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Energy Delivery & Power Environmental - Overview

Jones Day environmental lawyers work with clients to develop practical means of addressing the significant regulatory uncertainties that confront power generators in meeting current and prospective control requirements for air emissions. We understand how these and other environmental requirements can affect asset values and the bottom-line results of operations. Moreover, protecting the environment is increasingly becoming a core business objective. Our environmental lawyers help power generators manage the challenges of a rapidly changing regulatory landscape.

We regularly counsel clients in all aspects of the permitting for new generating facilities and for projects at existing generating facilities, including environmental impact statements, water discharge permits, waste disposal authorizations, and air emission permits. Our lawyers help navigate the significant uncertainty that has been created by new or contemplated rules to address major sources, mercury emissions, NOx, regional haze, and even greenhouse gases. Our EU lawyers have a deep understanding of the requirements and opportunities presented by regulation of climate change emissions in Europe.

The failure of the U.S. Congress and federal regulators to resolve these issues has created an atmosphere ripe for inconsistent government enforcement and "regulation through litigation." In one recent instance, eight states, the city of New York, and two citizen groups, apparently dissatisfied with the manner in which the federal government was proceeding with regard to climate change, commenced suit against one of our clients and a number of other utilities, claiming that alleged carbon dioxide emissions from facilities owned by these companies, which are fully authorized, constitute both a public and private nuisance and contribute to global warming. Suits like these can be used by state, foreign, and other regulators to achieve objectives they otherwise cannot achieve through legislation or formal rulemakings.

Our practice spans the range of environmental and safety issues, including legislation and rulemaking, state and federal enforcement actions, Superfund cost recovery claims, transactions, and responding to contaminated properties. We also provide counseling to clients on a wide variety of environmental issues and programs, including:

  • Hazardous waste management.
  • Spill and release reporting.
  • Corrective action at hazardous waste facilities.
  • Air permitting and compliance.
  • Water discharge permitting and compliance.
  • Vapor intrusion assessments.
  • Performance of risk-based cleanups under state and federal authority.

In addition, we advise clients on environmental attributes and "green tag" trading under various U.S. state renewable portfolio standards, as well as the developing international infrastructure for the regulation of greenhouse gases, including the Kyoto Protocol and the U.K. and EU emissions trading schemes. In conjunction with our finance lawyers, we advise on:

  • Greenhouse gas management and related business planning to create competitive advantage.
  • Benefits of greenhouse gas emission reduction schemes and programs, including opportunities for national cross-border and global emissions trading, internal corporate-level trading, or bilateral trades between companies.
  • Forward trade prospective emission reduction units to provide additional revenue streams.
  • Identification of investment opportunities in clean energy, fuel switching, and renewable energy projects
  • SOx and NOx regulatory and trading schemes.