Slides and Audio from Reed Smith's Quarterly Environmental and Energy Law Resource Telesiminar
This post was written by David Wagner.
On Wednesday, Reed Smith held its quarterly environmental and energy law resource teleseminar and the slides and audio are available. We discussed current or emerging issues under five general categories. The categories and discussion included:
- Legislation/Rules — We reviewed the key points and effective dates related to the New Source Performance Standards for the oil and gas industry as well as for utilities and refineries.
- Litigation — A big environmental litigation issue involving the oil and gas industry is the aggregation of air emissions from diverse sources and we discussed recent challenges to air permits involving this issue. We also discussed the U.S. Supreme Court's recent denial of certiorari in Morrison Enterprises v. Dravo Corporation and the implications on CERCLA cost recovery and contribution claims.
- Policy and Technology — On this front, our presentation focused on a recent DOE report on the need for additional disclosure, and the policy implications related to the interplay between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
- International Issues — Here we provided a brief preview of the upcoming COP in South Africa and the fate of the Kyoto Protocol
- State Issues — On the state level, we focused on California and summarized recent developments regarding the implementation of the California Global Warming Solutions Act (aka AB32) and California's “Green Chemistry” Initiative.
