I’m proud to announce that Dave Strieker, a partner in Polsinelli Shughart’s Energy Group, and I recently published a paper for the annual meeting of the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy and Resources. 

The paper, entitled “Greenhouse Gas Permitting Advantages for Biomass Projects,” explores the EPA’s “Tailoring Rule,” which places significant regulatory burdens on certain emission sources of greenhouse gases.  Importantly for biomass project developers, the Tailoring Rule specifically exempts biomass projects for a period of three years, thus giving biomass an important advantage over traditional energy sources.  The abstract for the paper is as follows:

Ground breaking greenhouse gas regulation, know as the Tailoring Rule, has recently been implemented at the federal level. The Tailoring Rule will have far reaching impacts on industries that produce significant amounts of carbon dioxide emissions. While this may prove to be a heavy burden to established industries using fossil fuels, the Tailoring Rule contains a three year exclusion for projects utilizing a qualifying biomass feedstock. Accordingly, the Tailoring Rule’s biomass exclusion may provide a window of opportunity for the biomass industry to compete on a more level playing field with fossil fuel based projects. This paper will provide background regarding the Tailoring Rule and explore its specific implications on the biomass industry.

The paper can be downloaded here.  If you have an interest in biomass projects, or if you know anyone that does, feel free to download this paper and pass it along as you see fit.  If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact either myself (lhagedorn@polsinelli.com) or Dave Streiker (dstreicker@polsinelli.com).