The second Trump administration is likely to make major changes to ESG legislation and to the federal government’s stance toward ESG. To gain insight on what shifts companies can expect, particularly those made through executive orders, we spoke with Krista McIntyre, a partner at law firm Stoel Rives, who specializes in environmental law.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What are some changes we might see to ESG in the early days of Trump’s second term?

My speculation about what might happen is informed by the Project 2025 handbook, which suggests a few things…We might see a direction for federal agencies to delete vocabulary from regulation, policies, grant requests, or funding criteria that is meaningful in the ESG, sustainability, and DE&I context. There might be a direction to remove words like “gender” or “equality” or “minority” from the regulations and policies and those other tools that federal agencies use to do their work.

We might see an executive order that eliminates government offices for chief sustainability officers. There is a White House chief sustainability officer, and then many of the federal agencies have sustainability officers…In addition, you might see this administration eliminating funding for those types of programs and priorities.

At an executive order level, there are things that can be conceptualized and then directed to the federal agencies to implement. For example, the FTC might get a direction to take further action on antitrust allegations for companies that are working together on ESG and sustainability goals, and heighten the priority for enforcement against those organizations.

For more on ESG and the Trump administration, click here.—CV

Amid a flurry of early executive actions and appointments, President Trump on Tuesday named Mark Uyeda the acting chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, elevating the Republican commissioner and former SEC staffer until the potential confirmation of Paul Atkins, the president’s choice for the permanent chair.

Uyeda, an SEC staffer since 2006 who became a commissioner in 2022, takes over from Democratic chair Gary Gensler, who resigned on Monday as Trump—who had promised to fire Gensler—took office. Uyeda had opposed Gensler’s agenda for stricter cryptocurrency regulations and requirements to report on environmental, social, and governance measures, Bloomberg Law reported.

Some limits. While Uyeda is now running the SEC, he won’t be able to reverse everything Gensler did, at least not right away. He will be able to axe some policies, such as crypto accounting guidance, but he probably won’t be able to pass or remove SEC rules until another Republican commissioner is confirmed, according to Bloomberg Law, because while it has just three members instead of its usual five, Democratic Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw can block votes to deny the commission a quorum.

Musical chairs. Crenshaw’s veto power may hold up Uyeda’s and Republicans’ agenda for the commission, but only for so long. Her term expired last year, and Republican senators prevented a December vote to confirm her for a second one. Trump could nominate Atkins to fill her seat, Bloomberg reported, which would potentially give Republicans total control until the confirmation of two Democratic members as required by law.

To continue reading, click here.—GD

If any CFOs made their New Year’s resolution to be more optimistic, they’re doing pretty well so far.

Among the CFOs surveyed in Deloitte’s latest CFO Signals survey, 72% said the North American economy would improve in a year, a marked jump from the 19% of CFOs who said the same the previous quarter.

And compared to three months earlier, 59% of CFOs said they were “significantly or somewhat more optimistic” about their organization’s financial prospects, another jump from the previous quarter.

The survey’s overall CFO confidence score—the tally of five categories of questions—climbed to its highest reading in 10 quarters.

They’re not just feeling confident. They’re also feeling risky. Two-thirds of respondents said it’s “a good time to be taking greater risks,” a big climb from the mere 12% that said the same last quarter.

With the growing appetite for risk, CFOs are looking to boost capital expenditures at their organizations by 8.7%. Nearly half (44%) planned to “allocate or reallocate capital to new business investments,” while 43% said they’d fund acquisitions.

For more on CFOs’ 2025 outlook, click here.—NP

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