Climate Change

Environmental Law

Companies and organizations in nearly every economic sector are facing increasing pressure to address climate change, both in the United States and globally. Federal and state legislation, regulation and policy initiatives drive much of this pressure but marketplace competition, investment decisions, expanding environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies, and litigation also play significant roles. Strategic and proactive approaches to climate change developments are critical for businesses to remain competitive.

Our Climate Change Group has extensive experience with legal issues associated with climate change. Significant compliance-driven pressure to address climate change centers on the federal Clean Air Act and state analogs.  Our environmental attorneys have decades of experience advising clients on statutory and regulatory matters under these statutes throughout the country, where we have litigated many key cases and have been at the forefront of Clean Air Act law since the mid-1970s. Examples include:

  • assisting clients with complex air permitting requirements, including New Source Review permitting and consideration of GHG emissions regulated under federal New Source Performance Standards, and related state or local requirements;
  • counseling motor vehicle and engine manufacturers with respect to compliance with federal and California GHG requirements;
  • representing clients in appeals of issued permits, including air permits challenged by third party environmental groups;
  • providing compliance assistance regarding Clean Air Act requirements, including GHG reporting;
  • defending clients facing federal, state, local, or citizen group enforcement; and
  • assisting industrial corporations and trade groups prepare comment letters and other advocacy in the context of Clean Air Act rulemaking by EPA and state agencies pertaining to GHG emissions.

Legal pressure to control carbon emissions comes from regional and state authorities as well. Prominent examples include the Transportation Climate Initiative and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. We counsel clients across the country on compliance with these and similar climate change-related initiatives including greenhouse gas emission inventory reporting, methane emissions limitations in the upstream and midstream natural gas industry, and mobile source emission compliance.

We are committed to staying at the leading edge of climate change developments. Our environmental attorneys have extensive experience with environmental permits and related construction and operating approvals and defending these permits against third-party challenges. We help clients stay abreast of and comment on climate-change-related developments, challenge regulations, and defend enforcement matters in federal, state, and local trial and appellate courts. Our land use attorneys closely track local municipal ordinances, assist clients in obtaining land use and zoning approvals for projects, and defend those approvals in court. Our business attorneys negotiate and draft project development, construction and financing documents and perform title and property due diligence.

Through this team approach, we leverage our collective knowledge and experience of our deep bench of environmental attorneys complemented by the strengths of our other practice groups to help guide your business through the fast-evolving legal and regulatory landscape of climate change.