On 1 July 2012, Australia commenced operation of its clean energy legislation (CEL) with the introduction of a carbon price of A$23 per tonne. Prior to the commencement of CEL, the government engaged with business stakeholders in a round of structured consultations. This engagement process elicited various responses to the proposed laws from stakeholder firms and non‐governmental organizations (NGOs). Accordingly, in this paper we have used environmental management theories to examine the responses of firms and NGOs and identify critical ‘pressure points’ associated with the new laws. The results from our analysis showed that, during the consultations, stakeholders predominantly used pre‐emptive responses and communications to shape and change the CEL. In addition, the critical legislative pressure point for business stakeholders was the capacity to manage carbon pricing liabilities in order to maintain sound ongoing financial and investment performance. The study also showed that the use of highly defensive and aggressive responses were ineffectual and did not materially impact the introduction of the new laws. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment