This issue of Energy & Sustainability Connections includes features on the SEC’s sweeping new climate disclosure rule and PFAS removal company Aclarity, Inc., plus energy policy news from Washington, litigation updates, a roundup of recent M&A activity, and a list of upcoming industry events.

On July 28, 2023 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued Order No. 2023, a landmark order in which the Commission concluded definitively that the existing pro forma generator interconnection procedures and agreements are insufficient to ensure that interconnection customers are able to interconnect to the transmission system in a reliable, efficient, transparent, and timely manner. Read more to learn about the Order.

Read about proposed legislation in Texas that would impose extensive new fees and requirements on solar and wind energy generators if enacted into law.

On October 26, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission, in a 3-2 vote, adopted a new rule, Exchange Act Rule 10D-1. Rule 10D-1 directs national securities exchanges adopt listing standards to require all issuers establish and enforce policies requiring “clawback” of incentive-based compensation paid to corporate executives when that compensation is based upon the issuer’s meeting misreported financials that later require an accounting restatement.  

On November 3, 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released three Notices requesting public comments by December 3, 2022, on certain additional aspects of the clean energy tax incentives included in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). Treasury and the IRS previously released six Notices, on October 5, 2022, requesting public comments by November 4 on certain other aspects of the energy tax incentives, which are described in our alert. The Treasury and the IRS will consider written comments submitted after December 3 if such consideration will not delay the issuance of guidance. 

On October, 5, 2022, the U.S. Department of Treasury and Internal Revenue Service published six Notices requesting public comments by November 4, 2022 on certain of the clean energy tax incentives included in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.  However, the IRS and Treasury will consider written comments received after November 4 that do not delay the relevant guidance.  Input from industry stakeholders is important to help inform next steps for the IRS and Treasury and shape how these clean energy tax incentives are accessed in practice.

Read about the SEC’s recently adopted rules to require reporting companies to disclose the so-called Pay Versus Performance relationship between a company’s financial performance and executive compensation that was “actually paid” by the company over a five-year period.