"Trickle Down Climate Policy" Featuring Maggie Peloso, Vinson & Elkins

Today we were honored to be joined by Maggie Peloso, the Lead Sustainability Partner and Climate Change Practice Leader at Vinson & Elkins (V&E). Maggie's unique background includes a Ph.D. from Duke University in Environment, a J.D. from Stanford Law School, a Masters in Environmental Management, Environmental Economics and Policy from Duke and a B.S. in Biology also from Duke. She is the author of " Adapting to Rising Sea Levels: Legal Challenges and Opportunities" and also a Lecturer in Law at the University of Pennsylvania. Maggie is based in Washington, D.C. and has been intimately involved helping her clients as the SEC's proposed Climate Risk Disclosure rules are debated. As you may know, the comment period on the proposed rules has been extended to June 17th. Needless to say, Maggie's phone has been ringing. 

In our discussion, we hit on all the major issues. You might recall we did a COBT early on when these rules first came out (March 30, 2022). Everyone has clearly been ruminating since then, and in our discussion today we had a couple of recurring themes: how is this really going to work and what are we really going to get when this is all finalized? Early in the conversation, you will hear Maggie uses the expression "trickle down climate policy" to describe the Biden Administration's attempts to push their focus on climate issues through various agencies and often through executive order. It struck us as a phrase worth remembering. 

The conversation with Maggie was fantastic. We cover a lot of great territory and with her experience as an environmentalist, we were able to venture outside legal territory and focus on some policy matters. It was a collision of law, science, materiality, and sustainability. We reference V&E's eight key takeaways from the proposed rules, and also the firm's full report on the proposed disclosures and the implications for companies.

Mike Bradley kicked us off with a look at energy stock performance and upcoming events, highlighting a few actions from the Biden Administration. He also provides a closer look at the US vs. European natural gas year-to-date and shares an interesting comparison of the Davos 2022 conference themes to the themes of previous years.  Colin Fenton points out that despite the significant damage done in global markets year to date (excluding commodities and energy equities), social media signals suggest the lows for equity benchmarks have yet to be seen. Of course, risk could change swiftly on the low-but-not-zero odds for Putin's departure and the arrival of a new anti-war regime in Moscow. 

It was a real joy to visit and kick it around with Maggie in today's session. We greatly appreciate your viewership and hope you enjoy today's discussion!