Clean Tech

Subscribe to Clean Tech via RSS

As year’s end approaches and biogas developers turn from Section 48 investment tax credits (“ITCs”) under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (the “Act”), which required projects to begin construction before December 31, 2024, for eligibility, to Section 48E ITCs, it is critical to understand the differences between how each Section addresses biogas projects. Under Section 48, the Act extended and expanded existing ITCs, adding “qualified biogas property” as property eligible for credits.  However, projects that begin construction on or after January 1, 2025, will be subject to the technology-neutral Section 48E clean electricity ITCs, which may leave some biogas property ineligible for credits.

Last month, Husch Blackwell published its seventh-annual report on public-private partnerships (P3s) and alternative project delivery strategies. This year’s report features an interesting article by Michael Blackwell, an attorney on the firm’s Energy & Natural Resources team, that explores how P3s and P3-like agreements might be deployed to hasten the transition from fossil fuels…

The future of the green hydrogen industry in the United States will become a bit clearer in the coming weeks. Comments on the proposed hydrogen tax credits in 26 USC 45V were due by February 26, 2024, and will be discussed at a public hearing scheduled for March 25, 2024. This hearing will provide the public a clearer prediction of 45V’s final form.

In a vote that stretched into the evening, New Mexico’s legislature passed House Bill 41 by a 26-15 vote on February 13. The bill, which establishes a statewide program known as the “Clean Transportation Fuel Standards,” makes New Mexico the fourth U.S. state to enact a clean fuel standard (i.e., a marked-based set of policies designed to curb carbon emissions while incentivizing investment into renewable fuel projects and green vehicles). Oregon, Washington, and California have similar standards on their books.

The global transition to clean energy is accelerating.  Belatedly, attention is starting to move to mineral sourcing, particularly whether the necessary critical minerals will be available in the United States.  A recent Aspen Institute report observed: “As the world transitions to a new energy mix, it will require clean energy technologies that are extremely mineral intensive. Demand for minerals is projected to rise at unprecedented rates and could generate supply shortfalls that will slow, or potentially even derail, global efforts to reach net-zero targets.”[1]

On Friday, February 24, 2023, a Nevada federal judge issued an order in Bartell Ranch LLC et al. v. McCullough et al., rejecting emergency requests for injunction by Plaintiffs, among which are Native American Tribes, various environmental groups, and a rancher to block construction of the Thacker Pass lithium mine, pending their current appeal to the 9th Circuit.[1] The Plaintiffs maintain that the Bureau of Land Management failed to acknowledge concerns about the impacts of the mine and that the permits were illegally granted. The District Court ruled in favor of the Defendants, the Bureau of Land Management and Lithium Nevada Corp., with the Court only requiring a re-approval of permits covering 1,300 of the approximately 6,000-acre mineable area. The Plaintiffs sought an injunction while their appeal to the 9th Circuit is ongoing. However, the Court ruled in favor of the Defendants, ruling that “the requisite strong showing of a likelihood of success on the merits of their appeal” had not been met, opening the door for the project to proceed.…

Senior Counsel Coty Hopinks-Baul has published an article in Coal Age titled “CWA’s Permit Shield Spans SMRCA”.

In the article, Coty details a recent decision in the case of Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards v. Red River Coal Co. Inc., where the Fourth Circuit upheld a district court’s dismissal of a citizen suit to enforce…

Back in November, MSHA head David Zatezalo indicated that MSHA’s initiative to “blur the lines” between coal and M/NM enforcement had ended. As an apparent follow-up, in late December MSHA released a new, unified M/NM and coal inspection handbook, and has now started training investigators on the new handbook.