Biofuels

The European Commission has presented a package of key enabling legislation on sustainable finance (the “Sustainable Finance Package”).  This includes the much-awaited first technical screening criteria under the Taxonomy Regulation — outlined in the Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act (“TCDA”) — and a proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (“CSRD”), which significantly revises and expands on the existing Non-Financial Reporting Directive’s remit and disclosure rules for corporates. While the former is directly aimed at financial institutions and investors, and the latter at large and listed entities, the package has broader implications for all corporates.

Sustainable Finance Package: Context and Comment

The Commission’s intention with its Sustainable Finance Package is twofold: (1) in the short term, to set a clear regulatory framework to encourage investments that will contribute to a sustainable and inclusive economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic; and (2) in the long term, to ensure the transition to a carbon neutral EU economy by 2050, in accordance with the 2020 European Climate Law.  Following the adoption of the EU Taxonomy Regulation (explained further below), the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, and the Benchmark Regulation, which enhances the transparency of benchmark methodologies, the Commission has in this legislative package laid out the next building blocks for its envisioned sustainable finance ecosystem.Continue Reading The EU’s Green Capitalism Takes Shape: Taxonomy Screening Criteria and Corporate Sustainability Reporting

On August 25, 2014, the U.S. Navy announced that it would continue its four-year collaboration with the Chilean Navy to research, develop, and use “drop-in” alternative fuels to power surface ships and aircraft.  Both navies have established goals of significantly increasing their use of alternative fuels.  The Chilean Navy intends to use renewable energy sources

On April 22, EPA issued a direct final rule to revise the 2013 cellulosic biofuel renewable fuel standard (“RFS”) that it had originally issued on August 15, 2013.  The new rule reduces the cellulosic biofuel RFS to 0.0005%, which reflects the number of cellulosic biofuel renewable identifications numbers (“RINs”) that were actually produced and available

The Department of Energy (“DOE”) issued a draft solicitation yesterday for a new Renewable Energy and Energy Efficient Projects Loan Guarantee Program.  Once finalized, the Program is expected to make as much as $4 billion in loan guarantees available to innovative clean energy technology projects that are not currently in commercial use.  Based on DOE’s