Seminars - Staff

• Pages: 53-54

MAY/JUNE 2011 ❧ Page 53

Copyright © 2011, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.

Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, May/June 2011

ELI Report

On March 17, ELI

kicked of‌f the f‌irst of its

Oceans Series Seminars for

2011, Designing Ef‌fective

and Enforceable Catch

Share Systems. Over the

past two decades increas-

ing numbers of f‌isheries

are managed as catch share

programs that restrict the

number of participants

entitled to harvest avail-

able commercial catch. A

key goal of this approach

is to create a long-term

economic incentive to

help sustain the resource.

Moderated by Jordan

Diamond, Co-Director of

ELI’s Ocean Program, ex-

perts discussed issues sur-

rounding the expansion of

the catch share approach

and answered some of the

questions about how to ef-

fectively design and imple-

ment catch share systems

to make them ef‌fective,

equitable, and enforceable.

Speakers included

John Campagna, Princi-

pal, Restore Capital; Earl

Comstock, CEO, Com-

stock Consulting LLC;

Kelly Denit, Fisheries

Management Specialist,

National Marine Fisheries

Service, NOAA; Monica

Goldberg, National Policy

Deputy Director–Oceans,

Environmental Defense

Fund; and David H. Wal-

lace, President, Wallace &

Associates.

Regulation was again

the focus for March 29’s

seminar: e (Not So)

New E.O. on Regula-

tory Review, and What

to Expect. e topic was

President Obama’s recent

Executive Order requiring

federal agencies to do cost-

benef‌it analysis and look

at alternatives when going

through the regulatory

process, and to do retroac-

tive analysis of existing

regulations.

Moderator Roger Mar-

tella of Sidley Austin LLP

noted that it was “dif‌f‌icult

to imagine a more im-

pressive panel” to discuss

the issues and questions

surrounding the E.O.

e panel included two

former administrators of

the Of‌f‌ice of Information

and Regulatory Af‌fairs in

OMB — Susan Dudley

(George Washington Uni-

versity) and Sally Katzen

(Podesta Group) — along

with Michael Goo, Associ-

ate Administrator, Of‌f‌ice

of Policy at EPA, and

Gary Bass, Executive Di-

rector of OMB Watch.

e panelists assessed

the Obama administra-

tion’s record and response

to political events, con-

gressional actions, and

EPA’s work to undertake

retroactive review. Goo

expressed conf‌idence that

the process was a good

opportunity for EPA to

strengthen and improve its

regulations. Katzen noted

that EPA is the “poster

child” for deep divisions

in our country.

Two seminars in March

focused on renewable

energy and sustainability.

e third installment of

Unplugged: e Renew-

able Energy Speaker Se-

ries, co-sponsored by ELI,

Farella Braun + Martel,

and Berkeley Law Center

for Law, Energy & the

Environment, continued

with a March 16 session

hosted by Berkeley: “e

Grid: Integration and

Transmission of Renew-

able Energy.” e seminar

was moderated by Norma

Formanek, Electric Power

Research Institute, and ad-

dressed the technological

challenges of integrating

variable renewable energy

sources into the grid.

Jim Detmers, former

VP of Operations at Cali-

fornia ISO, described the

need for the grid to be

designed so that if a cer-

tain energy supply is not

dependable, resources exist

to back it up. Dai Owen,

enXco, explained the

problem of curtailment,

which occurs when renew-

ables generate more energy

than the load can handle,

and must be turned of‌f

to balance the grid. e

resulting loss of income

must be priced into the

system although opera-

tors cannot predict how

much curtailment will be

needed.

Carl Zichella of the

Seminars

March and hints of

spring brought ELI Asso-

ciates Seminar themes of

change, in environmental

regulations and U.S. en-

ergy policies.

Tailoring Rule, Meet

EPA’s Guidance, and

More, on March 14

helped ELI members

make sense of the new

permitting requirements

for greenhouse gases un-

der the Clean Air Act,

ef‌fective in January. e

seminar, co-sponsored

by ELI and Reed Smith

LLP, featured ELI mem-

bers and colleagues in the

Pittsburgh area (David

Hacker of U.S. Steel,

Larry Demase of Reed

Smith, and Joe Osborne

of Group Against Smog

& Pollution).

Anna Wood, Senior

Policy Analyst at the Of-

f‌ice of Air and Radiation,

U.S. EPA, provided an

overview of the rules,

guidance, and where

to go for resources. She

explained EPA’s f‌ive-step

Best Achievable Control

Technology analysis pro-

cess, identifying the steps

where carbon capture

and sequestration must

be considered and elimi-

nated. She provided tips

for permit applicants to

keep in mind: make sure

that there is adequate

support and explanation

in the record, that there

is a practicable way to

measure greenhouse gas

emissions, and above all,

as with other criteria pol-

lutants, documentation is

critical.

EPA’s Michael Goo discusses the agency’s retroactive review.