Environmental Law ReSource : Environmental Lawyer & Attorney : Reed Smith Law Firm : Climate Change, Sustainability

This post was written by Todd O. Maiden, Eric M. McLaughlin, and Amy E. Coren.

Despite heavy criticism from House Republicans and generally tepid support from House Democrats, the latest bill on climate change initiatives, H.R. 2454: The American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACESA), garnered just enough votes to move forward in the legislative process, passing 219 to 212. Having passed the House, the next stop for ACESA is the U.S. Senate for consideration.

Introduced by U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) and House Energy and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey (D-MA), H.R. 2454 calls for an economy-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) cap-and-trade system and various complementary GHG reduction measures, while also providing for federal investment in the areas of clean energy and energy efficiency programs, carbon capture and sequestration technologies, and the research and development of renewable technologies.
 

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This post was written by Siobhan Hayes, Indeg Kerr, and Tim Foster.

In earlier postings we’ve introduced the UK’s Carbon Reduction Commitment (Energy Efficiency) Scheme (CRC). All UK businesses with half hourly meters were sent letters from the Environment Agency (EA) introducing them to the CRC and the obligations the business will face. However, please note that letters went to the billing addresses for each relevant meter. The EA states that it does not know which parent company will be responsible for compliance with the CRC and that applies across the whole of the business of the UK group (covered in a previous posting). It is possible that your organisation has received a letter but there may be complications: it could have gone to a person who no longer works at the company; may be overlooked; or may not reach the right level of management. Even without the initial EA letter getting to the right people, businesses in the UK need to be prepared.

This posting covers the information to be gathered for the qualification year of 2008 and some practical steps to prepare for CRC compliance.

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This post was written by Tim Foster and Siobhan Hayes.

In 2010 the Carbon Reduction Commitment Order will require many UK businesses to measure and report on their energy consumption, to buy allowances to cover their carbon emissions and to pay significant penalties if they do not comply. The CRC was summarised in a recent Reed Smith posting.

Unlike previous legislation affecting EU carbon emissions (the Emissions Trading Scheme) the CRC does not apply to specific installations or individual companies in relation to their own emissions. It applies to the whole of the organisation in the UK. For companies doing business in the UK that means that the CRC applies to the relevant UK group as a whole. If the UK group is owned by a parent incorporated overseas the parent will have compliance duties in respect of its UK subsidiaries.

The rules are not straightforward and involve a raft of potentially confusing definitions and terms to describe participating and responsible entities.   This posting covers the key points on who has to comply:

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This post was written by David Wagner.

On June 1, 2009, the European Chemicals Agency proposed that seven chemical substances should be phased out or restricted under the EU’s REACH law. The European Commission will finalize the proposal through a regulatory process and, if adopted, the seven substances would be included in REACH’s Annex XIV list of substances subject to authorization. As a result, the substances could not be placed on the EU market unless granted exemptions for specific uses.

The seven were selected from the Agency’s October 2008 list of 15 candidate substances and the determination was based on their hazardous properties, the volumes used and the likelihood of exposure to humans or the environment. The seven substances are musk xylene; solvent hardener 4,4'-diaminodiphenylmethane (MDA); flame retardant short chained chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs); flame retardant hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD); and plasticizers bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), and dibutyl phthalate (DBP). These chemicals are the first substances that would be subject to restrictions under REACH.

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