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Partners Jenny Speck and Alan Alexander, and associate Hoo Ray are speaking at the RNG Coalition's Weekly Webinar on a panel titled "Legal Landscape of Financing and Developing RNG Projects" on April 30.

Partner Lauren Collins is speaking at PLI's Tax Planning for Domestic & Foreign Partnerships, LLCs, Joint Ventures & Other Strategic Alliances 2025 taking place April 23 in Chicago.

Partner Jenny Speck is presenting at the RNG Coalition’s RNG Summit on a panel titled “Trump Administration and the 119th Congress: Implications for RNG Tax Credits” on Wednesday, April 23, at 4:30pm CT.

The Texas Legislature has been debating several bills aimed at boosting dispatchable power in ERCOT while erecting new economic and permitting barriers for renewables.

On April 8, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order titled “Protecting American Energy From State Overreach” (the “Executive Order”), which directs the United States Attorney General to identify and halt the enforcement of state laws and civil actions that burden energy production and may be preempted by Federal law or are otherwise unconstitutional.

Vinson & Elkins is a sponsor of the Edison Electric Institute's (EEI) 2025 Spring Legal Conference taking place in Chicago from April 9-11, 2025.

If past is prologue, while the second Trump administration is expected to take a number of actions that could lead to increased volatility with respect to renewable identification number (“RIN”) prices just as the first did, there are signals that the administration may take a more deliberate approach this time to reduce shocks to the RIN market, all the more given the interest in supporting renewable fuel production as a domestic fuel source. And while the California Air Resources Board (“CARB”) took steps last year that impact the ability of biogas projects to generate Low Carbon Fuel Standard (“LCFS”) credits, state legislative headwinds could eventually result in the opening of new environmental credit markets to shore up demand for renewable natural gas (“RNG”). Overall, while significant uncertainty and risk of RIN volatility remains, there continue to be signals from both the federal executive and legislative branches in support of the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (“RFS”).

On January 10, 2025, the Treasury Department (the “Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (the “Service”) continued their flurry of new guidance by releasing IRS Notice 2025-10 (the “Notice”) concerning the clean fuel production credit available under section 45Z of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code,” and such credit, the “Clean Fuel Production Credit”),¹ for certain clean fuels produced and sold between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2027.²

On January 7, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (the “Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (the “Service”) issued final regulations (T.D. 10024) (the “Final Regulations” and the preamble thereto, the “Preamble”) regarding the clean electricity production tax credit and the clean electricity investment tax credit provided by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (the “IRA”)¹ and available under new sections 45Y and 48E, respectively, of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”).

On January 10, 2024, the Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) published the final regulations governing the section 45V Clean Hydrogen Production Tax Credit (“Final Regulations”).

The International Court of Justice has been asked to issue an advisory opinion on this question, and is currently hearing submissions from States, NGOs and international organisations.

On December 4, 2024, the Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (the “Service”) issued final regulations [TD 10015] (the “Final Regulations”) for the energy credit available under section 48 (the “ITC”) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”).