McAfee & Taft environmental lawyer Mary Ellen Ternes is among the featured presenters at the inaugural Carbon Management Technology Conference that will be held February 7–9, 2012, in Orlando, Florida. Eight engineering societies are sponsoring this national conference, bringing together all disciplines to share the latest technologies, strategies and systems related to the management and containment of carbon production.
In addition to serving on the conference’s program committee, Ternes will moderate two sessions, “Business Risks of Carbon Counting” and “Counting Sequestered Carbon: CCS/EOR Conversion,” and serve as a panelist for a third session, “Carbon, Capture and Sequestration: Regulatory and Policy.”
The three-day technical program will feature more than 200 presentations on key topics such as "Carbon Management in the Power Sector," "Managing Energy Across a Corporation" and "CO2 Utilization for Enhanced Hydrocarbon Recovery." 
The conference will also feature two keynote addresses. Tuesday’s keynote session, “Climate Change Adaptation in the US,” will feature Katharine Jacobs, assistant director for the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy. Robert Fri, visiting scholar for Resources for the Future, will discuss “America’s Climate Choices” in the Wednesday keynote session.
“At the Carbon Management Technology Conference, engineers from a wide range of engineering disciplines will share their perspectives on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation to the risks of climate change,” said Haroon Kheshgi, conference chairperson and leader of ExxonMobil’s global climate change science program. “It has been inspiring to work with the program committee of over 60 dedicated professionals, including volunteers from the sponsoring engineering societies, who have developed the program of this inaugural conference and have laid the groundwork for further collaborations of the societies”.
Ternes is a veteran environmental lawyer who has focused on environmental permitting, compliance strategies, enforcement defense, and state and federal litigation. With a background in chemical engineering and hazardous waste remediation and combustion permitting, she specializes in air quality as well as hazardous waste issues. Her experience includes working as a chemical engineer for industry as well as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and serving as law clerk for the EPA’s Office of General Counsel for Air and Radiation Division[CR1] .
She is a frequent author and speaker on environmental issues. She contributed to the ABA’s Clean Air Act Handbook (Chapter 6: New Source Review; co-authored with Bernard F. Hawkins, ed. Robert J. Martineau, Jr. and David P. Novello, second edition, ed. Julie Domike), the ABA’s Nanotechnology Environmental Law, Policy and Business Considerations (Ch. 4: Clean Air Act and Nanotechnology; ed. Lynn L. Bergeson), and the LexisNexis Global Climate Change Special Pamphlet Series, (EPA’s Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule; ed. Bradley M. Marten).
Her achievements have earned her inclusion in the prestigious International Who’s Who of Environment Lawyers and early election as a fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers, a professional association of private and public sector environmental lawyers recognized by their peers as pre-eminent in their field.
She has also been recognized by Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, The Best Lawyers in America and Oklahoma Super Lawyers, in which she was named to its list of “Top 25 Women Oklahoma Super Lawyers.” In 2011, she was named "Best Lawyers' Oklahoma City Environmental Lawyer of the Year," an honor only given to a single lawyer in each legal specialty in each community.