Clean Technology

An overview of Pillsbury's Environment, Land Use & Natural Resources practice highlighting the experience and capabilities of one of the nation's preeminent environmental practices.

In a timely move in synchronization with the United Nations Climate Change Conference being held at Copenhagen, Denmark, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced on December 7, 2009, a pilot program, effective immediately, for expediting the examination of certain pending patent applications relating to “Green Technologies.” This announcement came from the U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, and U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu. The detailed Federal Register Notice, setting forth the specific eligibility requirements, was issued on December 8, 2009 (74 FR 64666).

On August 31, 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a Notice of Data Availability (NODA) and request for comments on a number of issues generated by the agency's July 25, 2008 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding the EPA's plans to regulate the geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO₂) under the Safe Drinking Water Act.¹ EPA requests that any comments filed in response to this NODA be submitted by October 15, 2009.

The Program on Energy and Sustainable Development (PESD) at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies has released a Working Paper authored by Pillsbury Energy & Infrastructure Projects partner Robert A. James. In its August 15 release, PESD noted that James "classifies frontier project development strategies into 'finesses' and 'game-changers.' James then considers the implications of this framework for the case of carbon capture and storage (CCS), where numerous legal, business and technological barriers seem to stand in the way of wide technology deployment."

On June 8, 2009, the Department of Energy (DOE) issued a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to spur investment in industrial carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and clean technology. Pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act), the DOE is allocating over $1.3 billion for large-scale industrial CCS projects, and $100 million for innovative concepts for beneficial use of carbon dioxide (CO₂).

Department of Energy announces $51.5 million in funding for integration of solar energy into energy distribution grid

Applicants for funding under ARPA-E’s Funding Opportunity must understand and take affirmative steps to protect IP rights.

North American utilities have been evaluating smart meter and smart grid technologies for years. These implementations are difficult to plan and execute, as utilities grapple with uncertainty surrounding the scalability of existing technologies, the emergence of new technologies, a lack of guidance on future standards and functionality and the risks associated with cost recovery and regulatory support. Today, the development of the smart grid has taken on a new urgency.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a key strategy for using coal and natural gas fuels in carbon-conscious ways—by capturing the carbon before, during or after combustion so it does not add to atmospheric concentrations, and then by “sequestering” it. In the case of geologic sequestration, carbon dioxide (CO₂) is injected and stored in deep subsurface voids such as depleted oil, gas or coal bed methane reservoirs, or briny groundwater aquifers. When politicians speak of “clean coal,” they usually have CCS at least partly in mind.

On July 15, 2008, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) proposed new regulations under the Safe Drinking Water Act (“SDWA”) to regulate the underground injection of carbon dioxide for the purpose of safe, long-term underground storage or “geologic sequestration” of this greenhouse gas. These new rules would establish a new class of underground injection control (“UIC”) injection wells, Class VI, to regulate the geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide “beneath the lowermost formation containing an underground source of drinking water.” The regulations are intended to settle questions on how carbon sequestration can proceed, but raise a number of issues that industry.