Webcast: Analyses of the Groundbreaking American Clean Energy & Security Act (ACESA)
Co-presented by McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, the Association of Climate Change Officers (ACCO) and the Bureau of National Affairs (BNA)
On June 26, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly approved game-changing climate change legislation, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACESA), also called Waxman-Markey (HR 2454) -- the first major environmental legislation to be approved by either the House or the Senate in almost twenty years. The bill would require a 3% cut in CO2 emissions from 2005 levels by 2012, 17% by 2020, 42% by 2030, and 83% by 2050. This would transform the US economy and in particular the energy sector, and create a multi-billion dollar new market in valuable rights to emit greenhouse gases.
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McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, the Association of Climate Change Officers (ACCO) and the Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) invite you to a webcast that will help identify the key issues you will need to address as the debate moves to the Senate. The program will:
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Cover the bill’s major provisions and political future;
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Discuss the multi-billion dollar emissions allowances market it creates;
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Provide insight on the industrial sectors that are likely to receive a significant amount of the allowances and incentives;
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Analyze how the new renewable electricity standard and efficiency requirements will impact the energy sector;
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Discuss the projected roles of EPA, states, regional pacts and other federal oversight agencies; and
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Identify important next steps for the Senate and for stakeholders like American industry.
To register for this complimentary webcast, please click here.
Is Bio-Char the Next Great Hope?
Never heard of bio-char? I was only vaguely familiar with ituntil this Tuesday. That's when McKenna Long & Aldridge's DC office played host to this year's EPA Climate Leaders award winners in a program co-sponsored by the firm and the Association of Climate Change Officers.
The event brought together some of the foremost thought leaders on climate change science andfeatured several enlightening presentations, including one by Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development.
He described the dramatic effects on climate change of acting to control "non-CO2 climate forcers" such as black carbon (which we've written about) and bio-char.
Zaelke believes bio-char could play a significant role in reversing levels of carbon in the atmosphere.
In a nutshell, we can "cook" agricultural wastes (corn stalks, crop stubble, etc.) and generate a gas that can be used as a fuel, plus a solid material -- bio-char. If you bury the bio-char the entrained carbon remains fixed for hundreds of years. This leads to dramatic reduction of carbon emissions associated with otherwise normal biological processes breaking down agricultural biomass.
According to Dr. Zaelke if we were to encourage this practice we could return to healthy CO2 levels in the atmosphere within several decades. If you would like to receive a copy of Dr. Zaelke's presentation, please contact me.
