By Kevin Fink

On July 18, 2018, the U.S. Congress House Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing to assess the progress being made by federal and state governments to promote the role of energy storage in the U.S. electrical system. A panel of five witnesses – an executive from the California Independent System Operator (“CAISO”); a partner at an energy and environmental economic consulting firm; and executives from E.ON, Fluence Energy, and Duke Energy – were present to testify and answer questions of the legislators.

By Kevin Fink

Sullivan counsel recently participated in the “Grid Scale Energy Storage Summit,” part of the expansive Hydrovision International conference held at the end of June in Charlotte, North Carolina. For the first time on an international scale, the Summit brought together both energy storage and hydropower experts from around the world for the purpose of debating, among other things, the future role of hydropower in the mix of energy storage options.  

By Edward Woll Jr.

OVERVIEW

Despite the new administration’s efforts to rollback Obama Era environmental regulations, most businesses in the U.S. are maintaining their commitments to sustainability. According to Lucid’s 2017 Sustainability Outlook Report, only 5% of private companies surveyed expect to decrease their commitment to sustainability programs in 2017, while 74% expect no change and 21% expect an increase in their commitments. Growing concern about climate change have presented companies with the opportunity to lead the way by increasing their sustainability efforts. Major companies are taking the threat of climate change more seriously, and already are developing solutions to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Green infrastructure refers to, among other things, the utilization of sustainable forestry and agriculture as elements of a cost-effective compliance strategy for meeting the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”) permitting requirements, as authorized by the Clean Air Act (“CWA”), and its state counterparts. Natural systems and processes such as constructed wetlands and phytoremediation have long been used as tools for meeting NPDES discharge standards; however, the advent of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA’s”) more rigorous “Phase II” stormwater management requirements has spurred renewed interest in such systems among a new and more expansive set of permittees.

In a recent blog post, we described the basic statutory and regulatory framework supporting the increasing popularity of mitigation banking.  In this update, we offer some additional observations for property owners and other sponsors who may wish to develop a mitigation bank, and identify some of the risks associated with that undertaking.

Almost a decade ago, EPA estimated the needed investment in our domestic water and wastewater infrastructure at approximately $105 billion; today it is estimated at over $600 billion. There is no indication thus far that the new administration is committed to reversing the rapid decay of our water infrastructure, or addressing the massive backlog of needed improvements.

The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is a regulatory program administered by EPA that requires petroleum-based transportation fuel sold in the U.S. to contain a minimum volume of various categories of biofuels. The program’s mandates are subject to a statutory waiver provision that may be exercised by EPA in the event that market conditions present an obstacle to meeting the minimum volumes. With the new administration’s continuing scrutiny of EPA’s numerous regulatory programs, there has been a great deal of uncertainty regarding the likely fate of the RFS Program.

A mitigation bank is a wetland, stream, or other habitat area that has been restored, established, enhanced, or (in certain circumstances) preserved for the purpose of providing compensation for unavoidable impacts to such natural resources. When a corporation or other entity undertakes these activities, it can generate “compensatory mitigation credits” (“CMCs”), which in recent years have significantly increased in value. Corporations and other owners of brownfield or dormant/underutilized properties are increasingly using these lands to create mitigation banks in order to generate CMCs that can be sold into the mitigation market.

Under the Brownfields Law of 2002, EPA and other federal agencies have established a variety of programs focused on promoting and funding the repurposing of abandoned mine lands (AMLs), broadly defined as lands, waters, and watersheds in close proximity to where extraction, beneficiation, or processing of ores and minerals has occurred. Among the most promising of these initiatives is EPA’s Re-Powering America Program, pursuant to which EPA has prioritized the development of renewable energy projects on brownfield properties such as AMLs.