Posted on April 1, 2011 by David Wagner

Uncle Sam Wants Your Input on a Clean Energy Standard

This post was written by David Wagner.

Last week Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) released a white paper soliciting input on a clean energy standard (“CES”) from a broad range of interested parties. The white paper lays out some of the key questions and potential design elements of a CES and seeks responses to six general policy questions that the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is considering in the development of a CES program. This effort builds on the 2011 State of the Union address in which President Obama urged lawmakers to establish a CES with a goal of 80 percent of the nation’s electricity to come from “clean” sources by 2035. The President emphasized that a CES would recognize electricity from not only renewable energy sources but also nuclear, coal with carbon capture and storage technology and natural gas.

Your response to the white paper is due by April 11, 2011.

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Posted on February 12, 2010 by David Wagner

Reed Smith Discusses Copenhagen in The National Law Journal

This post was written by Larry Demase and Jennifer Smokelin.

In this article published in The National Law Journal, Reed Smith attorneys and Copenhagen attendees Larry Demase and Jennifer Smokelin discuss outcomes from the United Nations' climate change conference while focusing on what may happen to the domestic energy sector. They emphasize that, despite the questions surrounding international climate negotiations, the Obama administration will continue to push to reinvent the domestic energy sector, if for no reason other than economic stimulus. This push is reinforced by the recent proliferation of "energy security" and "green jobs" bills proposed in Congress. As for changes, they also explain that, during the next 10 to 20 years, we can expect a threefold increase in supply from renewables such as wind and solar. They also look for coal-supplied electricity to trickle off during the next 40 years but, assuming a viable carbon capture and storage program, in the near term significant production of electricity from coal will remain.

 

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