McAfee & Taft attorney Mary Ellen Ternes presents on the legal implications and drivers in sustainable energy at the AIChE Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on October 18, 2011.
Sustainable Energy approaches are influenced by many factors, including
some legal drivers, as well as resource limitations. Legal drivers
include mandatory renewable energy targets in state energy production
adopted by state governments, as well as voluntary commitments, which
upon adoption become mandatory for the adopting entity. The impact of
environmental and resource regulation, when enforced more aggressively
upon conventional energy sources, results in either mandatory
sustainable measures, such as carbon dioxide capture, and possibly
geologic sequestration. Where regulation is absent, common law tends to
fill the voids, such as the landmark case, Connecticut v. American
Electric Power, where a state agency is suing a power company to reduce
its carbon dioxide emissions based upon a theory of "public nuisance."
The availability of resources also tends to drive sustainable energy and
sustainability in general, including processes that require less water,
where water is less available, and processes that emit less air
pollution, because ambient air quality has been impacted and emissions
must be capped. This discussion highlights the motivations driving
continued development of sustainable energy to provide perspective for
the following technical sessions.