Practice Areas: Climate Change

Renewable Fuels

The challenges and opportunities of the emerging carbohydrate-based economy are immense. Insight into the policies and legal frameworks will allow business to grasp opportunities and mitigate risks in an economy increasingly reliant on energy crops.

The market for renewable fuels is projected to surpass US$35.4 billion in 2009 and $US81 billion by 2017. A move to an economy built on energy crops can have both a profound positive and negative impact on cash flows. Harnessing legal expertise to drive biofuel development and deployment is foundational to business strategy. What impact will state and national incentive programs have on the economic viability of specific feedstocks? How can business quickly navigate existing and emerging refinery facility and siting challenges? How will carbon allowance revenue from cap-and-trade regimes impact project financing? How will regional carbon-price asymmetry impact strategic decisions? Legal expertise is critical to recognizing and adapting to these risks.

Our team is equipped to provide legal expertise for both current (corn-based ethanol and conventional biodiesel) and next generation feedstocks and refineries, including ethanol from switchgrass and rice or biodiesel from algae and jatropha. An integrated view of transactions, including air permitting and compliance with land use ordinance expertise, has enabled our team to serve a wide-range of needs across the value-chain of biofuel deployment. In particular, growing interdependencies between government regulation, markets, energy policy, and finance are accelerating the need to understand how carbon and land-use regulations will impact the emerging carbohydrate-based economy.

An understanding and application of the emerging legal frameworks, on the state, national, and international level is a key competitive advantage in a carbon-constrained world.

Our services:

• advise on compliance and permitting issues relating to every major federal environmental law, including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the anticipated EPA Life Cycle Rule
• negotiate and draft feedstock, offtake, co-generation, engineering, supply, service, strategic alliance, partnership, and joint venture agreements;
• develop and implement regulatory strategies to influence state and federal biofuel policy, -- including RFS regimes, investment tax credits, and carbon credit monetization -- through assisting in developing positions on policy design issues;
• support clients in integrating state and federal renewable fuel incentive credits into project finance transactions;
• provide expertise in siting and obtaining all necessary permits and approvals from federal, state, and local government agencies for current and next generation refineries;
• provide legal parameters for internal and external carbon due diligence across the biofuel value-chain;
• incorporate evaluation of allowance and credit pricing in specific jurisdictions; and
• draft, structure, and negotiate state, national, and global Emission Reduction Purchasing Agreements