The Association of Ohio Recyclers (AOR) Conference will be held at the Cincinnati Zoo Conference Center on October 29-30, 2012. Cincinnati-based Rumpke Recycling is the convening sponsor, and the theme of the conference is “Sustainable Materials Management,” according to AOR’s website. Key program topics include workshops on “Ohio EPA’s review of House Bill 592 and emerging technologies for glass recycling and reuse.” For more information or to register, visit the 2012 AOR Conference website.

Bricker & Eckler served as bond counsel for the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority as it issued the first PACE bonds in Ohio. On May 24, the port authority completed the $5.325 million bond transaction by issuing bonds through its Northwest Ohio Bond Fund. The transaction, a cooperative effort of the port authority, the port authority’s BetterBuildings Northwest Ohio program and the city of Toledo, was aimed at improving the energy efficiency and environmental performance of Toledo’s municipal buildings. The city of Toledo anticipates reducing its energy costs with the financed improvements, which include replacing windows, upgrading light fixtures and boilers, installing vacancy sensors, and replacing or insulating hot water tanks. 

Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) bonds are a financial tool used by property owners to fund energy efficiency improvements on their properties. Property owners who take advantage of PACE funding opportunities may use the money for a variety of projects, including updating existing office buildings or warehouses, or acquiring an alternative energy source, like solar panels or wind turbines. 

Bricker & Eckler is Ohio’s leader in PACE financing. Bricker attorneys work with private property owners and governmental entities to create the special improvement district necessary to implement PACE financing, levy assessments and structure the financing arrangements necessary to fund the improvements. For more information, read the full story. 

Environmental regulations and the low cost of natural gas are pushing Columbus-based American Electric Power to either close several coal-fired power plants or switch them over to natural gas, The New York Times reports. As the coal industry lobbies and sues to reverse this trend, it has won some victories where power plants retrofit – at the expense of the customer – to continue burning coal with fewer pollutants, the article said. For more, read the full story here.

In response to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new Mercury and Air Toxic Standards (MATS), Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. announced today that it will close six coal-fired power plants – four of which are in Ohio, according to an article in the Akron Beacon Journal. The company determined that it would not be cost effective to retrofit these plants into compliance with MATS, the article said. For more, including a list of the closing plants, read the full story here.

The Battelle Memorial Institute, a Columbus-based nonprofit research institution, has made available streaming video from The Ohio Governor's 21st Century Energy & Economy Summit, which took place from September 21-22, 2011, at The Ohio State University. Topics included coal; wind, solar and efficiency; environment, technology and community impacts; alternative transportation fuels; etc. Speakers included Gov. John Kasich, energy industry executives and energy policy specialists. To view videos from the summit, visit the Battelle website here. 

A Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) blog is highlighting a "rust busting road trip" to Cleveland to profile the city's "clean economy." The post examines Cleveland's strides in energy-efficient lighting and other technologies. This marks the second time this year (earlier posts available here) that NRDC has visited Ohio to report on the state's leadership in energy efficiency and renewable energy.

A new study examines the potential positive economic impacts resulting from companies’ investments in emission control technology in response to new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air-pollution rules. The report, “New Jobs – Cleaner Air Part II: An investment in American Businesses and American Jobs,” released by Ceres in collaboration with the Institute of Clean Air Companies (ICAC), highlights specific case studies of companies involved in building a fleet of modern power plants.

EcoWatch, a Cleveland-based environment news magazine, has launched a news website in partnership with Waterkeeper Alliance, the environmental advocacy group founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to an article in The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. The new website, ecowatch.org, is designed to expand EcoWatch's news reach and will pull environmental news from more than 700 organizations around the country.

The new gas-to-energy plant at the landfill near Glenford, Ohio will serve approximately 4,000 homes according to a recent article in the Lancaster Eagle Gazette.com. The 9,400-square-foot facility draws methane gas from 70 collection wells at the landfill. Read more here.

Ohio EPA has created a new general air permit that covers emission limits, operating restrictions, and monitoring, testing and reporting requirements for shale gas production. The agency states that the general permit will create consistent standards for the sites and will allow most applicants to apply for and receive permits in as little as two weeks. While the general permit will cover internal combustion engines, dehydration systems, truck-loading racks, storage tanks, flares and unpaved roadways, it will not cover activities that occur during the drilling and hydraulic fracturing phase. In the view of Ohio EPA, these activities are temporary and therefore exempt from permitting. The agency has not finalized the draft general permit and will be making it available for a 30-day public comment period later. Ohio EPA plans on announcing the beginning of the public comment period in the near future. The current version of the draft general permit, qualifying criteria and related information are available online here. The general permit is expected to be finalized and made available to applicants this fall.

A new solar array in Toledo will help supply energy to water treatment plant The City of Toledo is using the power of the sun to lower energy costs needed to run its water treatment plant. According to a recent article in The Toledo Blade, a joint venture between the city, the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority and IPS Energy Ventures helped to get the $5.2 million project off the ground. The solar array is expected to save the city one cent per kilowatt hour and provide approximately one-quarter of the plant’s annual energy needs.

Columbus-based Battelle Memorial Institute and the Collaborative Institute for Oceans, Climate and Security (CIOCS) at University of Massachusetts Boston announced that they have teamed to host the first-ever Global Conference on Oceans, Climate and Security in May 2012. The three-day conference in Boston, expected to be a bi-annual event for CIOCS, will address the impact of climate change on ocean systems and the consequent impact on human and national security. More information is available here. 

Columbus-based American Electric Power Co. is warning that it would have to shut down five plants, reduce operations at six others and cut 600 jobs to comply with new rules for coal-fired power plants proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to an Associated Press article in Bloomberg Businessweek. U.S. EPA, meanwhile, is likely to delay proposing the draft greenhouse-gas emissions limits at issue. The EPA faced a July 26 deadline to propose carbon-emissions standards for electric utilities under an agreement with three environmental groups, 11 states, the District of Columbia and New York City. Federal regulators are now seeking a two-month extension from parties to the settlement to evaluate information from companies affected by the rule, according to a separate Bloomberg article. 

Ohio State University and research giant Battelle are trying to help manufacturers save energy and reduce waste, according to this article in Columbus Business First. Battelle wants to catalyze innovation in energy, environment and materials science, and is currently in collaborative talks with The Ohio State University's engineering school and the private Edison Welding Institute in Columbus.

The partnership wants to focus on renewable energy, but also developing, patenting and selling licenses to industrial processes for sustainable manufacturing, such as recycling the rare metals essential to making chips for smartphones and flat-screen TVs, according to the article.

According to an article in The (Cleveland ) Plain Dealer, Lawrence Wickstrom, chief of the Ohio Geological Survey, recently told the Ohio Oil and Gas Association that potentially trillions of cubic feet of gas and billions of barrels of oil lie deep under Ohio.

Unfortunately, getting to the gas and oil requires producers to rely on a recovery method known as "frack" drilling. With the frack process, producers drill horizontal legs in each of the very deep vertical wells and then hydraulically fracture -- or "frack" -- the rock along each leg with a mixture of water, sand and chemicals under very high pressure.
 
Environmentalists claim that frack drilling is dangerous, raising enough concern to prompt a fracturing moratorium in New York state. There is also concern that the gas released could find its way into water wells through runaway fractures.
 
"There is no way that the fracking process is going to affect ground water," said Wickstrom, arguing that the sheer depth of the wells, and resulting weight of the rock and earth above, would prevent it.
 
To read the complete article, visit the Plain Dealer web site.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal highlights the new oil-and-gas development opportunities in Ohio relating to Utica Shale. While many in northeastern Ohio have embraced the possibility of oil development, some local leaders are worried about safety and harm to the environment. Many environmental scientists also contend that the shale drilling process, known as hydraulic fracturing (or fracking), risks contaminating groundwater. But the oil industry says the process, which involves using chemicals, water and sand to crack open shale to release its oil and gas, is safe.

To read more about Marcellus and Utica Shale development in Ohio, go to the Bricker & Eckler Web site.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal highlights the new oil-and-gas development opportunities in Ohio relating to Utica Shale. While many in northeastern Ohio have embraced the possibility of oil development, some local leaders are worried about safety and harm to the environment. Many environmental scientists also contend that the shale drilling process, known as hydraulic fracturing (or fracking), risks contaminating groundwater. But the oil industry says the process, which involves using chemicals, water and sand to crack open shale to release its oil and gas, is safe.

To read more about Marcellus and Utica Shale development in Ohio, go to the Bricker & Eckler Web site.

Kelly Harris, Sustainable Development Coordinator at the Miller-Coors plant in Trenton, Ohio, recently told staff members of Ohio Citizen Action that the plant had reduced the amount of garbage going to the Rumpke Sanitary Landfill from 56 tons per month down to 11 tons per month. The garbage is now sent to a waste-to-energy incinerator near Indianapolis. Harris said the plant had accomplished its waste reduction—in a campaign to achieve zero waste—through recycling and recovery programs. Many waste streams are recyled and spent grain from the brewing process is sent to feed local cows. “We found we were wasting two tons a month less paper ... just by collecting all the labels that fell off during bottling and handling,” said Harris.

Ohio Citizen Action is a nonprofit/nonpartisan environmental group founded in 1975 and dedicated to preventing pollution. To read more, visit the Ohio Citizen Action Web site.

The Ohio Water Development Authority (OWDA) and Ohio Department of Development (ODOD) recently reached an agreement to expand and move OWDA's Brownfield Loan Program. The program will now be housed at ODOD with the state's other brownfield remediation programs. More details on the program are available here.

A number of environmental groups have joined forces to appeal a recent decision by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to permit the Dayton Power & Light Company (DP&L) to burn trees, grasses and other unspecified “biomass” at the company’s Killen Station, a coal-fired power plant in Adams County, Ohio. Environmentalists are troubled by the timing of the Ohio EPA’s decision, and believe that its issuance of the final permit violates Ohio law and the federal Clean Air Act, according to the Dayton Daily News and the Ohio Environmental Law Center.

Under the permit, DP&L is allowed to burn a mixture of coal with up to 7 percent content of grass and sawdust biomass material. Biomass can also include animal manure, nut and grain hulls, orchard clippings, cornstalks and coffee grounds. The permit was subject to a public hearing in Manchester, Ohio, on December 13, 2010, with written comments accepted through December 20, 2010.  Ohio EPA granted the final permit nine days later in the waning days of the Strickland administration.

 “There are some real concerns about whether the agency gave due consideration to some of the issues in this permit and to the public’s comments,” said Will Reisinger, staff attorney for the Ohio Environmental Council.  “It appears that [Ohio] EPA rushed the Killen application through the permitting process in order to help DP&L avoid new federal pollution standards,” Reisinger added.

Read more of the story in the Dayton Daily News or on the Ohio Environmental Law Center Web site.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold a public hearing on February 11, 2011, to discuss proposed rules that would require only very large emitters of greenhouse gases to obtain clean-air permits for their Ohio operations. The rules were originally adopted through a governor’s executive order signed on December 30, 2010.

Beginning January 2, 2011, states are required by the U.S. EPA to begin permitting greenhouse gas emissions from “major sources” of greenhouse gases. Ohio EPA’s proposed rules restrict gas regulatory requirements to only those large sources covered by U.S. EPA’s regulations. There has been significant support from Ohio businesses for Ohio to have these rules in place.

The U.S. EPA has adopted “tailoring” rules that raise the major source-permitting threshold for greenhouse gases to 75,000 tons per year or 100,000 tons per year depending on the circumstances. Ohio EPA’s proposed rules would permanently raise the emission levels that would trigger permitting in Ohio to the same levels as those adopted by the federal government. 

A public hearing to accept comments on these proposed rules will be held at 1:30 p.m. on February 11 at Ohio EPA, Lazarus Government Center, 50 W. Town St., Suite 700, Columbus. Visitors should bring a photo ID.

Courtesy of Politico.com, the Obama administration wants to delay the release of a controversial air pollution rule that has come under fire from myriad lawmakers and industry groups. The U.S. EPA asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday to delay by more than a year its court-ordered deadline for issuing rules aimed at slashing toxic air pollution from industrial boilers and solid-waste incinerators to give the agency more time to weigh the flood of comments it received. The agency is seeking to push back its Jan. 16, 2011, deadline to April 2012, according to the report.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released guidelines instructing states how to issue permits for industrial facilities that are major sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when new federal regulations take effect on January 2, 2011. The agency reportedly crafted the guidelines to give states substantial flexibility in deciding how best to limit GHG emissions, according to this article in The Wall Street Journal.

In the absence of congressional action on climate and energy legislation - which is likely to continue under a divided Congress when the Republicans take control of the U.S. House next year - the EPA has pressed ahead with its plans to bring GHG emissions under its regulatory authority. Business groups and politicians from major industrial states have been critical of the EPA's plans. And based on the reaction to the EPA's new guidelines, that criticism is also likely to continue.

Other news accounts of the guidelines are available here, here and here. The full guidance document is available here (pdf required).

For more information read The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer article here.

A new federal report (pdf) finds that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a viable technology, but notes that its widespread market acceptance will take decades absent government financial and policy support. The report was released by the Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage, established by President Obama in February and co-chaired by the U.S. Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency. 

The report concludes that CCS can play an important role in reducing domestic greenhouse gas emissions while preserving the option of using abundant domestic fossil energy resources. However, widespread cost-effective deployment of CCS will occur only if the technology is commercially available at economically competitive prices and supportive national policy frameworks are in place.

On July 22, 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a guide to assist EPA staff in determining whether its actions raise environmental justice concerns.  The concept of environmental justice involves the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people in the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies.  More specifically, environmental justice means that minorities, low-income groups, indigenous populations and tribes should not bear a disproportionate burden of environmental harms and risks, and should have a meaningful opportunity to participate in the development of environmental regulations and policies.
 
In order to incorporate environmental justice into the EPA's regulatory scheme, the interim guidance document provides a roadmap that EPA working groups can use to provide a voice to environmental justice communities.  This roadmap asks EPA workgroups to respond to three questions during the rule-making/policy-making process:

1. How did your public participation process provide transparency and meaningful participation for minority, low-income, indigenous populations and tribes?
2. How did you identify and address existing and new disproportionate environmental and public health impacts on environmental justice communities?
3. How did the actions taken under #1 and #2 affect the final decision?

As the EPA begins to consider environmental justice concerns in its actions, it is anticipated that the interim guide will be revised and updated later this year.  For more information, visit the EPA's Web site to read the EPA's Interim Guidance on Considering Environmental Justice During the Development of an Action.

Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co. announced the launch of its Supplier Environmental Sustainability Scorecard and rating process to measure and improve the environmental performance of its key suppliers. The new scorecard will assess P&G suppliers' environmental footprint and encourage continued improvement by annually measuring energy use, water use, waste disposal and greenhouse gas emissions. P&G is hoping that its scorecard will become the industry standard for evaluating supplier sustainability. News of the announcement can be found here. The scorecard itself can be found here.

The Ohio Supreme Court recently affirmed the ruling of the Ohio Power Siting Board granting FirstEnergy's transmission affiliate a certificate for the construction of a new transmission line in Geauga County, Ohio. You can read the Opinion here. Wind developers going through the Ohio Power Siting Board process, however, should take note of the strong concurring opinion of Justice Pfeiffer. Justice Pfeiffer expressed his concerns that the Board "may not be giving appropriate consideration to aesthetic values." Further explaining his position, Justice Pfeiffer noted that the "members of the Power Siting Board should ensure that their staff members are aware of the importance of preserving nature and scenery when considering sites for utility resources, without of course unduly sacrificing economic impact."

On May 13, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued its final rule bringing greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources under the permitting programs of the Clean Air Act. The 515 page final rule specifically “tailors” the requirements of the Clean Air Act to attempt to limit the number of facilities requiring permits under the New Source Review Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and Title V programs. To do so, the rule establishes a phased-in approach under which all new facilities emitting 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per year (and existing facilities that complete modifications increasing GHG emissions by at least 75,000 metric tons of CO2e per year) would be subject to the rule starting in July 2011. For more information, a copy of the final rule can be found at http://www.epa.gov/nsr/documents/20100413final.pdf.

US EPA released its final greenhouse gas rule late last week.  The rule currently  targets only large emitters of greenhouse gases to report their emissions, and it is estimated that the rule will account for nearly 85% of all GHG emissions in the United States.  It is widely expected that the implementation of any carbon legislation proposal will make this mandatory reporting more significant and will be the basis for metrics going forward.  A summary of the new rule can be found at Bricker & Eckler's website.

Today the Tenth District (Franklin County, Ohio) Court of Appeals issued a ruling denying an unopposed motion to stop ERAC's practice of scheduling one-hour de novo hearings to satisfy a December 15, 2009 deadline imposed by Ohio's recently enacted budget bill. ERAC hears appeals from decisions by the Director of Ohio EPA, including appeals of permits for renewable energy projects (if such permits are required for the project). According to the new statutory deadlines, ERAC must decide appeals within one year from the filing of the appeal and for some pending appeals (filed before April 15, 2009), ERAC must decide the appeals by December 15, 2009. These latter appeals, numbering about 300 appeals, have been scheduled for one-hour hearings in October and November of this year. The Court of Appeals denied relief from this expedited scheduling.

View copy of ruling