This article examines the risks and opportunities related to climate change for businesses, nonprofit institutions, and governmental organizations and explores the emerging role of the climate change officer. The author says it is critical for organizations to have strong executive-level leadership...

This article examines recent trends related to climate change and sustainability and their impacts on environmental due diligence. The authors say quantifying a building's energy and sustainability condition, performance, and potential will become commonplace and now is being incorporated into...

The author of this article discusses the many new rulemakings that would be required of the Environmental Protection Agency under the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (H.R. 2454), which was passed by the House June 26. The author identifies 31 new regulations the bill would mandate...

The author of this article describes findings by the Congressional Budget Office and others that a carbon tax would be less costly than cap-and-trade in achieving any given level of greenhouse gas reductions. The budget office and others have identified a number of features that can be incorporated...

The authors of this article say coal, given its abundance and cost, will continue to play a significant role in supporting the world economy. They say carbon capture and storage appears to be the most viable way to address coal's emissions of carbon dioxide. This article examines the challenges to...

With legislative efforts targeting greenhouse gas reductions in all sectors, the author of this article says, rapidly evolving regulatory activities and trial court cases made 2008 an extremely busy year in shaping California's climate change landscape. Because California is regarded as a...

Thus, exclaimed Shakespeare's King Lear as he raged against the storm that flashed and thundered around him on the heath.1 1 William Shakespeare, King Lear act 3, sc. 2. But the storm that batters his body is exceeded by the turmoil in his mind—turmoil created by Lear's recognition that he is...

If you were to ask most Clean Air Act practitioners about Section 115 of the act, it is unlikely they would be able to tell you its title, let alone how it works and what it is designed to do. Considering the provision's historic lack of exposure compared to its better known Title I counterparts,...

Recent initiatives by California's legislature, attorney general, and courts have transformed climate change analysis into an essential component of project review under the California Environmental Quality Act...

On July 23, the Environmental Protection Agency issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) soliciting comments on the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions (73 Fed. Reg. 44,354, 7/30/08). The ANPR was issued in response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA,1 1 549...

After more than a decade of broad speculation on what the nation's first mandatory greenhouse gas controls might look like, the Environmental Protection Agency recently provided the first rough draft of what likely will become the bible of climate change controls for years if not decades to...

Coal use and climate protection are on a collision course 1 1 See Statement of congressional testimony of Michael Goo, climate legislative director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality, July 10, 2008. and...

Green building and sustainability initiatives are taking hold rapidly throughout the real estate and finance industries. A confluence of events, including rapidly escalating energy costs, the implementation of multi-jurisdictional carbon emission regulations,1 1 See American Bar Association, Global...

Despite government's ongoing reluctance to regulate greenhouse gas emissions at the federal level, the prospects for increased regulation have grown increasingly strong in recent years. A combination of federal court mandates, actions by states, and increased political pressure on all governments...

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced May 14 that the polar bear will be listed as a "threatened" species under the U. S. Endangered Species Act.1 1 Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Determination of Threatened Status for the Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) Throughout Its Range,...

Will the scientific and legal developments of 2007 bring about the robust climate change securities disclosures from energy and financial services companies that environmentalists encourage? The accretion of scientific evidence on the effects of greenhouse gas emissions, the emerging consensus on...

In December, the U.S. Senate took a significant step towards creating an enormous—some estimates are as high as $150 billion—market for the trading of greenhouse gas emissions. The Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2007 (S. 2191) passed out of the Senate Environment and Public Works...

It is hard to attend an environmental conference today without hearing the term "sustainability." In fact, the term has pervaded the lexicon of environmental policy and programs. Dozens of organizations promote sustainability and sustainable development. There are organizations dedicated to a...

More than four years ago the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled its Four Pillars of Sustainable Infrastructure.1 1 See http://www.epa.gov/waterinfrastructure . Its aim was a sustainable regime of investment and management which looked at water and wastewater facilities in a broader context:...

The Earth is real estate. When climate change impacts the Earth on a macro level, individual properties are being impacted on a micro level. As demonstrated by Hurricane Katrina and the wide acclaim of "An Inconvenient Truth," global warming has becomes less of a theoretical debate and more of a...

Recent legislative climate change developments, at both the federal and state levels, propose various methods to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Many of these enactments and proposals expressly contemplate the development and deployment of commercial-scale carbon dioxide capture and...

On April 2, the Supreme Court issued its landmark climate change decision in Massachusetts v. EPA , finding that the Environmental Protection Agency may marshal the existing Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases. The court's decision has coincided with unprecedented urgency in Congress,...

While there are still many unknowns concerning the science of global climate change, the general causal connection to human activity has been largely identified. A growing body of scientific data indicates anthropogenic activity, primarily the burning of fossil fuels, is helping to create a...

Nature abhors a vacuum. This aphorism is particularly apt when considering the regulatory environment that is emerging to address global warming. Lack of action by the federal government has resulted in a vacuum into which regional, state, and local government bodies have rushed with a variety of...