Climate Change
O’Melveny’s Climate Change practitioners help clients navigate the increasingly complex landscape of regulation, incentives, and stakeholder interests.
Law360: Vagueness In Calif. Climate Law Makes Compliance Tricky
O’Melveny’s Climate Change practitioners help clients navigate the increasingly complex landscape of regulation, incentives, and stakeholder interests.
Law360: Vagueness In Calif. Climate Law Makes Compliance Tricky
Public companies face challenging new climate-related disclosure obligations and an ever-increasing number of shareholder proposals. As businesses large and small look to promote their environmental sustainability credentials, they also must navigate an increasingly difficult and complex array of litigation claims. O’Melveny is here to help, offering an interdisciplinary group of practitioners with an in-depth understanding of climate change issues across legal disciplines, industry sectors, and continents.
Climate change increasingly shapes the international business environment. International accords, local regulations, and community initiatives are focused on how companies can achieve sustainable enterprise and resilience goals for their facilities, energy providers, and supply chains. At the same time, business stewardship requires attention to short- and long-term policy changes, including those creating tax benefits and other incentives to promote clean energy and reduce carbon emissions.
Our corporate lawyers advise on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) diligence and documentation, including matters concerning “impact” investments, water stewardship, and renewable and alternative energy projects. We represent some of the world’s largest financial institutions in their financing activities in the clean energy space, including through tax equity and various debt structures. Our litigators have deep experience in defending traditional and renewable energy companies against novel global warming tort theories, while our consumer products and services litigation teams have successfully defended greenwashing claims. On the regulatory front, we advise on greenhouse gas legislation and related ESG obligations around the globe.
Advising Aera Energy, one of the largest producers of oil and gas in California, on its negotiation with a third party to develop and construct a carbon capture and sequestration project in California, including negotiation and documentation of CO2 offtake agreements and issues relating to eligibility for and assignment among the parties of carbon capture and storage credits.
Advise Apollo on environmental matters in connection with its investments in multiple wind and solar projects, and an offshore wind staging port facility in New York City.
Guided CS Energy in its negotiation of the sale of five solar projects being developed in New Jersey. Four of the projects will be sited atop landfills; before closing on the sale, CS Energy’s EPC team will perform the work to cap the landfills under agreements with the local municipalities. When the projects close, CS Energy will also enter into EPC contracts with the buyer for CS Energy to construct the projects.
Scored a critical victory in the ongoing Las Posas Basin groundwater matter, obtaining court approval of a settlement agreement determining the groundwater rights for hundreds of landowners in California’s Ventura County.
Assisted Mitsui on its investment in LanzaJet, a company that will produce and sell sustainable aviation fuels, as well as a subsequent secured loan to a project company owned by LanzaJet that is developing a sustainable aviation fuel project in Georgia. LanzaJet is a spin-out from LanzaTech, which has spent the last 15 years developing technologies that can turn carbon emissions into ethanol suitable for chemical and fuel uses. O’Melveny also provided merger control advice related to Mitsui’s shareholding interests in LanzaJet.
Helping MPS Infrastructure, an independent energy project development company, in the development and project financing of water infrastructure and related clean energy facilities in North Africa and in an LNG-fired generation facility in East Africa.
Assisted Silevo, a solar photovoltaic cell technology innovator that manufactures high-efficiency, high-performance solar modules, in its acquisition by Elon Musk’s SolarCity Corporation.
Advised leading clean energy solutions provider SK E&S on its acquisition of California-based EverCharge, an electric vehicle charging solutions provider with some 4,600 installed and operational EV chargers across North America. The transaction marks the first-ever acquisition of a US EV charging business by a Korean buyer.
O’Melveny is a leader in the renewables financing sector. As counsel to some of the largest banks and financial institutions in the world investing in energy transition projects, we have handled the following matters:
- Advised financial institution on the tax equity financing of a solar project in California.
- Advised financial institution on its project financing of, and preferred equity investment in, a 230 MW multi-phase solar and battery storage project in California, two wind power projects located in the Catskills region of New York State, a 303 MW wind farm project in Oklahoma, and a 302.4 MW wind energy project in Indiana.
- Represented financial institution in the closing of the first phase of its tax equity financing in a portfolio of seven wind, solar and energy storage projects being developed by one of the largest strategic developers of renewable energy projects in the world. The first phase included an approximately 76.5 MW solar energy project located in Maine, and an approximately 100 MW solar energy project located in Wisconsin. The portfolio includes additional projects across the country located in Oregon, California, New Mexico, Colorado, and Iowa—with a total Fair Market Value expected to exceed $1.1 billion.
- Represented financial institution and a syndicate of lenders in the construction and term financing of a solar photovoltaic power plant, with an electric generating capacity of approximately 300 MW AC, and related structures, facilities, parts and interconnection facilities situated in Ohio.
- Advised investment bank on a 145 MW wind power project in Colorado.
- Represented financial institution in its purchase of ownership interests in a holding company that owns and operates three wind power projects in Texas. Additional projects for this client, which has invested more than $10 billion in renewable energy tax-equity projects, have included:
- Tax equity financing of a wind project in Iowa.
- Tax equity financing of a portfolio of eight wind, solar, and energy storage projects.
- Preferred equity investment in, and project financing of, two wind power projects located in North Texas.
- Project financing of, and preferred equity investment in, a 230 MW energy storage project in California.
- Preferred equity investment in, and project financing of, a portfolio of wind and solar projects located in Texas and New Mexico.
- Preferred equity investment in, and project financing of, a 70 MW wind project in Iowa.
- Preferred equity investment in, and project financing of, six solar and storage projects.
Top tier nationally for Environmental Law
—US News & World Report/Best Lawyers’ “Best Law Firms” survey (2023)
“This team can handle the large transactions, particularly water regulation matters.”
—Client Testimonial, Chambers USA
California offices top ranked for environmental litigation.
—Benchmark Litigation (2023)
California Environmental/Natural Resources Litigation Firm of the Year
—Benchmark Litigaiton (2020)
O’Melveny’s energy group shines with “the expertise, firepower and bench to handle any situation.”
—Client Testimonial, Chambers Global