Making Renewable Energy Claims Under the FTC Green Guides: Key Considerations, Lessons From Recent Enforcement

Course Details
- smart_display Format
On-Demand
- signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level
Intermediate
- work Practice Area
Energy
- event Date
Thursday, July 25, 2024
- schedule Time
1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT
- timer Program Length
90 minutes
-
This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.
This CLE webinar will address the status of the FTC Green Guides as they apply to renewable energy. The panel will discuss recent enforcement actions against energy companies, the anticipated updates to the Green Guides, best practices for energy companies seeking to make renewable energy claims and statements, and more.
Faculty

Ms. Lee represents public utilities and other companies in matters before governmental and regulatory agencies, including the California Public Utility Commission and Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. With over 12 years of experience as in-house counsel and 6 years of experience as a litigator, Ms. Lee leverages her extensive industry knowledge to provide clients creative, strategic, and comprehensive regulatory law and litigation representation. Ms. Lee is also highly experienced in litigating premise liability, product liability, and toxic tort matters and has first and second chaired State Court jury trials to verdict.

Mr. Thompson defends class action litigation matters and represents financial institutions and businesses in related regulatory investigations. Throughout his career, he has represented banking services and other clients in more than 250 putative class actions and has been admitted pro hac vice in numerous federal district courts. Mr. Thompson assists clients in mitigating emerging regulatory and litigation risk and collaborates with clients to champion inclusion, innovation, and thought leadership initiatives. For financial institutions, he has defended claims under federal banking and consumer lending laws such as the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), Truth in Lending Act (TILA), Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA), and Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA). Mr. Thompson also defends banking deposit operations claims, including claims challenging compliance with Know Your Customer (KYC) rules, claims involving alleged ACH and wire transfer frauds, business email compromise (BEC) claims, social engineering claims, privacy contract claims, and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) related issues. His extensive banking experience also covers claims concerning commercial banking rules such as swaps products, purported Ponzi schemes, and related alleged violations of state unfair and deceptive acts or practices (UDAP) statutes.
Description
As jurisdictions have begun to adopt laws to reduce the use of fossil fuels and fossil gas, energy companies have sought to reduce their environmental impact and to market renewable energy. As these companies seek to promote energy products, technologies, and transactions as environmentally friendly, they need to ensure that their claims and public statements align with the FTC's "Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims" (the Green Guides).
The FTC is in the process of updating and refining the Green Guides for the first time since 2012 and may even consider a rulemaking under the FTC Act. State attorneys general have urged the FTC to make certain updates to the Green Guides and have requested that the FTC expand Section 260.15 to explicitly cover marketing claims related to fossil gas.
With the expected changes to the Green Guides and an increased focus on renewable energy claims, energy companies and their counsel should examine their marketing programs now, since noncompliance can lead to inquiries, data requests, and civil investigations.
Listen as our panel of attorneys discuss the anticipated upcoming changes to the Green Guides and best practices for energy companies to ensure their renewable energy claims align with the Green Guides.
Outline
- Current state of the Green Guides
- Enforceability
- Incorporation by reference into various state laws
- "Renewable energy"
- Recent enforcement actions invoking Section 260.15
- FTC regulatory review and anticipated changes
- Possible rulemaking under FTC Act
- State AGs' request to FTC to expand Section 260.15
- Best practices for compliance
Benefits
The panel will review these and other key questions:
- What are the federal and state regulations and standards that currently relate to renewable energy marketing claims?
- What are the recent legal developments related to the Green Guides?
- What should energy companies do to ensure that marketing claims related to renewable energy are supportable and align with the Green Guides?
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