Ropes & Gray Attorneys Discuss ESG Policies Post-Election in Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence

The impact of the recent U.S. Presidential election on environmental, social & governance (ESG) matters is expected to be wide-ranging. Ropes & Gray attorneys recently hosted a webinar that provided a first look at the potential implications for ESG regulation and compliance under a Trump administration. A Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence article featured insights from the webinar.

Within the article, real estate partner Peter Alpert noted that, “substantively, I think that you’d see executive orders on the topic of extraction of fossil fuels — ‘drill, baby, drill’ type of executive orders,” adding that there may also be a directive that could impact the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion, employment litigation partner Doug Brayley said that he expects “executive orders over the topics that the executive has the most direct control over, and that’s namely the staffing of the federal government, which, of course, employs millions and millions of Americans in civilian capacities and also [manages] federal contractor compliance.”

On the topic of greenhushing, which involves more investigations into funds that seek to downplay their ESG-related investments, asset management partner George Raine noted that “if you’re a manager who is managing the same strategy, say, in Europe, and you’re out there saying, ‘Hey, this is an ESG strategy,’ and you fail to mention that in your U.S. version of the same strategy, you would then potentially be violating a rule that says you must go out and say you are an ESG impact fund or an ESG-focused fund.”