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Conference Program

Thursday, November 7, 2023

 

9:00-10:30am EDT

Aligning Federal Policies with Carbon Removal Solutions to Accelerate Deployment

Session Summary:

Federal regulations for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) are essential to ensure that it scales responsibly and expeditiously. As a new generation of companies unlock carbon removal solutions, the U.S. government is confronted with regulatory questions about how to permit both proven and emerging forms of carbon removal. Because carbon removal spans across nature-based, ocean-based, and engineered solutions – carbon management entrepreneurs face a patchwork of regulations and often have to interface across agencies. Connecting the dots on carbon removal regulations across federal agencies aligns with President Biden’s “whole-of-government” approach on climate action. There are many open questions around carbon removal regulations. How can regulations be structured to enshrine the importance of justice and equity? What regulatory challenges do carbon removal startups face as their companies grow? Where are opportunities for increased clarity and streamlining of regulatory standards and permits? If and how should federal regulations mirror regulations being developed in other countries? In a panel discussion moderated by Radhika Moolgavkar, Head of Supply and Methodology at Nori, entrepreneurs working across carbon management will discuss challenges and solutions for local and federal regulations to accelerate the deployment of carbon removal. Panelists representing multiple carbon removal approaches will discuss regulatory frameworks, responsible deployment, community engagement, and effective governance. With promising solutions to reach cost-effective gigaton scale removal, startups offer a crucial and engaging perspective around responsible carbon removal deployment. The panel is convened by the Carbon Business Council.

Moderator: Radhika Moolgavkar, Head of Supply and Methodology, Nori

Roundtable Panelists:

 

10:35am-12:05pm EDT

Carbon Dioxide Removal and Environmental Justice

Session Summary:

The advent of serious discussion of the potential role of carbon dioxide removal has been accompanied by expressions of serious concern by many individuals and organizations in the environmental justice community of the implications for vulnerable communities. The purpose of this panel will be to continue the colloquy between the carbon removal and environmental justice communities by exploring some of the key issues that must be considered in seeking to reconcile the potential for large-scale deployment of carbon dioxide removal approaches and protection of the interests of some of the most vulnerable sectors of society. Carbon dioxide removal start-up companies increasingly are asked about how they address environmental justice issues in their operations; it is our hope that this session will provide some guidance as to what issues are most salient, and how they may be considered.

Moderator: Vanessa Suarez, Senior Policy Advisor, Carbon180

Roundtable Panelists

  • Dr. Simone Stewart, Industrial Policy Specialist, National Wildlife Federation
  • Delaney Pues, Director of Solutions, Equity and Stewardship, Foundation for Climate Restoration
  • Seema Kakade, Professor of Law, and Director, Environmental Law Clinic, University of Maryland School of Law

12:10 pm -1:00pm EDT

Keynote address: Dr. Jennifer Wilcox, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management.

1:15pm-2:45pm EDT

Emerging Issues in U.S. Federal Law for Carbon Dioxide Removal

Session Summary:

This session will focus on a number of emerging issues related to regulation of carbon dioxide removal in the United States, including the merits of model federal CDR legislation, potential liability for effectuating carbon dioxide removal, and the interface of international efforts to address climate change and U.S. domestic policy. 

Moderator: Michael Gerrard, Founding Director, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia Law School

Panelists:

  • Romany M. Webb, Associate Research Scholar, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia Law School, Developing Federal Legislation to Advance Responsible Ocean CDR Research
  • Tracy Hester, Instructional Associate Professor of Law, University of Houston Law Center, Direct Indirection: Exploring Legal Bases to Directly Challenge the Removal of Ambient Carbon Dioxide
  • Carolina Arlota, Associate Research Scholar, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia Law School When International Advances Local? Assessing the Glasgow Climate Pact’s Consequences for U.S. Domestic Policies on Carbon Dioxide Removal

2:50 pm-4:05pm EDT

The Challenge of Measurement, Reporting, and Verification for Ocean-Based Carbon Dioxide Approaches

Session Summary:

This session will discuss efforts to address critical issues of measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) of carbon dioxide sequestration associated with proposed ocean-based carbon dioxide removal options. This will include the role in MRV in the development of new methodologies for carbon credits in the voluntary carbon marketplace, creation of high-integrity MRV systems for ocean-based CDR, and a case study of a start-up company seeking to “square the circle.”

Moderator: Ignasi Ferrer Pellicer, CEO, Seastainable Ventures

Panelists:

  • Mowgli Holmes, Founder, Submarine,
  • Liz Guinessey, Manager, Food and Blue Carbon Innovation, Verra, MRV Challenges and Opportunities to Enable Voluntary Carbon Markets as a Funding Mechanism to Support Ocean-based CDR
  • Kelly Erhart, President, Project Vesta

Wednesday, September 28

 

9:00-10:30am EDT

The Current Legal Terrain for Greenhouse Gas Removal in the United Kingdom and in the European Union

Session Summary:

Moderator: Anna Dubowik, Secretary General, Negative Emissions Platform

  • Sanja Bogojević, Professor of Law, Lady Margaret Hall and Faculty of Law, University of Oxford; Co-Lead on Governance, Legal & Ethical Factors, CO2RE, The Greenhouse Gas Removal Hub & Navraj Singh Ghaleigh, Senior Lecturer in Climate Law, University of Edinburgh Law School, Towards an Analytical Framework for Greenhouse Gas Removal in Law
  • Justin Macinante, Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Climate Change, University of Edinburgh; Research Associate on Governance, Legal, and Ethical Factors, CO2RE, The Greenhouse Gas Removal Hub & Navraj Singh Ghaleigh, Senior Lecturer in Climate Law, University of Edinburgh Law School, Legal and Financial Elements of Greenhouse Gas/Carbon Removal Units and the Importance for Viable Markets
  • Luka Štrubelj, Research Fellow in Environmental Law, University of Oxford Faculty of Law, The Regulatory Regime for Biochar in the United Kingdom

 

10:35-12:05pm EDT

Review of the Diversity of State Policies and Regulations of CO2 Storage

Session Summary:

The United States Energy Association’s Consensus Program, a cooperative program with the United States Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, with the help of its partners at the University of Wyoming’s (UW) College of Law and UW School of Energy Resources, West Virginia University’s (WVU) College of Law and WVU Energy Institute, and the Cadmus Group has published two separate studies looking at CO2 Storage policies and regulations across 22 states and onshore federal lands in the United States. Each study provided comprehensive and comparative analyses of four dimensions of CO2 law, regulation, and policy: 1) land use, mineral, water, and pore space rights; 2) geologic CO2 storage and incremental storage regulation; 3) eminent domain; and 4) regulation of CO2 pipelines. The studies also suggest opportunities to harmonize energy policies and address regulatory gaps and inconsistencies. The aim of these studies was to facilitate a better understanding of the legal underpinnings that frame risk, uncertainty, and investment in CO2 utilization and storage infrastructure and projects, and to provide a roadmap for changes that are conducive to project development. As a result of the expanded interest in CCUS and CDR due to the amended 45Q tax credit and the urgency of decarbonization, it is increasingly important for prospective CCUS project operators, legislatures, and policymakers to understand legal and regulatory challenges to a more integrated and widespread implementation of CO2 storage.

This panel will be especially useful for stakeholders who plan to utilize technological carbon removal solutions and geologically sequester or transport the captured carbon dioxide in the following states covered in each of the studies: Alabama, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Moderator: Mike Moore, Program Director, United States Energy Agency

Roundtable Panelists: