Andrew H. Perellis and William R. Schubert
The Illinois General Assembly passed and Governor Pat Quinn signed into law a highly-publicized bill overhauling the regulation of hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Public Act 098-0022, Hydraulic Fracturing Regulatory Act. The new Illinois scheme will be among the most stringent and comprehensive in the Country, and a likely model for other States seeking…
Continue Reading Illinois Enacts Stringent Fracking Legislation
By Philip L. Comella and William R. Schubert
Earlier this week, we blogged about the broad range of “reform options” for energy incentives that members of Congress are drafting, and the fast pace at which this area of public policy can move.
Now the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University has spotlighted an EPA alternate energy initiative…
Continue Reading EPA Initiative Recognized as Leading Government Innovation
By Philip L. Comella and William R. Schubert
Changes in regulation and investment incentives seem to happen at a frenetic pace in the energy sector.
For example, we have previously blogged about the last-minute extension of renewable energy credits and the year-to-year changes in EPA’s biofuel standards. As we pointed out in a recent one-minute memo about possible funding…
Continue Reading Reforming Energy Incentives: Everything from Carbon Tax, to Performance-Based Standards, to Complete Repeal is an Option
By Robert S. Winner and Michael Rosenthal
Renewable energy projects, such as wind and solar power, suffer from an inability to get affordable and sustainable financing.
Currently, these projects rely on tax subsidies in the form of production and investment credits, which are far from ideal due to numerous factors that allow only limited types of investors to benefit from…
Continue Reading Are REITs the Future for Financing Renewable Energy Projects?
Seyfarth Shaw’s Rob Winner, Corporate Partner in the Chicago Office and Chair of the firm’s Energy and Clean Technologies Specialty Team, will serve as a judge in the Clean Energy Challenge to be held in Chicago on April 4th.
The Clean Energy Challenge is a two-level competition that allows clean energy entrepreneurs with companies in different points of…
Continue Reading Seyfarth to Judge at Clean Energy Challenge Competition
By Jeryl L. Olson and William R. Schubert
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed its renewable fuel standards for the year 2013. The proposed rule would require producers, importers, and distributors of gasoline and diesel to add greater proportions of renewable fuels to their products.
The 2013 proposed rule includes a standard for the nationwide volume of “cellulosic biofuel”…
Continue Reading EPA Proposes 2013 Renewable Fuel Standards
By Roy Meilman and Michael Rosenthal
After many months of discussion and opposition, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (the Act), signed into law by President Obama on January 2, 2013, to avert the fiscal cliff, extended and modified the laws surrounding renewable energy credits through January 1, 2014, some of which were set to expire December 31, 2012.…
By Philip L. Comella and William R. Schubert
As a recent trade ruling by the European Commission illustrates, the economic forecast for the U.S. biofuels industry is susceptible to the decisions of governments at home and abroad.
In Council Regulation (EC) No 771/2012, published on August 23, the European Commission required the registration of U.S. bioethanol imports for which…
Continue Reading Will Europe Keep Putting the Brakes on U.S. Biofuels?
By Jeryl L. Olson and Eric E. Boyd
The Department of Energy announced on November 16 that the Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (MRCSP), one of seven public/private carbon sequestration partnerships throughout the country, had completed an analysis of the capacity of the region to permanently store carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. DOE Announcement The analysis indicates that…
Continue Reading Study Shows Hundreds of Years of Carbon Storage Capacity Available
