawyer

EPA final action on ASTM International’s E1527-21 “Standard Practice for Environmental Site Assessments: Phase I Environmental Site Assessment is currently in limbo. On March 14, 2022, after this blog post, EPA took direct final action to amend the Standards and Practices for All Appropriate Inquiries to reference ASTM International’s E1527-21. The rule was to have…