Climate Change

Sidley has worked with clients on a broad range of issues relating to climate change, including defending companies in climate change litigation, advising clients on national and international policy issues and providing advice on climate change-related corporate matters. We also assist clients in performing due diligence about greenhouse gas emissions in transactions, assessing a company’s carbon footprint, analyzing corporate climate change policies and strategies, and evaluating the impact (positive or negative) of, and providing advice and counseling regarding, climate change legislation.

Selected Representations

• Representing U.S. industrial interests in the development by the International Organization on Standardization (ISO) of international standards for measuring and verifying greenhouse gas emissions. Through this work, we became familiar with a variety of methods for measuring and verifying GHG emissions, including the widely-used protocols developed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. This project involved detailed analysis of a range of technical issues such as boundary-setting, additionality, leakage and direct and indirect emissions. 
• Defending public nuisance claims asserted by states, environmental groups and/or individuals against electric utilities and other entities alleging that greenhouse gas emissions have contributed to global warming and caused damage to property and economic losses (including claims related to hurricanes). 
• Advising clients regarding potential New Source Review permitting requirements imposing controls on GHG emissions. 
• Advising clients on the international trade implications (including WTO) of various U.S. legislative proposals on climate change. 
• Advising clients on the operation of the World Bank’s Prototype Carbon Fund intended to encourage greenhouse gas-reducing projects that meet the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol regarding Clean Development Mechanisms. 
• Advising clients in connection with transactions involving emissions registered, or to be registered and certified, with the California Climate Action Registry (CCAR). Trading of greenhouse gas emissions is expected to become an important component of the implementation of California's landmark legislation, AB 32, the "Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.” 
• Advising clients on the creation of hedge funds where certified greenhouse gas emissions credits tradable on the Chicago Climate Exchange would be among the funds’ assets. 
• Evaluating the SEC reporting consequences of climate change, and counseling clients on how to respond to shareholder resolutions on climate change issues. 
• Advising clients on the U.S. Department of Energy’s 1605(b) greenhouse gas emissions inventory and reporting program. 
• Counseling clients on participation in voluntary greenhouse gas emissions reductions initiatives, such as EPA’s Natural Gas STAR program (including evaluating clients’ internal programs and procedures for achieving voluntary commitments). 
• Assisting clients implementing and reviewing environmental management systems and advising on the climate change implications of energy savings projects, including whether and how to document such savings in terms of reduced direct or indirect greenhouse gas emissions. 
• Tracking and evaluating federal, regional and state legislative initiatives on climate change, ranging from the various options being proposed in Congress to the Northeastern States’ Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and California’s AB 32 climate change law. 
• Advising clients on transactions involving the sale and use of air emission offsets or credits under a variety of federal and state Clean Air Act programs including: (1) the federal Acid Rain program; (2) New Source Review offsets; and (3) intrastate and interstate (and inter-air quality management district) trades of NOx and VOC credits.

• EPA's Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking of Greenhouse Gases: Aircraft Industry Digest
• EPA's Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking of Greenhouse Gases: Digest of Issues Pertaining to Market Based Greenhouse Gas Regulatory Controls
• EPA's Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking of Greenhouse Gases: Digest of Issues Pertaining to Passenger Vehicles and Light Duty Trucks
• EPA's Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking of Greenhouse Gases: Digest of Issues Pertaining to Stationary Sources
• EPA's Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking of Greenhouse Gases: Digest of Marine Industry Issues
• EPA's Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking of Greenhouse Gases: Digest of Nonroad Industry Issues
• EPA's Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking of Greenhouse Gases: Digest of Railroad Industry Issues
• EPA's Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking of Greenhouse Gases: Heavy Duty Truck and Engine Digest
• Sidley Austin LLP Teleconference Materials: “Transitioning Toward a Carbon Constrained World: The Six Month Action Plan for Congress and EPA to Control Greenhouse Gases”

• SEC Interpretive Release on Climate Change Disclosure
  February 8, 2010
• Department of Energy Announces Solicitations for Loan Guarantees for Transmission and Renewable Energy Projects
  July 30, 2009

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• 151 Sidley Lawyers Recognized in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business for 2009
  June 22, 2009
• Former General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Energy, David R. Hill, Joins Sidley Austin LLP
  April 24, 2009

• Regulation of Greenhouse Gases Under Section 115 of The Clean Air Act
  March 9, 2009
• Climate Change and Litigation in the U.S.
  2008/2009