Climate Law Update: Climate Change & Sustainable Energy News : Thelen Reid Law Firm : Renewable Energy, Construction, Project Finance Lawyers & Attorneys

Global warming is bad, and developing renewable energy to help solve the problem is good, right? While that might be a popular view, the reality is a bit more complicated, as experts in the field have begun noting with some frequency lately.

Talk of what UCLA School of Law Professor Ann Carlson (pictured) calls “localized environmental values clashes” over renewable projects was in the air at a recent conference at the University of California-Berkeley’s law school, Boalt Hall.

Speakers at the two-day event, “California and the Future of Environmental Law and Policy,” noted that, in particular, legal and policy fights over transmission lines pose a significant challenge for renewable development. Among them was Karen Douglas, who formerly spearheaded California climate change efforts for the  group Environmental Defense (now known as Environmental Defense Fund). She is now a member of the California Energy Commission which, among other duties, licenses large new thermal power plants in the state, as well as the transmission lines connecting them to the grid. Douglas crystallized the issue this way:

“It’s kind of a different challenge to do renewables because you’ve got to generate the power where the renewable resources are and then bring it where the people are. So that means often a lot of power lines. People don’t want that through their neighborhoods. It’s hard to site and hard to build and so on, so one issue is transmission.”

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A key member of the international body that has done much to warn the world of the dangers of climate change says that a needed part of the solution – government support for research into new technologies – is falling ominously short.

In a recent presentation in San Francisco sponsored by the California Public Utilities Commission, Bert Metz, co-chairman of a key group of researchers within the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, added his voice to what appears to be a growing chorus calling for major new public investments into energy technology research and development. While other measures, such as market systems to promote energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reductions can help, they may not be enough, according to these experts.

In his presentation to an auditorium filled with energy experts and members of the public, Metz (pictured) foresaw the need for society "to rely on technologies that are not yet on the marketplace today. So that brings us to the area of how can we get them into the marketplace later. That means sufficient [research and development] investment." But there is a problem, he noted: 

“One sobering fact from the IPCC assessment was that energy R&D has gone down significantly since 1980. It’s now about half the level that we saw in the 80s. I’m talking about government, public R&D. That has not been taken over by the private sector. So we are worse off than we were 25 years ago. That is, of course, completely counter to the messages in this report.” 

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British Columbia is moving forward with a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gases, laying the groundwork for the province's involvement in a Western North American regional trading system.

The development occurs as one new report strikes a cautionary note about how to establish a market, warning that free allocation of emissions credits has helped produce large windfall profits in Europe (see full document here). But the Western Climate Initiative, the regional system to which British Columbia and a number of states belong, is contemplating at least a partial sale of credits (see text here). 

British Columbia officials recently announced the introduction of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act, also known as the Cap and Trade Act. They said it would put British Columbia out front of other Canadian provinces as it prepares for the onset of the new trading system (see press statement here, see text of legislation here).

“The Cap and Trade Act will make British Columbia the first Canadian province to introduce legislation authorizing hard caps on greenhouse gas emissions,” said Environment Minister Barry Penner (pictured) in a statement. A “hard” cap means that each emitter will face a set target, regardless of the growth of its operations, according to a report in the Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail (see story here).

One expert quoted by the paper said no one in North America has done what the province is proposing. Officials from the petroleum production industry and elsewhere also expressed some concerns about the measure and how it might mesh with regulations set by other provinces and the nation’s government, as well as the province’s own newly introduced carbon tax.

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The U.S. Department of Energy recently announced it had worked out a cooperative arrangement with the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit whose research is supported by electric utilities, to look at ways to promote energy efficiency.

One primary goal of the agreement was to promote widespread adoption of  "demand response" programs to curtail energy use during peak periods. Officials also drew connections between the agreement and efforts to deal with climate change.   

A memorandum of understanding between EPRI and the energy department called on them to coordinate efforts to support research related to demand response and energy efficiency in buildings and on other projects, such as developing ways for utilities to account for carbon dioxide reductions. The document notes that the private institute has launched an initiative to gain the support of up to 50 utilities "to enable expansion of programs, activities and technologies to encourage greater energy efficiency and widespread adoption of electric demand response."

In a DOE statement announcing the initiative, EPRI Senior Vice President Michael W. Howard said the pact, which the memorandum described as non-binding, would "facilitate the development of energy efficiency technologies needed to help slow, stop and ultimately reverse the nation's carbon footprint."

(Department of Energy photo showing March 6 signing ceremony: L-R: Kevin Kolevar, assistant secretary for electricity delivery and energy reliability, DOE; Alexander Karsner, assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy, DOE; Michael Howard, senior vice president of research and development, EPRI)

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Daniel Yergin, a widely known energy expert who closely advises  the oil and gas industry, is predicting a rosy future for renewable energy, and other "clean" technologies such as nuclear and hydropower, partly as a result of public concern over global warming and driven by subsidies and government mandates. 

"High energy prices, climate change and energy security are converging as the new engine driving the development of clean energy," Yergin (pictured at left), chairman of Cambrige Energy Associates, told a gathering at the National Governors Association in Washington, D.C. (Feb. 23). "There is a major shift in public opinion towards clean energy, which is being bolstered by the growing conviction that new carbon policies will reshape the competitive landscape of the global energy business."

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