California’s greenhouse gas cap-and-trade regulations are set to take effect Jan. 1, following the Dec. 13 approval by the state’s Office of Administrative Law. The authors highlight key elements of the program, including an increase in the trading frequency, volume, and price of California compliance instruments and coverage of emissions associated with imported energy sold in the state. The authors also review several outstanding issues with the California program relative to other cap-and-trade schemes, including buyer liability for invalidated offsets, auction purchase limits, and potential legal challenges.

As commercial real estate markets recover from the ongoing recession, green building construction, retrofits, and renovations likely will be a major factor over the next decade, at least in certain asset classes. These projects will pose significant challenges and opportunities for real estate development, operations, and management.

For a project to qualify for funding through the federal renewable energy grant program, construction must begin before the end of 2011. This article provides background information and discusses some steps taxpayers must take before the end of the calendar year to preserve their eligibility for the grant program.

California has one of the most aggressive targets for promoting renewable energy of any state in the nation, but impediments remain if the state wants to fulfill its goal of being a leader in clean energy development. The authors contend that to avoid falling prey to Murphy's Law when it comes to renewable energy, the state needs to streamline and simplify the project review process, enact limited environmental review exemptions for clean and renewable power projects, and take other steps to ensure projects move more quickly from the drawing board to construction.

California's Renewable Energy Resources Act was signed into law in April, updating the state's renewable portfolio standard to require sellers of electricity to obtain 33 percent of their annual retail sales from renewable sources by 2020. The authors review the requirements of the updated standard, the first state RPS to exceed 30 percent; implications for developers of renewable energy; and the challenges of a program that attempts to balance cost containment and aggressive renewable targets.

 

This article examines the issue of climate change policy and international trade law. While conventional wisdom may have predicted that conflicts in trade law would emerge through climate-related protectionist measures, such as carbon tariffs on imports from countries with less stringent controls on greenhouse gas emissions, the authors point out that government support for climate-friendly technologies has in fact emerged as the primary battleground. The authors examine two recent disputes—between the United States and China and between Japan and Canada—over green subsidies and their implications for the future of clean energy. 

In the absence of legislative action on climate change by the federal government and many states, a number of proponents of reducing greenhouse gas emissions have turned to the courts. In the case of American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut, the U.S. Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments about whether common law nuisance claims may be brought against power companies for their greenhouse gas emissions. The author discusses oral arguments in the case and argues that, however the court may rule, the decision could be one of the most important in the field of environmental law because it touches on so  many legal areas. In addition, the author says the court's ruling in AEP could have significant effects on several other climate change-related cases pending in federal courts.

CCSR01 no 3599 25.00 PDF Description by Todd O. Maiden and Eric M. McLaughlin (April 2007; 11 pages) This article, written before the Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, looks at climate change cases filed in U.S. courts, summarizes common legal challenges faced by litigants, and recognizes trends that have developed.

CCSR01 no 3598 25.00 PDF Description by Stephen C. Jones and Paul R. McIntyre (July 2007; 9 pages) Discourse on global warming has shifted to the question of how to address it. The authors say regional, state, and local governments are filling the vacuum left by the lack of action by the federal government.

CCSR01 no 3597 25.00 PDF Description by Kipp A. Coddington, David M. Meezan, and Kristin Holloway Jones (September 2007; 4 pages) One of the biggest impediments to a carbon dioxide capture and storage industry is not technical but legal —  managing liabilities associated with the long-term geologic storage of carbon dioxide in reservoirs, particularly deep saline. No federal or state regulatory regime is in place for capture and storage.