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An oil major (“the Company”) filed suit in federal court on October 24, 2025, challenging California’s Climate Laws — the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act (“SB 253”) and the Climate-Related Financial Risk Act (“SB 261”) — on the basis that the laws violate the Company’s First Amendment rights.

In a potential watershed moment that could reverberate across companies that have set climate goals or made claims regarding climate ambitions (e.g., “net zero” or carbon neutrality), on October 23, 2025, a European oil major (the “Company”) was handed a potentially significant greenwashing ruling by the Paris Judicial Court (the “Court”), which found the Company’s claims about its role in the energy transition and its net zero ambitions were likely to mislead consumers.

From October 14–17, 2025, the Marine Environment Protection Committee (“MEPC”) of the International Maritime Organization (“IMO”) convened an extraordinary session in London to consider formal adoption of draft amendments to Annex VI of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, including the IMO Net-Zero Framework.

On September 30, 2025, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor entered final judgment following a bench trial in a class-action lawsuit against American Airlines and its Employee Benefits Committee (the “EBC”), finding the defendants breached their duty of loyalty under the Employee Retirement Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) by allowing an investment manager’s environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) objectives to influence its investment decisions with respect to the company’s retirement plans (the “Plan”).

The California Air Resources Board (“CARB”) hosted a public workshop on August 21, 2025 to provide information on Senate Bills 253, 261 and 219 (the “California climate laws”) and solicit feedback from consumers and investors.

On August 13, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California denied a motion for preliminary injunction to enjoin California Senate Bills 253 and 261.

On August 15, 2025, the Department of Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) released guidance for wind and solar facilities under Sections 45Y and 48E (the “Tech-Neutral Tax Credits”) in the form of IRS Notice 2025-42 (the “Notice”).

As the Trump administration continues to roll out its sweeping tariff policy, the North American energy industry is working to address the effects of the President’s tariff strategy. The Trump administration intends to “unleash American energy,”¹ in part by imposing tariffs designed to remedy what the administration views as unfair trade practices and increase U.S. domestic energy production. The currently imposed and threatened tariffs will inevitably impact the energy industry and its consumers. The particularly relevant tariffs can be defined in two broad categories: (1) sectoral tariffs, in this case, imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, and (2) the country-specific and “reciprocal tariffs” that the Trump administration has imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

The White House recently unveiled “America’s AI Action Plan,” a comprehensive strategy designed to secure United States leadership in the global artificial intelligence race.

On June 26, 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) hosted a roundtable on executive compensation disclosure requirements.

On July 4, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (the “OBBBA”) into law. Congress passed the OBBBA through budget reconciliation, a special legislative process that allows Congress to advance certain tax, spending, and debt limit legislation with a simple majority vote in the Senate so long as the legislation does not increase the federal budget deficit outside a 10-year budget window.

On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (H.R. 1 119^th Congress) (“OBBBA”) into law.