According to the New York Times, the EPA is going to impose costly disposal requirements for coal ash - whether it’s regulated as a hazardous or solid waste, coal fired power plants are going to be passing those costs onto consumers. Coal ash has an interesting history. Since the beginning of the environmental regulatory era, coal ash has [...]
In February, the SEC released guidance to public companies regarding disclosure requirements that apply to climate change suggesting inclusion of relevant business information regarding “.. the impact of changes in weather patterns, such as increase in storm intensity, sea-level rise, melting or permafrost and temperature extremes on facilities and operations.” Quite pertinent in light [...]
Mineral rights in Colorado are separate from the surface under which they lie. So in Colorado, when you buy property, someone else may own the mineral rights. In addition, you will have to grant access to the holder of those rights so that they can extract the minerals if they choose to do [...]
Here’s the WSJ selection of climate change emails recently hacked and released to the public from University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit in the United Kingdom (CRU). CRU is the main supplier of climate change data and analysis to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change whose reports provide the basis for EPA’s Rules [...]
Recently EPA put in place requirements for companies to inventory and report on their greenhouse gas emissions if estimated emissions are expected to be greater than 25,000 tons/year. That means companies will have to install new systems to measure emissions, collate the data and produce reports to submit to the EPA. Within [...]
The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has passed a climate change bill similar to the House version passed earlier this year. Crucial to the cost benefit analysis of the bill is the trading of carbon emissions and the allocation of allowances. Carbon emitters will receive a certain percentage of carbon allowances [...]
Oil and gas drilling is a regulated industry. The cost of compliance is often determined by the intensity of exploration necessary. If drilling is to occur in difficult geologic formations or gas is difficult to transport from ocean platforms, the price of oil and gas determines whether a field is opened for drilling. [...]
The WSJ reports that power plants are facing costly new anti-pollution requirements. The technologies to meet these requirements have been in place for a while. The twist is that now EPA will be mandating cleaner emissions through permitting processes. The downside is that increased compliance costs will be passed onto the [...]
Ingestion of lead is problematic. Most often children are exposed to lead in paint in older homes. Lead in paint was banned in the 1970’s but some older homes still have leaded paint which chips off and can be ingested by small children and babies causing significant growth and developmental problems. Sometimes [...]
EPA’s proposed rule to control greenhouse gas emissions uses Best Available Control Technology (BACT) analyses that consider on a case by case basis the energy, environmental and economic impacts of technologies for new sources or major modification to sources of hazardous air pollutants which now includes greenhouse gases. No matter what BACT must meet [...]