Courts, Congress, and Statehouses: Where Sustainability Is Quietly Winning

NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / February 12, 2026 / G&A's Sustainability Highlights ( 02.15.2026 )

The loudest sustainability headlines these days tend to focus on what's being rolled back at the federal level. But a closer look at what happened in the past few weeks tells a different story - one where carbon management secured bipartisan funding in Congress, a federal court drew a constitutional line against anti-ESG overreach, and state legislatures continued building new frameworks for corporate environmental accountability. The action may be quieter, but it is reshaping the sustainability landscape in ways that matter.

Start with the federal budget. When Congress passed the FY 2026 spending package last month, many in the climate sector expected the worst. In our Top Stories this issue, Carbon Herald reports that instead of cuts, the final appropriations preserved core funding for direct air capture hubs, carbon capture R&D, and the Carbon Dioxide Removal Purchase Pilot Prize - which received $45 million across at least four pathways.

Perhaps most notably, the package included language from the PROVE IT Act, directing the DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory to study U.S. manufacturing's carbon intensity relative to global peers - a move that positions American industry to respond credibly as the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism takes hold. Carbon management, it turns out, is increasingly being justified in economic competitiveness terms, not just environmental ones.

Meanwhile, in a Texas courtroom, ESG News reports that a federal judge permanently struck down Senate Bill 13 - one of the most aggressive anti-ESG laws in the country. The 2021 law had blacklisted more than 300 companies and triggered billions in state pension divestments from firms deemed to be "boycotting" fossil fuels. Judge Alan Albright, a Trump appointee, ruled SB 13 unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, finding that it violated First and Fourteenth Amendment protections by penalizing companies for climate-related speech, advocacy, and association. With similar laws already blocked in Missouri and Oklahoma, the ruling sends a clear signal: states cannot weaponize economic policy to punish sustainability-minded investors without running into constitutional guardrails.

On the regulatory front, sustainability governance continues to build momentum at the state level. G&A Institute has released a new Resource Paper examining the rapid expansion across the U.S. of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws for packaging. Seven states have now enacted EPR legislation, with approximately 14 more actively considering similar measures. These laws are fundamentally shifting who pays for packaging waste management - from municipalities and taxpayers to the producers themselves - and are creating new compliance, reporting, and financial obligations that companies selling packaged products need to get ahead of now.

Taken together, these developments reinforce a theme G&A has been tracking throughout 2026: the sustainability agenda in the U.S. is not stalled, rather it is decentralizing. Companies waiting for a single federal signal before acting may find themselves behind the curve. The G&A team is available to help your company stay ahead of rapidly changing reporting requirements. Reach out to us at [e-mail].

This is just the introduction of G&A's Sustainability Highlights newsletter this week. Click here to view the full issue

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SOURCE: Governance & Accountability Institute

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