Bloomberg New Energy Finance has posted a white paper on fossil fuel divestment, “a concept that can reflect various societal or practical considerations. Environmental concerns, moral and ethical stances, concerns about asset stranding, and portfolio diversification are all potential rationales.”

On its website, Bloomberg New Energy Finance says the white paper “explores the motivations behind fossil fuel divestment, the scale of existing fossil fuel investments, and potential alternatives for investment re-allocated from oil, gas, and coal stocks.”

Divesting from fossil fuels does not equate to investing in renewables, according to the white paper. “Clean energy will attract $5.5trn in investment between now and 2030, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, but not every dollar will be suitable for every institution. Projects, public equities, YieldCos and green bonds offer stability, growth, and yield, but not all in one package,” it says.

Read the white paper.

EY will present an analysis of U.S. midterm elections as the results may affect the nation’s energy policy. The webinar will be Thursday, Nov. 6, at 11 a.m. Eastern time.

The midterm elections this year are on Nov. 4, and many key seats are in contention, including control of the U.S. Senate. The changes in some of these hotly contested races may have long-term impacts on US energy policy, EY says on its website.

EY’s Washington Council EY will give a post-election analysis and share their insights on tax legislation and tax reform.

Panelists will be Donna Steele Flynn, Tim Urban and Jeff Petrich. The moderator will be Deborah Byers.

Register for the webinar.

What if you had to return all the revenue you received from every customer in California for the last several years? A class action litigation alert from DLA Piper discusses the California Automatic Renewal Law, which applies to most individual consumer contracts that include an automatic renewal feature and for which the consumer authorizes a recurring automatic charge to the consumer’s credit card or bank account for the purchase of services, memberships, subscriptions or other products.

According to the alert, “in the event of non-compliance with the law, all services rendered by a merchant to an individual California consumer ‘shall for all purposes be deemed an unconditional gift to the consumer.’ ”

The alert, written by Paul J. Hall, Isabelle Ord and Alec Cierny, says, “The law creates a higher legal standard that the automatic renewal terms and cancellation rights be disclosed in a more conspicuous manner than the rest of the contract.  The law applies to contracts entered into by any consumer in California regardless of the location of the company.  Recent class action lawsuits allege that several national companies with consumer-interfacing websites are not in compliance with the enhanced disclosure requirements of the Automatic Renewal Law.”

Read the alert here.

Baker Tilly will present a free webinar to help participants better understanding construction contract controls and construction audit best practices.

The webinar will be Wednesday, Nov. 12, beginning at noon Eastern time.

On its website, Baker Tilly says all construction contracts have general conditions provisions. These are project terms that govern how project management costs, mobilization, site clean-up, information technology, and other project support costs are budgeted and billed. Analyzing these contract terms enables the construction contract auditor to build the project audit program and contribute to on time, under budget project delivery.

This case study presentation will illustrate to webinar participants typical general conditions terms, contract red flags, and risk mitigating recommendations.

Register for the webinar.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has posted an on-demand webinar on whether you wish to keep your invention a trade secret or go pursue a patent.

NIST says this webinar represents an opportunity to learn how to think around the cost-effectiveness of these distinct business strategies in the technology development ecosystem and how to be effective in a lean and scrappy manner.

Among the first considerations in making the decision are: Patent worthy, Cost to Protect, Need to Commercialize,Risk of Disclosure, Strategic Assessment, and Willingness to Enforce.

The webinar explores all of those considerations with details designed to help participants make the proper decisions. Each point also comes with a reality check.

Watch the on-demand webinar, and slide set 1 and slide set 2.

Electricity Pylons by Nick Page, on Flickr

The DOE-funded Power Systems Engineering Research Center (PSERC) will present a free public webinar discussing the challenges and opportunities associated with dynamic electricity distribution system architecture.

The hour-long webinar will be Tuesday, Nov. 4, beginning at 2 p.m. Eastern time.

On its website, PSERC says this new dynamic distribution system connects central and local electricity generation, storage, microgrids, and loads with a marketplace that enables energy transactions, such as payments passing between buyers and sellers of energy at the local distribution level.

This new system provides a promising framework for distributed energy resources to deliver the same services at a better price, with decreased power losses, decreased emissions, and better reliability.

Register for the webinar.

Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery LLP presents a complimentary webinar, “Asserting Product Packaging and Labeling: An Overview of Current Legal Principles.” The one-hour webinar will take place on Wednesday, October 29, 2014, at 11 a.m. CDT.

Marketplace promotion of products can involve not only attractive packaging designs, but also a mix of labeling concerns including product performance claims, regulatory compliance, required disclosures, and identification of intellectual property rights. Product promotion not only drives sales, but seeks to develop brand loyalty and provide consumers with useful information about the product. As such, product packaging and labeling is tied to legal issues involving compliance with one or more government agencies, marking of IP rights, industry standards, and more.

During this webinar, we will provide an overview of current legal issues to consider when developing product packaging and will cover these topics:

• A summary of issue spotting of product packaging (claim substantiation, disclosures, comparative claims, endorsements, marking product IP)
• Trademark use as a source identifier of a product
• State and federal government compliance issues for food and medical products
• Digital and print labeling

Our speakers will be Fitch Even partners John M. Naber and John E. Lyhus. John Naber is a licensed patent attorney with extensive experience in patent prosecution, clearance, and opinion work. He also counsels clients on issues that arise in corporate advertising, marketing, and product labeling and marking. John Lyhus focuses his IP practice primarily on trademark clearance and prosecution, enforcement, and global brand protection. He also represents clients in domain name dispute resolution, unfair competition, and copyright matters.

There is no fee to attend, but please note registration is required.

Register for the webinar.

In an on-demand webinar posted online, experts from Marsh and leading security firm Mandiant explor strategies for defending against cyberattacks and examined the insurance solutions addressing this growing area of risk.

The title of the webinar is “Cyber Threats Against Energy Resources, Power Companies, Utilities, and Other Critical Infrastructure Organizations.”

Panelists for the webinar include: Matthew McCabe, Senior Vice President, Marsh’s US FINPRO Practice;Timothy Burke, Senior Vice President, Marsh’s US FINPRO Practice;Laura Galante, Senior Threat Intelligence Analyst at Mandiant; and Dan Scali, Manager for Strategic Solutions at Mandiant.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Susan Hatmaker and Aimee Rainwater of Hatmaker Law Group will present a free employment law webinar discussing the  latest updates for employee handbooks.

The 60-minute webinar will be on Wednesday, November 19, 2014, beginning at noon Pacific time.

The Hatmaker Law Group’s monthly webinars serve as educational opportunities for employers, owners, managers, accountants, attorneys, and human resource professionals to stay current with up-to-date information on important California employment law issues.

For more information, contact Laura Dakin at (559) 374-0077 or email laura@hatmakerlaw.com

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) has posted an on-demand webinar on the newly-proposed carbon pollution limits for existing power plants.

Webinars in this series are an opportunity to learn about emerging environmental regulations, clean energy technologies, opportunities and issues that SACE engages in everyday, the Alliance says on its website.

On June 2 the Environmental Protection Agency released proposed standards for the first-ever limits on carbon pollution from existing power plants. These carbon pollution standards, under section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act, will be designed to significantly reduce harmful carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity sector.

This webinar provides an introduction to the proposed 111(d) regulations, explain what this means for utilities and regulators in the Southeast, and how you and your organization can be involved in this rule-making process.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Elster Vital Connections will present a complimentary webinar on the challenges faced by utilities in meeting the evolving demands of modern communities.

The webinar will be Wednesday, Nov. 5, at 12 p.m. Eastern time.

Presenters will be Intelligent Utility Editor-in-Chief Kathleen Wolf Davis, Larry Owens from Silicon Valley Power and Ron Pate from Elster.

The webinar also will cover the technologies unfolding to meet these demands and the ways utilities can best prepare for the future and the critical role of customer collaboration and involvement.

Register for the webinar.

Gibson Dunn presents a 90-minute on-demand webinar that reviews regulatory and litigation developments for hydraulic fracturing (fracking), including national, state and local initiatives to regulate and – in some instances – prohibit fracking.

On its website, the firm says the program discusses the key subjects of these regulations, including disclosure of chemical usage, access to water supplies, and potential groundwater and seismic impacts. It also provides an in-depth view of how these fracking battles are playing out in California and throughout the country with the varying and complex legislative and regulatory initiatives.

The moderator is Thomas McHenry, Partner in Gibson Dunn’s Los Angeles office. And the panelists are Rock Zierman, Chief Executive Officer, California Independent Petroleum Association (CIPA), and Jeffrey Dintzer, Partner in Gibson Dunn’s Los Angeles office, and a member of the Environmental Litigation and Mass Tort practice group.

Watch the on-demand webcast and see the presentation slides.

The Power Systems Engineering Research Center has posted online a complimentary on-demand webinar titled “What Investments Should Be Made Now? Long-Run Transmission Expansion Under Uncertainty.”

Benjamin F. Hobbs of John Hopkins University was the presenter.

On its website, the Center says  that aggressive development of renewable electricity sources will require significant expansions in transmission infrastructure. But how many new circuits, and where and when? These decisions must be made in the face of profound economic, technological, and political uncertainties.

The webinar presents a stochastic two-stage optimization model that captures the multistage nature of transmission planning under uncertainty and use it to evaluate interregional grid reinforcements in Great Britain and the U.S. Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC). In the model, a proactive transmission planner makes investment decisions in two time periods, each time followed by the investment and operations response of generators.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

The George Washington University School of Law has posted online the slides of a webinar about changes to the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement.

Twenty years after the 1994 version of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement was signed, a new version of the international accord–probably the most important free trade agreement in world public procurement markets–has taken effect, the school says on its website.

The United States, the European Union and many other nations, industrialized and not, are members of the GPA, which has been revamped and revised. George Washington University Law School’s Government Procurement Law Program is pleased to host this free colloquium, where experts will discuss the new agreement, what is new in this revision, and the likely impact on procurement markets, here and abroad.

The event was sponsored by The George Washington University Law School Government Procurement Law Program, the International Procurement Committees of the ABA Section of International Law, and the ABA Public Contract Law Section.

See the webinar’s presentation slides.

Ballard Spahr presents a complimentary on-demand webinar on dealing with employment issues involving workers’ religious beliefs.

On its website, the firm says that the fact that employees hold diverse religious beliefs has long been a given for employers. But what happens when religious beliefs and practices affect employee behavior at work, or conflict with employer practices and policies?

This webinar reviews the various regulations governing religious expression in the workplace and discusses recent cases addressing issues such as reasonable religious accommodations, dress codes, and the Affordable Care Act contraceptive mandate.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Squire Sanders has made available online a free webinar that addresses developments in courts’ treatment of military leave, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The program also provides practical guidance for employers managing employee leave in light of evolving requirements, the firm says on its website.

Presenters are Squire Sanders partner D. Lewis Clark, Jr.; and lawyers Tara A. Aschenbrand and Traci L. Martinez.

Topics include

• Military leave overview, practical implications and policy changes
• FMLA overview, intermittent leave and ADA implications
• ADA developments and reasonable accommodations
• Risks and benefits of third party administrators overseeing employee leave

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Aronson LLC has posted online a complimentary on-demand webinar on the importance of concentrating on winning a federal contract before performing the contract. This is because winning the work is more expensive and time-consuming than ever before.

Presenters are Tom Macinko, principal consultant of Aronson, and Jeff Shen, vice president of Red Team Consulting.

Marcinko states at the beginning of the webinar that the presentation will discuss strategies and tips to help contractors ensure that they are pursuing the correct opportunities and pursuing them well so they are positioned to write a winning proposal.

The agenda includes understanding government evaluation methodologies, researching and influencing methodologies, making effective bid/no-bid decisions, conducting competitive analysis, creating compelling win themes, and assembling a winning team.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Baker Tilly has posted a free on-demand webinar on how to assess a unit priced construction contract for project risk and develop an audit program for unit priced projects.

Tony Ollman is presenter for the webinar.

The topics include risk analysis, audit plan development, red flags and case studies.

The goal of the webinar, according to the firm, is to help participants learn to recognize when to use unit price contracts, to learn how to identify unit price contract risk, and to understand the primary audit plan elements to minimize risk.

Watch the on-demand webinar and see the presentation slides.

Norton Rose Fulbright recently presented a webinar on recent developments in merger and acquisition cases, offering practical tips on reducing legal risk in public company transactions. That webinar now is available on-demand.

On its website, DEALlawWIRE.com, the firm says that virtually every public company transaction is subject to shareholder litigation. While historically many such suits were resolved through disclosure-only settlements, courts are increasingly likely to scrutinize and, in some cases, reject such settlements. Further, the Delaware courts have awarded significant damages and attorneys’ fees in several recent high-profile cases, and claims involving certain conflicts of interest, and specifically financial adviser conflicts, appear to be gaining traction.

The presentation focused on recent developments in M&A cases and offered practical tips on reducing legal risk in public company transactions. Discussion topics included recent deal characteristics that are garnering scrutiny from the Delaware courts, the success of mandatory venue provisions in company bylaws and charters, and the trend for significant financial investors to bring post-closing appraisal claims.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Cyber-attacks, malicious insiders, far-flung suppliers all pose major risks to a company’s crown jewels, its intellectual property assets.

The Center for Responsible Enterprise and Trade will present a complimentary webinar Thursday, Oct. 30, at 10 a.m. Eastern time.

On its website, CREATE.org, the center says this webcast will cover:

• Where are the greatest threats? Overview of the threat actors that pose the most potential damage to companies, their motivations and approaches.
• How can companies get ahead of the risks? Examples and strategies to be more proactive and preventative to deter IP losses and data breaches.
• How do you know if supply chain partners are protecting your company’s IP? Building internal protections and working with key suppliers and other business partners who present upstream and downstream risks.

Register for the webinar.