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Storing Carbon: Options for Liability Risk Management, Financial Responsibility
by Chiara Trabucchi and Lindene Patton (09/03/2008; 22 pages)
The authors of this article say the technical complexity, economic impacts, social demand, and political challenges underpinning the deployment of carbon capture and storage technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired electric power generation are daunting, but not unprecedented. In response to these challenges, the authors recommend the creation of a new “federal government corporation” in combination with a suite of financial risk management mechanisms to ensure the deployment of carbon capture and storage technology in an efficient, safe, and environmentally balanced manner.
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Sustainability Due Diligence: LEED® as the Evolving National Standard
by Mark J. Bennett, Harriet L. Greenwood, and Brian J. McCarter (08/28/2008; 7 pages)
This article examines current trends in the finance and real estate industries related to due diligence and sustainability. According to the authors of the article, the emergence of the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system, together with the establishment and backing of the Carbon Principles by some of the world's leading financial institutions, provide the emerging sustainability due diligence industry with a well-grounded starting point to begin addressing the demands and embracing the opportunities presented by the sustainable real estate revolution.
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Legal Developments Related to Greenhouse Gas Emissions
by Alec C. Zacaroli and Peter C. Condron (06/27/2008; 13 pages)
The prospects for new regulations on greenhouse gas emissions have evolved from a possibility to an inevitability, according to the authors of this article. They say the greatest potential for new regulations on greenhouse gas emissions is emerging from existing laws--most particularly, the Clean Air Act. The authors, noting that state regulatory efforts and successes in the courts have set the stage for more comprehensive regulation at all levels, recommend companies position themselves to address GHG emissions by developing comprehensive climate change strategies.
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Applying the Endangered Species Act to Global Climate Change
by Richard O. Faulk and John S. Gray (05/19/2008; 5 pages)
While it may have been inevitable that the Endangered Species Act would be invoked to redress species threatened by global warming, the authors of this article say there may be no practical way to administer the law to address the vast international habitats and foreign relations problems raised by global climate change. The authors argue that now that the polar bear has been listed, its survival has the potential to entangle the federal government in a massive administrative coordination unparalleled in the nation's environmental history.
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Disclosing Effects of Climate Change in Energy, Financial Companies' 10-K's
by Tom Mounteer, Kevin Welsh, Michael Lukens, and Jeff Allmon (03/08/2008; 25 pages)
The authors review scientific and legal developments related to climate change in 2007 that those preparing disclosure forms for the Securities and Exchange Commission will want to consider. They say that not since companies first struggled with disclosure of their superfund contingent remedial liabilities has there has been so much focus on securities disclosure of environmental issues. Their report provides a foundation upon which to make the judgments that go into these disclosures.
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Cap and Trade: Early Action 'Bonuses' Under the Lieberman-Warner Bill
by Robert L. Graham, Edward F. Malone, and Michael Strong (02/07/2008; 5 pages)
Although it is likely to be several years before a national cap-and-trade program is up and running, there are good reasons for companies that would be subject to greenhouse gas emission caps to start taking inventory of their emissions. The authors note that under legislation pending in Congressespecially the Lieberman-Warner bill in the Senatesignificant opportunities exist for companies to monetize early greenhouse gas reductions or innovation.
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Should Sustainability Be the Goal Rather Than Environmental Protection?
by Paul Connor (12/31/2007; 4 pages)
This article looks at the attention sustainability and related concepts are receiving at all levels of government in the United States and asks whether sustainability should replace the current goals of environmental programs to protect human health and the environment. While the author says he does not believe such goals should be supplanted by sustainability goals, he says such initiatives can and should supplement environmental program goals and policies.
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Energy, Climate Change, and Sustainable Water Management
by G. Tracy Mehan III (12/04/2007; 7 pages)
The prevailing analysis of a truly sustainable water system or utility has both expanded and deepened within the industry and at the Environmental Protection Agency. The author cites water resources as one of many areas that already manifest profound effects from climate change and says it is time to start planning and building for a very different future if we are to avoid disruptions to our economy and society.
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Climate Change Law and Litigation in the Aftermath of Massachusetts v. EPA
by Jonathan S. Martel (11/06/2007; 11 pages)
The case of Massachusetts v. EPA, decided in April 2007 by the U.S. Supreme Court, may be the most important case in the history of environmental law. The author says the Environmental Protection Agency's air program personnel are now straining to grapple with new, enormously consequential legal and policy questions in the aftermath of this case.
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Climate Change Expected to Have Increasing Impact on Real Estate Market
by Randall Bell (10/12/2007; 6 pages)
When climate change impacts the Earth on a macro level, individual properties are being impacted on a micro level. The author says global warming has becomes less of a theoretical debate and more of a reality in the minds of most Americans, noting this already has resulted in significant real estate economic issues.
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The Commercial Deployment of Carbon Capture and Storage Technology
by Kipp A. Coddington, David M. Meezan, and Kristin Holloway Jones (09/19/2007; 4 pages)
One of the most significant 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. There is no dedicated regulatory regime in place at either the federal or state level for capture and storage.
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Filling the Vacuum: State and Regional Climate Change Initiatives
by Stephen C. Jones and Paul R. McIntyre (07/27/2007; 9 pages)
Public and political discourse on global warming has shifted rapidly from whether human activity is causing global warming to the question of how best to address it. The authors find the lack of action by the federal government has created a vacuum into which regional, state, and local governments have rushed with a variety of regulatory schemes.
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Climate Change Litigation: Trends and Developments
by Todd O. Maiden and Eric M. McLaughlin (04/03/2007; 11 pages)
This article, written before the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Massachusetts v. EPA, looks at climate change cases filed in U.S. courts, summarizes common legal challenges faced by the litigants involved, and recognizes particular trends that have developed in the short time within which such litigation has arisen.
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