On June 2, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a new Clean Power Plan, in which the agency will apply its authority under the Clean Air Act (CAA) to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fossil fuel-fired electric generating units (EGUs). EPA calculates that these power plants account for roughly one-third of all domestic GHG emissions in the US. Advocates on opposite sides of this controversial proposal claim this Plan would either become the most important US initiative to address climate change, and/or would crash economies through much of the US heartland by strangling coal-fired electricity production. Let’s hope we end up closer to the optimistic scenario!
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Greenhouse Gas,
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It's nearly time to start worrying that outdoor work in the summer sun will lead to heat illness. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) provides some guidance to employers and their workers, while the Sun Belt California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) administers detailed regulatory requirements promulgated under state law. If you have outdoor workers in California you must comply with the following requirements, while if you're anywhere else you should at least consider them.
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EPA
Corporate directors and chief executive officers (CEOs) benefit from variety of legal rights, set forth in state corporation codes, company articles of incorporation and bylaws, and in their individual employment contracts. In addition, they may be able to access additional “equitable rights” to fair dealing, based on common law principals. But as a dethroned CEO just learned from the Delaware Supreme Court, these equitable rights can be limited by the equitable rights of other parties.
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On April 29 the US Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision, reinstating US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules requiring states to control emissions of air pollutants that contaminate downwind states (EPA v. EME Homer City Generation, LP). The Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CASPR, or the “Transport Rule”) implements “Good Neighbor” provisions in the Clean Air Act (CAA) designed to ensure that upwind states’ emissions don’t prevent a downwind state from meeting air quality standards. This ruling frees EPA to implement rules requiring tighter emission controls on pollutant sources in upwind states.
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Transportation
On April 15, the European Parliament adopted a proposal to expand public company requirements to report accounting information, adding social responsibility and diversity reporting for companies that meet specified employee and revenue thresholds. The new directive provides targeted companies with flexibility to meet these rules by meeting national or voluntary standards that require at least equivalent reporting. To become law, the Commission's proposal must also be adopted by the European Union (EU) Member States in the Council (which votes by qualified majority); this is anticipated within the coming weeks.
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International,
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On April 11, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a petition by SeaWorld, which was seeking to overturn a citation and penalty issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) after a killer whale mauled and drowned one of the park’s trainers during a show (Seaworld of Florida, LLC v. Perez). OSHA had cited SeaWorld for violating the OSH Act’s Employer’s General Duty Clause, by failing to provide a workplace free of “free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm.” This decision reminds us that this often-neglected element of OSH compliance serves important worker safety goals.
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The Clean Water Act (CWA) provides federal agencies with authority to regulate a wide range of activities that may affect “waters of the United States”—sometimes called “navigable waters.” These activities include water quality planning and discharge regulation by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and delegated states, and regulation of projects that may lead to “dredge and fill” of waters, through permits issued by the US Army Corps of Engineers.
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The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) establishes a national minimum wage for most employees engaged in interstate commerce, and requires time-and-one-half pay for overtime worked by most employees. Although the most obvious changes to FLSA requirements occur when Congress raises the minimum wage, other revisions also impose important effects on millions of U.S. workplaces.
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Although the federal Securities Acts do not expressly outlaw stock trading that exploits preferential access to “insider” information, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and courts have applied general language in those Acts to cover these situations. A very recent decision by the federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit marks the latest such expansion, in a case holding the “tippee” of insider information liable for profits he helped third parties create by trading on that information (SEC v. Contorinis).
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