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Global Climate Change

"The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there."
-- L.P. Hartley, "The Go Between"

At Sheppard Mullin, we recognize that global climate change has become an important and complex environmental imperative that will change the way businesses operate. It will lead to additional governmental regulation and potential litigation affecting a wide array of industries. As pressure to curb greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions increases around the world, companies must grapple with developing new policies to manage their own GHG emissions and related regulatory and litigation risks.

To help clients address all of the business interests affected by GHG regulation and mandated emissions reductions, we have developed a multidisciplinary global climate change team. Our multidisciplinary approach is essential for us to anticipate and help clients manage the business risks and opportunities presented in this emerging field including environmental, real estate land use, insurance, intellectual property, corporate capital markets, government relations, government contracts, regulated industries, environmental litigation and toxic tort law. We are well positioned to assist clients, having combined and integrated our attorneys' expertise and experience in these areas to address the interconnected and overlapping nature of climate change law.

Sheppard Mullin’s Global Climate Change Practice consists of a team of attorneys who counsel, and advocate for, clients on the climate change aspects of energy and natural resources development, “Green” architecture and land use and re-use, industrial energy use, regulatory compliance, renewable energy and energy infrastructure projects, corporate disclosure and governance, carbon markets, California Environmental Quality Act ("CEQA"), National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA") and toxic tort litigation, and government relations. Our team can assist clients to meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities presented them by regulatory and corporate responses to climate change. Given the mix of inter-related policies and the legal and scientific skills required to address them, the Firm has partnered with other expert policy, strategy and technical environmental consulting professionals, allowing us to provide a full service climate change team.

The Firm's climate change team can assist clients in the following areas:

Policy Monitoring, Rulemaking and Advocacy – Early involvement and advocacy in GHG program rulemakings on behalf of our clients can make a critical difference in future cost-effective compliance. We monitor international, regional, national, state, and local climate change policy, legislative and regulatory developments, and advocate our clients' position on developing legislation and regulation.

Regulatory Compliance – As new climate change initiatives emerge, we can help clients prepare for and efficiently manage compliance with the numerous emerging laws and regulations mandating GHG emission reductions, including California's Global Warming Solutions Act, the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. We have experience with environmental rulemaking, regulatory compliance and enforcement at all levels of government and in all air pollutant control and air credit trading programs, and provide counsel regarding the applicability of, and compliance with, these emerging mandatory climate change programs. We also monitor and assist in advocating our clients' positions in the developing federal climate change initiatives. The recent United States Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts, et al. vs. Environmental Protection Agency, 2007 U.S. LEXIS 3785 (U.S. No. 05-1120 Apr. 2, 2007), validating federal Clean Air Act authority to regulate GHG emissions, now can be expected to expedite federal climate change legislation.

We are environmental regulatory counsel to major industrial users of energy and fuels, including oil producers and refineries and other manufacturing, transportation and service companies for which management of energy costs and climate change impacts is critical. Our representation includes regulatory practice before local, state and federal environmental air agencies such as the South Coast Air Quality Management District ("SCAQMD"), the Bay Area Air Quality Management District ("BAAQMD"), the California Air Resources Board ("ARB"), the United States Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA"), the state utility and energy commissions and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as counsel to industry consumer coalitions. We also provide assistance in contracting for energy and fuel sources and developing alternative energy source strategies. We are experienced in predecessor air credit trading programs such as the SCAQMD's RECLAIM and EPA's acid rain trading programs, which are being emulated in development of GHG environmental programs.

Carbon Projects, Finance and Trading – As global carbon markets continue to grow, we can help clients enter and participate in these markets. We advise clients on participation in emissions trading in North America, Latin America, Europe and China and represent clients in creating, acquiring, and selling emission offset and emission reduction credits and acid rain allowances under the United States Clean Air Act, SCAQMD RECLAIM and other new source review and air credit programs. Companies that are not subject to regulatory emission reduction obligations are seeking to gain experience, skills, contacts and other benefits from reducing or offsetting their greenhouse gas emissions. Many carbon reduction projects create viable, diversified investment opportunities, particularly for energy and electric generating companies. Renewable energy is emerging as a significant component of energy companies' portfolios and Firm lawyers have worked on many projects in this field, including structuring and financing power projects and advising on renewable energy certificate (REC) trading and ownership. The Firm's separate energy practice directly complements, and enhances, our climate change practice.

Project Development – New GHG emission regulations will undoubtedly result in the investment and development of alternative energy resources. Our team, in conjunction with our energy team, can represent developers of biofuels, geothermal resources, hydroelectric facilities, and wind energy companies in the development of new projects to facilitate the delivery of renewable energy. As a full-service Firm, with eight offices throughout California -- the leading state proponent climate change legislation -- Sheppard Mullin is well positioned to take a vanguard role in the emerging climate change and resource sustainability field due to our deep expertise and experience in all of the substantive areas of law implicated by global climate change issues. Our Climate Change Practice possesses the integrated strategic, policy development, political, technical, financial and legal skills to help develop, implement and manage the most desired, beneficial and cost-effective course of action for a company contemplating a voluntary or regulated GHG reduction strategy.

Corporate – In addition to providing counsel to clients on all facets of corporate operations, we can assist management and directors in developing corporate climate change policies and programs and in responding to increased pressure for disclosure and assessment of the climate change impacts of corporate operations and their obligations under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules and the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002 (Sarbanes-Oxley Act). We help companies develop new operating strategies that take into account future business lines, energy resources and efficiencies, environmental sustainability, and insurance needs.

Land Use – Developers and local, state, and federal government agencies involved in approving new development projects have become increasingly concerned with how to effectively respond to climate change issues. In particular, addressing climate change and its potential impacts in environmental review documents prepared pursuant to the CEQA and NEPA has become a pressing concern in the development community. We counsel clients on the range of issues related to climate change and development projects, including the necessary evaluation of potential air quality, sea level change, and resource impacts that must be assessed in environmental review documents.

Litigation – Increased public and regulatory attention to climate change issues is resulting in increased and multi-faceted litigation as well. These include Clean Air Act challenges, NEPA and CEQA claims, common law nuisance litigation, federal-state preemption lawsuits and corporate liability and disclosure issues. We regularly represent potentially responsible parties in administrative and enforcement proceedings and litigation under a wide variety of environmental statutes and their implementing regulations. We represent clients in disputes involving governmental authority to regulate GHG emissions and their impacts, including land use development projects under the CEQA and NEPA, as well as in defending toxic tort, nuisance and environmental justice claims. 

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