Distilling this week’s 17,095 alerts into the 23 alerts that you care about
Mary Kopczynski, CEO of RegAlytics, breaks down this week’s hot regulatory topics, exclusively for Exiger.
- Regulator of the Week: FDA
- Topic of the Week: Clean Energy
- World Bank: Water Resilience
- MAS: Financing for Decarbonization
- Malaysia: Shariah Compliance Carbon Exchange
- UK/Germany: Renewable Hydrogen
- UK: First Battery Strategy
- Canada: Battery Innovation Roadmap
- ICE: Japanese Impact Bonds
- Senate: China Bottleneck on Supplies
- US House: Carbon Dividend Trust Fund
- Senate: Hydroelectric Dams
- CA DOI: Catastrophe Modeling
- CT: Exxon Suit Stands
- CHIPS: 2nd Funding Opportunity
- CHIPS: Bottleneck Alert Mechanism
- US: Shutdown Averted
- Biden: 1st President on Picketline
- Other Interesting Alerts
Regulator of the Week: FDA
The Regulator of the Week is the FDA! They are jumping on the AI bandwagon. They wrote a paper about policy considerations for pharmaceutical development rules and AI. They want your thoughts. Are they on track? Are they missing anything? Have they gone too far? This open request was actually supposed to be due May 1st, but they decided to extend it to this November. There’s currently only 42 comments, so this is truly an opportunity to be heard.
Request for Information: Discussion Paper: Artificial Intelligence in Drug Manufacturing
Topic of the Week: Clean Energy
The Topic of the Week is CHIPS. No, not the crunchy delightful salty snack of your dreams. I’m of course talking about Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS, get it?) and Science Act enacted by Congress last summer, which provides roughly $280 billion in new funding to the manufacturing of semiconductors in the United States.
World Bank: Water Resilience
The topic of the week is Clean Energy. Actions came from all corners so the best way I can organize this is to go from global to US to the states. Starting with a study by the World Bank, talking about scaling up financing solutions for energy and noting that Dominica has raised its hand and has aggressively pursued being the first climate resilient nation. It’s an impressive study – walking through how Dominca’s total devastation after Hurricane Maria in 2017, led it to completely transform its infrastructure. So, if you’re in the mood to hear a heart-warming, hope-filled success story, take a look at Dominica.
| Infographic: Scaling Up Finance for Water |
| Scaling Up Finance for Water: a World Bank Strategic Framework and Roadmap for Action |
| Dominica’s Journey to Become the World’s First Climate Resilient Country |
MAS: Financing for Decarbonization
And speaking of financing clean energy, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, alongside McKinsey, put out a paper on developing more effective carbon markets for the purposes of financing global climate change.
Malaysia: Shariah Compliance Carbon Exchange
And this one I thought was impressive: Bursa Malaysia, which is a major exchange, launched trading on the world’s first Shariah-compliant voluntary carbon exchange.
UK/Germany: Renewable Hydrogen
Moving on to the UK, Germany, and Canada, some of our closest allies, UK and Germany signed an agreement to accelerate the development of an international hydrogen industry, with the idea being that hydrogen will the alternative, net zero fuel of the future.
U.K. and Germany Partner to Further Advance Hydrogen Developments
UK: First Battery Strategy
Also this week, the U.K. Battery Strategy Taskforce had its inaugural meeting. The Taskforce is focused on building out the first battery strategy for the UK.
Government Holds First Taskforce for the U.K. Battery Strategy
Canada: Battery Innovation Roadmap
Likewise, in Canada, a series of regulators announced a $500,000 federal investment in building a battery innovation roadmap that charts Canada’s capacity to develop, commercialize and scale up a sustainable domestic battery innovation ecosystem.
Canada Invests in Battery Innovation Roadmap
ICE: Japanese Impact Bonds
Another interesting public private partnership is one between ICE, the Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange, and The Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan (GPIF), the world’s largest pension fund. ICE conducted an impact assessment of the impact bonds in funds portfolio, which covered various impact categories from emissions reduction and renewable energy generation to social impact, including job creation. It is a fascinating look at the metrics around ESG, the carbon markets and what to expect in our future.
Senate: China Bottleneck on Supplies
Back in Congress, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing to examine opportunities to counter China’s control of critical mineral supply chains. Catch that transcript if you’re watching this carefully.
US House: Carbon Dividend Trust Fund
There were also two introduced bills – one House, one Senate. Well, to be clear, there were a lot more than two, but these two caught my eye. The House proposed to create a Carbon Dividend Trust – it seems like it would be similar to the one Alaska has for oil, where Americans would get paid personally for advancements in clean energy.
Senate: Hydroelectric Dams
The Senate proposed an IRS Amendment that would provide incentives to build hydroelectric dams.
CA DOI: Catastrophe Modeling
Digging into the states, California: hosted it second Catastrophe Modeling and Insurance Workshop to address climate-intensified wildfire risks. This is a trend across all insurance providers – trying to really understand the price of pollution and climate change so that if they’re left holding the bag, they are pricing it correctly.
Commissioner Lara Statement on the Success of the Second Catastrophe Modeling and Insurance Workshop
CT: Exxon Suit Stands
Connecticut: Big big case with ExxonMobil was removed to state court. What does that mean? It means Exxon was trying to argue that federal law trumped given that they are a global organization, but the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit confirmed that Connecticut’s beef with ExxonMobile should stay in Connecticut. And this is a trend, JUUL’s cases got removed to state court, the opioid cases got removed to state court, so large corporations really can’t close their eyes to the state laws. And even if corporations aren’t weren’t REQUIRED by federal law to avoid pollution, it doesn’t mean they won’t be held accountable for these new state laws popping up, demanding accountability for pollution. Attorney General Tong Statement on Second Circuit Win Affirming Connecticut Case Against ExxonMobil Belongs in State Court
CHIPS: 2nd Funding Opportunity
What else do you need to know this week? The much anticipated second funding round of CHIPS for America was announced by the Department of Commerce. It’s open to projects with capital investment of below $300 million – so the smaller ones — involving the construction, expansion, or modernization of commercial facilities for semiconductor materials and manufacturing equipment.
| Webinar: Dedicated Supply Chain Notice of Funding Opportunity |
| Biden-Harris Administration Announces CHIPS for America Funding Opportunity to Strengthen Semiconductor Supply Chains |
CHIPS: Bottleneck Alert Mechanism
Commerce has also launched an updated Semiconductor Alert Mechanism to be administrated by the International Trade Administration to detect and assess bottlenecks in our semiconductor supply chains and reduce chokepoints.
Commerce Updates Semiconductor Alert Mechanism
US: Shutdown Averted
Last but not least, President Biden had a busy week. He signed House Bill 5860, which kept the government open. Woohoo!
Biden: 1st President on Picketline
But even more notably, he made history by being the first U.S. President to ever join a union strike picket line.
Remarks by Joseph R. Biden Jr., President of the United States, at United Auto Workers Picket Line
Press Gaggle by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre En Route Wayne County, Michigan
