Tuesday, March 4 - Thursday, March 6

Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC 2008)
WIREC 2008 will bring together government, civil society and private business leaders to address the benefits and costs of a major and rapid scale-up in the global deployment of renewable energy technology.

Tuesday, March 4

10:00 AM - Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Hearing to Review EIA’s Revised Energy Outlook; Hearing Room SD-366.
The Witness for this Hearing will be Guy Caruso, Administrator, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).Wednesday, March 5

10:30 AM - House Energy and Commerce Committee Hearing on Climate Change: Competitiveness Concerns and Prospects for Engaging Developing Countries; 2322 Rayburn House Office Building. (Simultaneous webcast).
See, “Dingell/Boucher White Paper on Competitiveness Concerns and Engaging Developing Countries.”

For further information about this topic, please contact Akin Gump.

In a much-awaited release, the EPA published Administrator Stephen Johnson’s formal rationale for denying California’s waiver application under Section 209(b) of the Clean Air Act on Friday, February 29.

“I have concluded that section 209(b) was intended to allow California to promulgate state standards applicable to emissions from new motor vehicles to address pollution problems that are local or regional. I do not believe section 209(b)(1)(B) was intended to allow California to promulgate state standards for emissions from new motor vehicles designed to address global climate change problems; nor, in the alternative, do I believe that the effects of climate change in California are compelling and extraordinary compared to the effects in the rest of the country.” (emphasis added)

The decision indicates that California could not meet its statutory burden, primarily as a result of the global - rather than local - nature of climate change. All of California’s previous waiver applications focused on local effects of air pollution (e.g., attempts to reduce smog); with greenhouse gas emissions, however, the location of the emissions source is irrelevant to the impact on the increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide.

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For further information about this topic, please contact Akin Gump.