Donald J. Trump became the 47th president of the United States on January 20. His second inaugural address focused significantly on energy policy, where he promised to declare a national energy emergency. Making America “energy dominant again” is the second of his four America First Priorities. President Trump’s energy policy aims to meet two of his goals: reducing energy costs as part of his plan to “defeat what was record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices” and restoring American manufacturing.
Power & Pipes
FERC, CFTC, and State Energy Law Developments
On January 14, 2025, with just days remaining before a presidential administration change, President Joseph R. Biden issued an Executive Order on Advancing United States Leadership in Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure (EO) that directs federal government agencies to solicit proposals for the development of “frontier” artificial intelligence (AI) data centers on federal lands. While the EO remains for now, it could soon be rescinded by the new administration. Recognizing the substantial amount of energy infrastructure needed to train AI models, the EO is heavily focused on incentivizing the expeditious development of low or zero carbon energy resources to power these AI data centers. Set out below is a summary of key parts of the EO. Morgan Lewis’s data centers team is available to discuss the EO and assist with data center development and related issues.
Our team has prepared a LawFlash discussing the Biden administration’s recently released Voluntary Carbon Markets Joint Policy Statement and Principles for High-Integrity Voluntary Carbon Markets. Through the Voluntary Carbon Markets (VCMs), entities that engage in activities that remove or reduce carbon emissions from the atmosphere may generate carbon credits that can be sold, and entities that emit carbon dioxide can purchase carbon credits to offset carbon emissions.
The European Commission and European consumer authorities announced that on April 30, 2024, they sent letters to 20 airlines alleging potentially misleading green claims and asking them to conform to EU consumer law within 30 days. At issue are the airlines’ claims that carbon dioxide emissions caused by air travel could be offset by climate projects or through the use of sustainable fuels, to which consumers could contribute by paying additional fees.
CERAWeek
In our final dispatch from the CERAWeek conference by S&P Global, Felipe Alice shared some insights and key takeaways from a luncheon and dialogue session featuring tech entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist Bill Gates.
CERAWeek
Our coverage of the CERAWeek conference by S&P Global in Houston, running from March 18 to March 22, continues with more updates. Today’s missive comes from the Innovation Agora, which is connected to the Executive Conference at CERAWeek. The Innovation Agora is described as a “vibrant and interactive marketplace of ideas on energy innovation and emerging technologies.” It includes several amphitheaters or “hubs” that are designed for presentations and conversations involving the latest trends in climate change, carbon, hydrogen, and emerging energy technologies.
CERAWeek
We’re back with another update from CERAWeek 2024 by S&P Global to highlight some key takeaways from day two of the conference. Many of the sessions on this day were dedicated to infrastructure development and highlighted the opportunities and the challenges facing energy project developers.
CERAWeek
Yesterday marked the start of CERAWeek 2024 by S&P Global, and for the rest of this week Morgan Lewis partners Kirstin Gibbs and Felipe Alice will be reporting back on the key themes and ideas they are uncovering as the conference unfolds.
The compliance deadline for the Voluntary Carbon Market Disclosures Act (VCMDA) is quickly approaching, but the statutory language of the VCMDA leaves open for interpretation several key issues, including threshold applicability questions that potentially impacted companies will need to grapple with.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Voluntary Carbon Market Disclosures Act (VCMDA) on October 7, imposing disclosure obligations on businesses that market, sell, or purchase voluntary carbon offsets in California and businesses that make net-zero or carbon-neutral claims, effective on January 1, 2024.