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

Wind power developers in the United States built new installations at a fast rate during the first quarter of 2008, according to an industry group. But the American Wind Energy Association, which issued the report, also warned that the boom could go bust if Congress doesn't move to renew tax credits.

The association documented installations of 1,400 megawatts of new capacity, or about $3 billion worth, in its quarterly market report (see press statement here; text of report here). In its statement, the group said the industry was working at a "breakneck pace." The new installations were enough to serve 400,000 homes, according to the group. However, executive director, Randall Swisher, issued some caveats:

"But if Congress does not act quickly, this momentum could be derailed at the worst possible time for the economy, placing 76,000 jobs and over $11.5 billion in investment at risk. While 2008 is shaping up to be another great year, we could see a very different story in 2009 as uncertainty looms over investment in wind power projects and manufacturing due to continuing delay in extending the production tax credit (PTC).”

The tax credit for the production of energy from renewable sources is the primary federal incentive program for wind power, the association said in its public statement. The credit expires at the end of the year, along with other federal incentives for alternative energy.  

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• Businesses in the United Kingdom will not back the case for high levels of environmental taxation, such as those placed on emissions auctions, if the money goes towards meeting other public spending commitments, argues Independent business columnist Jeremy Warner.
• British great tits have proved themselves to be far more adaptable to climate change than their counterparts in the Netherlands. Or so reports London's ever-vigilant The Times. 
• Think there's nothing funny about climate change? There are those who disagree, reports the Guardian.
• Environmental groups are urging Congress to keep in place a ban on purchases of fuel from Canadian tar sands deposits, writes the Globe and Mail (see environmental organizations' press statement here).
• Another day, another verbal beating administered by Congress upon the Environmental Protection Agency for its alleged failure to make decisions based on science rather than politics, as recounted by McClatchy Newspapers. 
• Giant Danish wind power company Vestas says Europe should focus on land-based rather than offshore facilities, reports the Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital. 
• President Bush and Congress remain at odds over the latest version of a farm bill, according to the Des Moines Register.
  

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Gov. Ted Strickland of coal-heavy Ohio has signed a bill pushing his state's electric distribution utilities to make sure that 25 percent of the power they sell comes from "alternative" resources by 2025.

Under Senate Bill 221, that would include juice coming from such renewable sources as wind and solar, to other forms of generation, including "clean" coal, fuel cells and advanced nuclear, according to a statement by Strickland (see statement here; bill text here) and a report in the Toledo Blade (see story here).

To meet the mandate that at least 25 percent of the power come from "alternative energy resources," Ohio's legislation requires that "at least half shall be generated from renewable energy resources, including one-half per cent from solar energy resources," in accordance with a number of annual benchmarks. 

The Blade reported that the measure allows utilities to avoid full compliance with the standards if they can demonstrate that their attempts to comply would raise consumers' bills by 3 percent or more, a provision that disappointed some environmental groups.

In his statement, Strickland (pictured) lauded the measure:

"This bill, Senate Bill 221, will ensure predictability of affordable energy prices and maintain state controls necessary to protect Ohio jobs and businesses.

We will safeguard Ohio families by empowering consumers and modernizing Ohio’s energy infrastructure.

And we will attract the jobs of the future through an advanced energy portfolio standard—and today’s action by Ohio means that a majority of states now agree that these technologies represent the future of energy in the United States." 
 

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• The Arctic and the Antarctic experience similar greenhouse gas levels and solar radiation but are responding in dramatically different ways, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which reported on a new study soon to be published in EOS, a publication of the American Geophysical Union.
• Consumers who reduce the amount of meat and dairy in their diets will do more to reduce their carbon footprint than buying all local all the time, writes Science Times, reporting on a new study of the issue.
• The United Nation's new top adviser on food is urging a freeze on investments in biofuels, reports the BBC.
• Great Britain is experiencing a boom in installations of  "green roofs" and rainwater harvesting technologies in response to a changing climate, reports The Times of London. 
• A company called OptiSolar wants to build the largest solar farm in the world about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, says a report on C-Net's news.com.
• Shell's decision to drop out of a large offshore wind project has caused an uproar in the United Kingdom, according to the Guardian.
• Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has raised $1.2 billion in two distinct funds, one of them entirely "to help speed mass-market adoption of solutions to the world's climate crisis," the San Jose Mercury News reports.  
• Hawaii's Legislature has voted to require all new homes to have solar water heaters installed starting in 2010, says the Associated Press in a story appearing in the Houston Chronicle.  
  
  
  
  
  

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Maryland's Gov. Martin O'Malley has signed a package of energy bills to among other things beef up renewable portfolio standards in that state, set goals for reducing energy consumption and funnel proceeds from the sale of greenhouse gas credits to clean energy projects.

The governor (pictured) also signed a measure, SB 1013, that ratifies a settlement of a dispute with Constellation Energy Group and ends ratepayer obligations for decommissioning nuclear power plants in the future. The settlement, according to the Baltimore Sun newspaper, also gives the state some assurances a nuclear power plant will be built (see article here). 

In a statement, O'Malley, a Democrat, held out high hopes for the a package of bills on energy and other environmental issues (see text here):

"With today’s bills, we are creating a sustainable energy policy, securing relief for thousands of Maryland ratepayers through a global settlement with Constellation Energy, protecting our environment and helping to restore the Chesapeake Bay for future generations.” 

Among the bills signed by O'Malley was a measure that, according to various reports, about doubles the state's renewable power mandate. The new law, HB 375, requires 20 percent of Maryland's electricity to come from renewable sources by 2022. That's a more modest goal than some other states, including California, which is prodding utilities to meet the 20 percent goal by 2010 and is considering imposing a 33 percent goal by 2020 (see background on California mandate here). 

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A new federal economic analysis of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act shows that the measure wouldn't impede strong growth in the United States; whereas a new federal study of the bill forecasts a gloomy future of  higher energy prices and problems for industry.

It's the same document. Just depends on who's looking at it.

Produced by the Department of Energy's statistical arm, the Energy Information Administration, the new report seems to have done little to foster agreement between the warring sides in the battle over the greenhouse gas reduction bill. The Senate is poised to take up the bill, sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va., in June.

Like a previous government analysis of the bill, which would cap emissions and establish a trading program, the new report shows some economic impacts but it also predicts by mid-century the legislation would produce better than 50 percent cuts in the production of heat-trapping gases (see text of report here). 

According to the new study, the drag on the gross domestic product between 2009 to 2030 would be between 0.2 percent and 0.6 percent. The bill's impacts would fall more heavily on industry than on other parts of the economy, the report predicted. While comparing the two analyses is difficult because of differences between them, the overall economic effects forecast by the new document appear to be generally smaller than those found by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in its  analysis put forward earlier this year (see Climate Law Update story here).  

Perhaps not surprisingly, supporters and opponents of congressional action to address climate change saw the energy department report dramatically differently. Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, a leading Republican global warming skeptic (pictured), said the analysis showed the bill "is wrong for America." Environmental groups and congressional supporters of the legislation saw it as confirming the bill as economically benign.

    

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Chinese government officials may have produced a startling new goal for wind power in the giant country -- 100,000 megawatts by 2020. That represents a big step beyond more near-term figures the country floated just earlier this year (see Climate Law Update story here).

According to a story in the Shanghai Daily (see article here), an official with the Chinese Wind Energy Association (Chinese language site) said that the country's top economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission recently discussed increasing wind power capacity to the 100,000-megawatt level. Previously, the country's leaders had announced a goal of installing 10,000 megawatts by 2010, so the new objective represents a 10-fold increase over the succeeding decade.

The country had set an objective of supplying 10 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010, which would include wind, hydropower, bio-energy and solar.  According to the Shanghai Daily story it now wants to achieve 15 percent of its power consumption from renewable sources by 2020.  

Environmental Capital, the Wall Street Journal's online site that monitors such developments, sees new business opportunities in the Chinese move (see full posting here):

"Despite the recent tax reform meant to limit wind-turbine imports, China’s more ambitious goals could also open the doors for more joint ventures and local business for wind turbine makers like Vestas of Denmark, Suzlon of India, and Gamesa of Spain—all of whom have made China a key part of their global growth plans. And of course, General Electric hopes to make its energy business one of the group’s driving forces."

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On Earth Day, attention naturally turns to all things green – as in money.

Pocketbook issues are at the center of a number of new reports that assess the impact of efforts to combat climate change and promote the development of renewable sources of energy. One report shows government subsidies taking a big jump in recent years with renewables such as solar and wind getting a proportionately large share of the money.

The Environmental Defense Fund has come out with a document that studies the studies out there on the economic cost of a cap-and-trade system to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. Perhaps coming as no shock, the organization concludes that “a clear consensus” among the models demonstrates such a market system “is consistent with long-term economic growth.” The overall cost of capping the gases would amount to less than 1 percent of household budgets over the coming two decades, according to the EDF, which supports market approaches to the problem (see press statement here; text of study here).

Release of the analysis comes as the U.S. Senate is readying to take up the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, which would establish a cap-and-trade system in the country. It also comes against a background of other reports issued by the government and business organizations showing potentially significant  economic impacts from such a system (see Climate Law Update story here).

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• John Doerr, Silicon Valley venture capitalist, explains why cleantech is "the biggest economic opportunity of the century" and his four steps for solving global warming.
• China is ramping up polysilicon production, but will remain a small player for some time, according to THT Research.
• CNET reports on the debate over ethanol's carbon footprint.
• The New York Times reports on how technology is smoothing the way for home wind-power turbines.
• Reuters reports that the EU is on track to meet wind energy goals.
• Solar power boom continues in Europe.
• The Telegraph reports that scientists are underestimating the impact of climate change on sea levels.

 

 

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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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The U.S. Senate Thursday moved forward with its version of an extension of tax credits for renewable energy. But it did so without identifying how to pay for the estimated $6 billion in incentives for wind, solar and other projects.

Introduced by Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, and John Ensign, R-Nevada (pictured), only a week ago (see Climate Law Update story), the Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act (see text here) was grafted as an amendment onto a housing bill before the Senate. Lawmakers adopted the energy amendment on an 88-8 voted and passed the entire bill 84-12.

In many ways, the Senate bill is roughly similar to a measure the House passed earlier in the year extending incentives known as the investment tax credit and the production tax credit. The renewable industry has been pushing hard for Congress to adopt some kind of legislation extending credits which expire at the end of the year.

Both bills provide short-term extensions of credits for producing electricity from renewable sources and for a longer period, until 2016, for business investment tax credits for solar and fuel cell projects. Residential solar and energy efficiency projects would also benefit under the Senate bill.

But the major difference in the Senate legislation lies in the fact that bill avoided the House approach of funding the incentives through reducing tax breaks for the oil industry. Instead, the Senate bill contains no identified funding mechanism. That could give the bill a difficult road in the House.

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By any measure, it’s been a tough few weeks in the spotlight for biofuels such as corn-based ethanol and other alternative sources for transportation energy, including hydrogen.

A Time Magazine cover story not-so-subtly titled: “The Clean Energy Scam,” set the tone for the criticism. But it was met by a spirited rejoinder from the biofuels industry, which sees itself as helping to lead the way toward sustainability.  

The scrutiny focused on biofuels didn't stop with the magazine. 

Recently, reports have emerged that American biofuel subsidies have, in the characterization of the Wall Street Journal’s Environmental Capital, been “boomeranging” across the Atlantic (see story here). Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reported a California biofuels manufacturer was “short on cash and suffering from higher corn and plant construction costs” which threaten the company. The paper also noted a number of other plants that have been put on hold across the country, citing narrowing margins between the cost of production and the selling price of ethanol (see story at newspaper's Web site here).

Then, late last week, reports began emerging that corn had hit a record $6 a bushel, prompting the food industry to pin the blame rising prices squarely on government encouragement of ethanol production. The Grocery Manufacturers Association said the "ripple effects" are being "felt throughout the economy" (see statement here).  

On the hydrogen front, the San Jose Mercury News tweaked California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who four years ago proclaimed the creation of a “hydrogen highway” that would allow motorists to fill up fuel cell cars. So far, however, the newspaper reported (see story here), “not a single hydrogen fueling station has been built under the program.” The article cited a number of possible reasons, from economics to politics, for the failure. The paper also reported that Mary Nichols, the chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, believes up to 100 stations will be built by 2015, five years later than expected.

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Legislation extending tax credits for renewable energy including wind, geothermal and solar for at least a year was introduced Thursday in the U.S. Senate by a bipartisan group of lawmakers. The move drew immediate praise from the solar industry.

Senate authors of the measure, who left out a controversial hit on the oil industry that was contained in a recent House bill, hoped to break a logjam that has blocked progress on keeping incentives for renewable energy in place. Backers stressed the need to act quickly, with billions of dollars in projects possibly on the line. The bill also includes financial encouragements for energy efficient buildings, homes and appliances.

Introduction of the Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act of 2008 in the Senate (see bill summary and text), comes more than a month after the House passed its own multi-year extension measure. The Senate legislation is sponsored by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington (pictured), and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada. It has 21 other co-sponsors. Cantwell urged swift action (see full statement):

“Critical tax incentives are set to expire this year. If both houses of Congress don’t pass a bill, and the president doesn't ’t sign it into law within the next one to two months, we will start to see as much as $20 billion of anticipated investments in 2008 delayed or canceled. This could result in more than 100,000 U.S. jobs lost at a time when the country is skidding into a recession, and energy prices keep getting higher.”

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This Commentary was written by Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner attorneys Peter V. Allen and Richard M. Shapiro:

With the recent increase in concern about global warming and energy security, supporters of nuclear power are arguing that it is now time to restart the construction of nuclear power plants in the US. The national debate around nuclear power has focused on cost, safety, and waste disposal issues, but California presents additional constraints on the siting of nuclear power plants. These constraints, along with California’s significant renewable energy resources, combine to make renewable generation a better choice in California.

Even beyond California’s statutory moratorium on the construction of new nuclear power plants, other factors, including the politics and economics of water, the prevalence and location of earthquake faults, and California’s hybrid electricity market structure, render nuclear power a far less attractive option in California than in other parts of the US. At the same time, California has abundant renewable resources, including solar, wind, and geothermal. The result: in California, it is more practical to get additional electricity from new renewable plants, not new nuclear plants.

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The coal war, it seems, is heating up by the day. And the battlegrounds are not always in places commonly associated with aggressive environmentalism

Take Kansas and Utah, for instance.

The Kansas City star reports that lawmakers are trying to revive a modified version of a bill vetoed last week by Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius that would have allowed construction of two new coal-fired plants over the greenhouse gas-related opposition of a state regulator.  Among her objections was the lack of support for wind power in the legislation (see text of vetoed bill and Sebelius press release with attached veto message). 

Farther west, a dispute over a proposed new coal plant in Utah is creating a legal vortex drawing industry, environmentalists and other states, including California, into a debate over the extent of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate emissions blamed for climate change.

All of this comes against a background of work in Congress on greenhouse legislation that would establish a market system for reducing emissions (cited by Sebelius), and more coal-specific developments, including a recent decision by a federal agency to back away from funding such projects (see recent Climate Law Update story). Lawmakers are also working on other federal legislation that would allow new coal plants to move forward only if they can capture and store the vast majority of their carbon emissions (see press release and text of bill).

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Led by Washington state, where the governor just signed a new law charting a path to reduced greenhouse gas emissions, Western states have made several recent moves on the climate change and renewable energy fronts.

Oregon and South Dakota put in place new laws to boost the renewable energy industry. Oregon’s statute is aimed at manufacturers of renewable energy equipment, while the South Dakota legislation gives breaks to wind energy facilities and transmission lines serving them.

The new Washington statute, signed by Gov. Chris Gregoire, firms up goals established in a law passed last year and a 2007 executive order that would reduce Washington’s climate-related emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, the same as California’s AB 32. The Washington statute also sets goals for later years, including a 50 percent reduction below 1990 levels by 2050. (See here for text of 2007 law; the 2007 executive order; Gov. Gregoire's press release upon signing the 2008 legislation, House Bill 2815, into law and the full text of the 2008 statute, as well as a legislative analysis.)

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Recent reports originating in Europe and Asia suggest the worldwide extent of the booming interest in renewable energy. One consequence, according to experts and observers, could be new pressure on critical supplies needed by the industry.

China, according to that country’s state news service, Xinhua, has decided to boost its consumption of renewable energy, including wind, hydropower, bio-energy and solar, to about 10 percent of the country’s total by 2010. That, according to Xhinua, would would nearly double the country's renewable energy consumption compared to 2005. China's National Development and Reform Commission, the nation's top economic planning agency, had several reasons for boosting renewables, including environmental concerns, according to Xinhua:

“Given the dearth of petroleum and natural gas resources and the large share of coal in China’s energy production, it is difficult for the nation to sustain its development and protect the environment by relying simply on fossil fuels, the NDRC said.”

One of China’s goals is to have about 10,000 megawatts of wind power projects installed by 2010, the report said. The country at the end of 2007 had about 6,000 MW, according to a recent estimate from the Global Wind Energy Council, an international industry trade association. According to Global Wind, the Chinese 2007 capacity represented a better than 150 percent increase over just the previous year and it put China in the fifth spot in the world, behind Germany, the United States, Spain and India.

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It’s not billed as picking winners and losers but a new report issued by consultants to a multi-agency effort planning California’s transmission infrastructure gives some idea of what types of renewable energy projects have a bright future, at least when it comes to getting access to the grid.

The document in effect recommends that for some technologies, including anaerobic digestion and landfill gas, no further planning should be done on access to transmission lines. But it is much more favorable toward technologies such as biomass, solar (both thermal and photovoltaic), small hydro, wind and geothermal. Wave and marine current energy fell into a gray area, with the consultants recommending no further planning right now but instead keeping an eye on further developments.

Prepared by Black & Veatch Corporation, a large international consulting and contracting firm, the report, dated March 14, could be significant because it constitutes a first step in the state’s Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative, which is often known by its acronym, RETI. The project is designed to take a strategic and unified approach to siting transmission lines to serve renewable generation resources located in California or elsewhere in the West. The next phase of the process involves ranking the cost-effectiveness of delivering power from specific interconnection points.

 

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Legislation in Congress to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions might carry a hefty economic price tag, according to a new analysis released Friday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. But sponsors of the bill, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said the report actually demonstrates that the country could accomplish the cuts without sacrificing its prosperity.

Even as the costs of addressing climate change sparked discussion,  there were new signs global warming itself could prove economically destructive. Earlier in the week, another government study suggested potentially dire consequences from unchecked climate change on the nation's Gulf Coast, a vital part of the nation's shipping and petroleum infrastructure.

EPA's forecasts covered a variety of possible impacts. The agency predicted the economy might feel a drag on growth of less than 1 percent by 2030, but that the punch could also be nearly four times as strong. Among the "many uncertainties" it cited were the availability of new technologies and what other countries do regarding climate change.   

The EPA’s report followed by a day another set of estimates – this one prepared by the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Council for Capital Formation – showing the bill dragging on the economy to the tune of millions of fewer jobs and slowing the growth of the gross domestic product (see press release). The Environmental Defense Fund, an environmental group, immediately attacked the business groups’ findings, noting they did not analyze the costs of doing nothing to stop climate change.

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A flurry of new reports from consultants, industry officials and scientists paint a decidedly upbeat picture for renewable energy -- with the startling possible exception of electricity from Hoover Dam. The overall conclusion: Government policies and larger market trends are boosting the fortunes of non-traditional energy, even in the face of a stressed economy.

Experts, in analyses released over recent days, see mushrooming growth in both revenues and investments in alternative energy, including wind, solar, biofuels and fuel cells. One report produced by Clean Edge Inc., a West Coast research company, showed sales for those sectors worldwide had grown by 40 percent from last year, to $77.3 billion. The four sectors are likely to be valued at $254.5 billion by 2017, Clean Edge predicted (see press release here).

At the same time, Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), an international research organization based in Paris, reported a nearly 30 percent increase in investments in renewable capacity, to $71 billion, over 2006. Almost half of that money was going toward wind power, according to the institution's press release and report.

But still another estimate went even further. Analysts at New Energy Finance, headquartered in London, calculated that total new investment in clean energy – which the firm defines as biofuels, biomass, geothermal, small hydro, wind, marine and solar – actually hit $148.4 billion in 2007. That figure is up 60 percent compared to the year before and is even higher than an estimate produced by New Energy in January that did not include some transactions reported until later. Venture capitalists, private equity investors and public market investors all played major roles, New Energy reported.

The influx of capital is “the big story here,” Ron Pernick, co-founder of Clean Edge, told Climate Law Update Tuesday. Clean Edge’s report, which also incorporated the New Energy findings, estimated venture capitalists poured $2.7 billion into clean-energy investments, nearly 10 percent of the total VC activity for the year.

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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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Renewable energy advocates are prodding Congress to extend tax credits, the loss of which they warned could threaten 42,000 megawatts of planned developments and put billions of dollars of potential investments at risk.

As part of the lobbying campaign, in a letter to congressional leaders of both parties, the American Council On Renewable Energy, a nonprofit representing hundreds of companies and groups involved in or advocating the development of wind, solar and other forms of sustainable energy, demanded quick action on investment and production tax credits. Those include a 30 percent investment tax credit for solar projects and about a 2-cent per kilowatt hour income tax credit for qualifying facilities, such as wind. 

 

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