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Jan 15, 2025 | 
mondaq.com | Jacob H. Hupart
Following a bench trial, Judge O'Connor (N.D. Tex.) heldthat "that Defendants breached their fiduciary duty by failingto loyally act solely in the retirement plan's best financialinterests by allowing their corporate interests, as well asBlackRock's ESG interests, to influence management of theplan." In other words, investing a 401(k) retirement plan toreflect ESG interests--rather than strictly financialones--constitutes a breach of the fiduciary duty of loyalty.
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Jan 13, 2025 | 
jdsupra.com | Jacob H. Hupart
Following a bench trial, Judge O'Connor (N.D. Tex.) held that “that Defendants breached their fiduciary duty by failing to loyally act solely in the retirement plan's best financial interests by allowing their corporate interests, as well as BlackRock's ESG interests, to influence management of the plan.” In other words, investing a 401(k) retirement plan to reflect ESG interests--rather than strictly financial ones--constitutes a breach of the fiduciary duty of loyalty.
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Jan 11, 2025 | 
natlawreview.com | Jacob H. Hupart
Following a bench trial, Judge O'Connor (N.D. Tex.) held that “that Defendants breached their fiduciary duty by failing to loyally act solely in the retirement plan's best financial interests by allowing their corporate interests, as well as BlackRock's ESG interests, to influence management of the plan.” In other words, investing a 401(k) retirement plan to reflect ESG interests--rather than strictly financial ones--constitutes a breach of the fiduciary duty of loyalty.
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Jan 10, 2025 | 
mondaq.com | Jacob H. Hupart
There have been a couple of noteworthy developments in recentweeks concerning the mandatory climate disclosure regime enacted byCalifornia. These developments relate to SB 253 and SB 261, whichmandate that companies doing business in California and exceedingcertain revenue thresholds disclose climate-related financial riskinformation and Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 greenhouse gasemissions.
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Jan 8, 2025 | 
jdsupra.com | Jacob H. Hupart
There have been a couple of noteworthy developments in recent weeks concerning the mandatory climate disclosure regime enacted by California. These developments relate to SB 253 and SB 261, which mandate that companies doing business in California and exceeding certain revenue thresholds disclose climate-related financial risk information and Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions.
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Jan 7, 2025 | 
natlawreview.com | Jacob H. Hupart
There have been a couple of noteworthy developments in recent weeks concerning the mandatory climate disclosure regime enacted by California. These developments relate to SB 253 and SB 261, which mandate that companies doing business in California and exceeding certain revenue thresholds disclose climate-related financial risk information and Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions.
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Dec 23, 2024 | 
jdsupra.com | Jacob H. Hupart
On December 18, 2024, the Montana Supreme Court issued a ruling upholding a lower state court's decision that, under Montana's constitution, there is a “fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment [that] includes climate as part of the environmental life support system.” This decision also upheld the lower court's determination that a Montana law at issue violated the state constitution by “prohibit[ing] environmental reviews from evaluating GHG [i.e., greenhouse...
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Dec 20, 2024 | 
jdsupra.com | Jacob H. Hupart
On November 19, 2024, the EU Council adopted a new regulation on ESG ratings, which “aim[s] at making rating activities in the EU more consistent, transparent, and comparable in order to boost investors' confidence in sustainable financial products.” There are a number of significant aspects to this regulation, including that: (1) ESG ratings providers in the EU must be “authorized and supervised by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA)”; (2) ESG ratings providers must use...
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Dec 16, 2024 | 
jdsupra.com | Jacob H. Hupart
On December 5, 2024, the California Air Resources Board--the agency responsible for implementing California's climate disclosure regulations--announced that it would “exercise enforcement discretion for the first reporting cycle[] on the condition that entities demonstrate good faith efforts to comply with the requirements of the [climate disclosure] law.” In other words, the key California regulator “recognize[d] that companies may need some lead time to implement new data collection...
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Dec 5, 2024 | 
mondaq.com | Jacob H. Hupart
The day before Thanksgiving, eleven Republican state
attorneys-general (representing Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana,
Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, West Virginia and
Wyoming) filed a lawsuit against three prominent asset managers,
alleging that these companies colluded to reduce coal output
through their holdings in nine coal companies, thus reducing the
supply of electricity and raising electricity prices for consumers
in the United States.
