Welcome
Howard Kenison, Lindquist & Vennum P.L.L.P., Denver, CO

Conference Goals and Introduction
Stephen J. Humes, McCarter & English LLP, Hartford, CT
Sarah Toevs Sullivan, Bryan Cave LLP, Kansas City, MO

The Brave New Regulatory World
As Congress moves toward enacting federal climate change legislation, extensive debate is taking place as to what a federal regulatory scheme on climate change should look like. Industrial groups and others argue for a federal action to preempt states and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently declined to grant California a waiver to regulate tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases from new automobiles. Should state action be preempted? What are the economic and legal effects of the proposed legislation? What does Massachusetts v. EPA mean for USEPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources, such as power plants? What is technologically feasible? Who should bear the costs? This panel will analyze these issues and provide their expert insights into the potential benefits and costs of a federal climate change program.

Moderator: Kyle W. Danish, Van Ness Feldman, Washington, DC

Speakers:
Vicki Arroyo, Director of Policy Analysis, Pew Center on Global Climate Change, Arlington, VA
Jeffrey R. Holmstead, Bracewell & Giuliani, Washington, DC

A New Global Law Paradigm Post-Kyoto?
The expiration of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 is fast approaching, and the world’s nations are under increasing pressure to devise a new international agreement that goes “beyond Kyoto” in time and in approach. On the heels of the new IPCC reports strengthening the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change, as well as hold-out Australia’s agreement to adopt Kyoto, the December 2007 Conference of the Parties in Bali proved to be a show-down between the increasingly isolated United States seeking voluntary agreements and much of the rest of the world eager for binding targets. Bali created a framework for further negotiations to replace the Kyoto Protocol, but disappointed the European Union (EU) and many others and left the Bush Administration still insisting that the world’s major economies should strike a separate voluntary deal. What is the new global paradigm for addressing climate change at the international level? Will the shifting global leadership and growing popular pressure for action lead to a historic solution in the near future? Does the global uncertainty erode values of emission reduction credit trading in the EU?

Moderator: Professor John Dernbach, Widener University School of Law, Harrisburg, PA

Speakers:
Stephen Harper, Corporate Director, Environment, Energy and Logistics Policy, Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA
Nigel Purvis, Resources for the Future, Brookings Institution and Climate Policy Center, Washington, DC

Keynote Address
Douglas F. Gansler, Attorney General, State of Maryland, Baltimore, MD

State and Local Action: The New Leaders in Climate Change Law?
The regulatory regime for climate change is changing rapidly at the regional, state and local levels, especially on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Massachusetts v. EPA and the current lack of federal climate change legislation. How are state and local governments responding to the challenges? What does the framework of existing law allow? This panel will focus on state and regional initiatives to regulate carbon dioxide emissions as well as on litigation across the country on a variety of climate-change related issues. Issues to be discussed include efforts to legislate reductions in emissions, to require project developers to disclose greenhouse gas emissions and to consider mitigation alternatives, to mandate reduced energy consumption in buildings and appliances, and to reduce the emissions from governmental operations.

Moderator: Michael B. Gerrard, Arnold & Porter LLP, New York, NY

Speakers:
Seth Kaplan, Vice President for Climate Advocacy, Conservation Law Foundation, Boston, MA
Clifford Rechtschaffen, Special Assistant Attorney General, Oakland, CA
Margaret E. Rice, Deputy Commissioner, Permitting and Enforcement, Department of Environment, City of Chicago, IL
Malcolm Woolf, Director, Maryland Energy Administration, Annapolis, MD