Speakers

Abstract: Development of Geologic Carbon Sequestration (GCS) beyond the experimental stage requires a settled legal framework to justify the extensive up-front capital investment. Existing demonstration operations have taken place on either federal or tribal lands where a single landowner controls the property or, if on private land, in situations where the surface estate controls a large area relative to the small amount of planned CO2 injection. Future large-scale demonstration projects, such as the proposed FutureGen “clean coal” site in Illinois, experienced significant issues in securing the rights to the pore space underlying numerous surface estates. Although several commentators have discussed pore space ownership and proposed federal schemes for access to pore space, as well as tort liability concerns, they have, thus far, neglected to address the concerns of the landowner presented with an easement for pore space to conduct carbon sequestration operations and the conflicting tangle of property rights (e.g., surface, coal, oil and gas) allocated and distributed as a matter of state property law. This article seeks to begin the untangling process by identifying the potential rights to pore space for permanent carbon sequestration based on operational characteristics (e.g., enhanced oil recovery, coal bed methane extraction, inaccessible coal seams, saline aquifer or basalt formation). Sequestration operations in each of these geologic zones implicate unique property right and liability issues. In some jurisdictions, state legislatures have attempted to simplify the property rights issues by allocating pore space to the surface estate. Other legislative efforts have sought to vest these rights in the state. This paper will identify and analyze the competing property right issues embedded within GCS operations from an economic efficiency perspective and propose a resolution that balances individual property rights with the public good arising from potential mitigation of climate change via GCS.

Bio: A. Bryan Endres is an Assistant Professor of Agricultural Law in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois. He also holds appointments with the Business, Economics and Law program (BioBEL) and the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) at the University’s Institute for Genomic Biology. His current legal research interests include agricultural biotechnology, intellectual property, sustainable agriculture, renewable fuels, land use, carbon sequestration and local food networks. Bryan has taught courses in Agricultural Law, Food Law, Law and Regulation of Biotechnology, and Tax Policy. He currently is teaching a new course on Renewable Energy Law.

Prior to Bryan’s appointment at the University of Illinois, he practiced law with Steptoe & Johnson LLP in Phoenix, Arizona as a commercial and intellectual property litigator. He also served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Haldane Robert Mayer of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. Bryan is admitted to practice law in Illinois, Arizona and Maryland. Bryan currently is the Chair of the Illinois State Bar Association’s Agricultural Law Section Council and is a Vice Chair (Membership) of the American Bar Association’s Agricultural Management committee. In 2008, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the American Agricultural Law Association.

Bryan earned a B.S in Mathematical Economics from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York (1992) and a M.S. in Administrative Management from the European Division of Bowie State University (1995). After five years of service as an Army officer, he attended the University of Illinois College of Law, where he was a member of the Illinois Law Review and Order of the Coif (2000).

Abstract: EPA has a legal mandate to issue renewable fuel standards. To qualify, biofuels must survive a life-cycle analysis, including indirct land use effects, showing prescribed levels of carbon reductions compared with gasoline. Indirect land use effects are clearly present but difficult to model with any precision. In its most recent rulemaking, EPA determined that corn ethanol satisfied the requirements for inclusion as a biofuel, after having preliminarily reached a contrary conclusion. This determination seems to have been based on an improper treatment of the uncertainties surrounding land use effects. In particular, EPA assumed a symmetrical probability distribution for land use effects, failed to take into account asymmetries in its ability to benefit from future new information, and did not consider possible asymmetries in error costs. These errors have lessons for regulatory treatment of future biofuels. More generally, they suggest the need for more sophisticated treatment of uncertainty by regulatory agencies.

Bio: Daniel Farber is the Sho Sato Professor of Law and chair of the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the Faculty Director of the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment. Professor Farber serves on the editorial board of Foundation Press, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Law Institute. He is the editor of Issues in Legal Scholarship.

Professor Farber is a graduate of the University of Illinois, where he earned his B.A., M.A., and J.D. degrees. He graduated, summa cum laude, from the College of Law and was the class valedictorian. He also served as Editor-in-Chief of the University of Illinois Law Review. After graduation from law school, he was a law clerk for Judge Philip W. Tone of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and then for Justice John Paul Stevens of the Supreme Court of the United States. Professor Farber practiced law with Sidley & Austin, where he primarily worked on energy issues, before joining the University of Illinois College of Law faculty in 1978. He was a member of the University of Minnesota Law School faculty from1981 to 2002. At Minnesota, he was the McKnight Presidential Professor of Public Law. He also has been a Visiting Professor at the Stanford Law School, Harvard Law School, and the University of Chicago Law School. He was a co-founder and co-editor of Constitutional Commentary, a faculty-edited journal of constitutional law scholarship.

Among Professor Farber’s dozen books are JUDGMENT CALLS: POLITICS AND PRINCIPLE IN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW (Oxford University Press 2008); RETAINED BY THE PEOPLE: THE “SILENT” NINTH AMENDMENT AND THE RIGHTS AMERICANS DON’T KNOW THEY HAVE (Basic Books 2007); and LINCOLN’S CONSTITUTION (University of Chicago Press 2003).

Abstract: Fuel security and environmental considerations led governments worldwide to enact policies that support the development of alternatives to oil during the last decade. As a consequence of these policies, biofuels emerged as an alternative to conventional transportation fuels. These policies led to concerns about the unintended consequences to the environment and to food security. Policy makers are responding to these concerns through new types of environmental regulations that take a lifecycle view of emissions from fuels. In addition, they want to consider the indirect land use effect associated with the introduction of biofuel as the basis to determine whether to permit certain types of biofuel to be produced. We argue, based on practical reality of policy analysis and economic principles, that the reliance of indirect land use policies for regulating biofuel is ill advised. First, the indirect land use effect are not very stable and vary significantly, depending on economic conditions, technological change and regulations. As a result, the estimated land use coefficients are quite far apart and provide a weak empirical base for sound policy. Secondly, use of indirect land use as a key element of biofuel regulation make growers of biofuel accountable for activities of others that they cannot influence. If society is concerned about deforestation or mismanagement of land in developing countries, it should be addressed directly by land use regulations and other policies rather than indirectly. Thirdly, strict regulation of biofuels based on indirect land use effect doesn't consider the ecological impact of alternative fuel supply strategies, like derivation of fuels from tar sands.

Bio: David Zilberman is a professor and holds the Robinson Chair in the Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics at UC Berkeley. He is also co-director of the Center for Sustainable Resource Development in the campus's College of Natural Resources. Zilberman's areas of expertise include agricultural and environmental policy, biotechnology, bioenergy and climate change, and the economics of innovation, risk, marketing, water, and pest control. He has served as a consultant to the World Bank, the USDA, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the Environmental Protection Agency, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and the California Department of Food and Agriculture. He is a fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association and won the association's Quality of Communication Award and Outstanding Review of Agricultural Economics Article in 2007. Zilberman’s work has been published in a wide range of journals. He received his B. A. in economics and statistics at Tel Aviv University, Israel, and his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley.

Abstract: This presentation will address ways in which international law impacts Biofuels. It will focus on energy innovation collaboration.

Bio: Professor Burleson has an LL.M. in International Law from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law. As a Fulbright Senior Specialist she is available to teach summer courses. She began participating in treaty negotiations at the United Nations in 1991 during proceedings for the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development and helped draft the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration. She has written reports for the United Nations and delivered presentations at United Nations conferences. Focusing on emerging International Law, Professor Burleson has been an advisor to UNICEF's Senior Advisor for the Environment and the New York Director of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP). She has also written reports for the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). A particular focus was placed on design, development and implementation of human rights and environmental programs. She helped the UNEP Delegation and was a member of the National Wildlife Federation Delegation to the Copenhagen Climate Conference and a member of the UNICEF delegation to the Bali Climate Conference. Professor Burleson has also conducted legal research for Amnesty International's London based International Secretariat and New York based research division. At the University of South Dakota School of Law, Professor Burleson's courses include: Public International Law, Energy Law, United Nations Law, International Environmental Law, International Law and China, Property Law, Water Law, and Environmental Law. Her research addresses emerging International Environmental and Human Rights Law.

Abstract: Land use change may be the single most important factor in determining the sustainability of biofuels. Therefore, in order to ensure that legal standards are effective in limiting climate change forcings, it is essential that land use change be given thorough and rigorous treatment. Land use change affects climate through both biogeochemical and biophysical forcings. ‘Biogeochemical forcing’ refers to greenhouse-gas induced climatic changes. Biofuel life cycle analyses are increasingly including the most important elements required to thoroughly quantify the greenhouse gas effects of land use change, yet they are not comprehensive in all aspects and often use improper accounting for the timing of emissions. We present a method for thoroughly quantifying the greenhouse gas effects of land use change and assess the comprehensiveness of the accounting systems used by major fuel standards. ‘Biophysical forcings’ are the effects of land use change on climate through perturbation of water and energy between the land surface and the atmosphere. In some cases, these forcings can be far more influential than the biogeochemical forcings, however, they have largely been neglected in assessments of the impacts of biofuels-related land use change. We discuss the magnitude of these forcings and implications for the environmental impacts of biofuels. We conclude with recommendations as to how policies can improve their estimates of the climate effects of biofuels related land use change.

Bio: Evan H. DeLucia is the G. William Arends Professor of Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; he was the founding Director of the Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, served as Head of the Department of Plant Biology, and currently he is the director of the School of Integrative Biology.

After completing his B.A. at Bennington College and teaching at Phillips Andover Academy, DeLucia completed a M.F.S. (1982) in forest ecology at Yale University and a Ph.D. (1986) in plant ecology and physiology at Duke University. He joined the faculty at Illinois in 1986. Among his awards, DeLucia was recognized as a University Scholar at the University of Illinois, a Bullard Fellow at Harvard University, a Fulbright Fellow at Landcare Research and an Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. He became a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2005.

DeLucia is a member of the American Association of Plant Physiologists, the International Union of Forest Research Organizations, the Ecological Society of America, the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was elected Chair of the Physiological Ecology Section of the Ecological Society (1996-98). He currently serves on the editorial boards of Oecologia and Global Change Biology - Bioenergy.

The responses of forest and agro-ecosystems to elevated carbon dioxide and other elements of global change are at the center of DeLucia’s research. Using ecological, physiological and genomic approaches, DeLucia seeks to understand how global change affects the carbon cycle and the trophic dynamics between plants and insects. Recently, his research has expanded to consider the ecological consequences of deploying biofuel crops on the landscape. He has served in an advisory capacity to members of the US congress and the National Academy of Sciences.

Abstract: In Executive Order No. 24 issued in August 2009, New York’s Governor adopted a goal of achieving an eighty percent (80%) reduction in greenhouse gases (GHG) from 1990 levels by 2050. About forty percent (40%) of New York’s GHG emissions are produced by the transportation sector, and renewable fuels are expected to play a significant role in reducing the GHG emissions from the transportation sector. For the past several months, the Pace Energy and Climate Center has been leading a team of over 40 experts in renewable fuels from academia, industry and government in a project to produce a Renewable Fuels Roadmap and Sustainable Biomass Feedstock Supply Study for New York. The Roadmap is to provide New York policymakers with the positive and negative impacts associated with the increased use and production of renewable fuels in the State, with particular attention to environmental issues and public health. This presentation will provide an overview of the Roadmap process, with a particular focus on the legal and regulatory issues associated with an increase in the use and production of renewable fuels in New York.

Bio: James Van Nostrand became Executive Director of the Pace Energy and Climate Center in spring 2008 following a successful career in private practice as a partner in the Environmental and Natural Resources practice group in a large Northwest-based law firm, Perkins Coie LLP. In his 22-year career in private practice, Mr. Van Nostrand represented energy clients in state regulatory proceedings in eight western states, as well as proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. His practice emphasized electricity and gas regulation, utility mergers and acquisitions, telecommunications, and administrative law. Mr. Van Nostrand represented electric, natural gas and combination utilities in dozens of general rate cases, and developed a specialized practice in the state regulatory approval of mergers and acquisitions, having handled several multi-state merger approvals in both the energy and telecommunications industries.

From his years in private practice, Mr. Van Nostrand has deep experience in all aspects of the regulatory process affecting electric and natural gas utilities, including resource acquisition, renewable energy, the design and implementation of energy efficiency and conservation programs, enactment of renewable portfolio standards, and integrated resource planning. Mr. Van Nostrand was recognized by the Energy Bar Association as its 2007 State Regulatory Practitioner of the Year, and has been included for the last several years (including 2008) of "The Best Lawyers in America." Before going into private practice, Mr. Van Nostrand spent five years with the New York Public Service Commission as an Assistant to the Commission for Opinions and Review and as Assistant to the Chairman.

In addition to his years in private practice, Van Nostrand has taught courses in energy and regulated industries, administrative law and business associations in various capacities at Lewis & Clark Law School, the University of Tennessee College of Law, and the University of Iowa College of Law. He has published and lectured widely on energy policy, renewable energy, capacity markets, utility rates and electric restructuring plans, and utility mergers and acquisitions. While in private practice, Mr. Van Nostrand served as trustee and section chair for the Washington State Bar Association Administrative Law Section.

Abstract: Ethanol consumption promotion policies have been implemented at both the federal and at the state levels in the past decade. Several additional biofuel incentive programs and regulations are expected to be enacted in the very near future. Understanding ethanol consumption is an important first step towards formulating sound economic policies that promote ethanol consumption as well as for assessing the impact of such policies. Despite its importance for public policy and regulation, our understanding of ethanol consumption patterns is quite limited. This paper examines historical state-level ethanol consumption data in order to understand how ethanol consumption responds to both regional macro-economic conditions as well as various incentives created by state governments. Our empirical analysis reveals a stark change in ethanol consumption patterns before and after 2005, the year the original federal RFS was signed. Prior to 2005, ethanol consumption responded to both regional macro-economic conditions and state incentives. However, these relationships became weak after 2005, and ethanol consumption has become more uniform across the states.

Bio: Professor Jay Kesan's academic interests are in the areas of technology, law, and business. Specifically, his work focuses on patent law, intellectual property, entrepreneurship, internet law/regulation, digital government (e-gov), agricultural biotechnology law, and biofuels regulation (recent publications are on SSRN at http://ssrn.com/author=261086). He directs the Program in Intellectual Property & Technology Law at the College of Law. At the Institute of Genomic Biology (IGB), he is Group Leader of the Business, Economics & Law of Genomic Biology (BioBEL) theme and is Program Leader of the Biofuel Law & Regulation Program at the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI). In Fall 2009, he was named a Faculty Fellow in the Office of the Vice President for Technology and Economic Development (OVPTED) for the 2009-2010 academic year. In his role as a Faculty Fellow, Professor Kesan will be working closely with OVPTED and the Offices of Technology Management (OTM) in furthering the University’s technology commercialization efforts, especially in further refining the University’s intellectual property protection strategy.

At the University of Illinois, Professor Kesan is appointed in the College of Law, the Institute of Genomic Biology, the Information Trust Institute, the Coordinated Science Laboratory, the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, the Department of Agricultural & Consumer Economics, and the College of Business.

His recent awards include: IBM Faculty Award in 2006; Best Paper Award for "An Empirical Examination of Open Standards Development" (with R. Shah), 41st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), 2008; Best Paper Award for "An Empirical Study of Open Standards" (with R. Shah) published in the Proceedings of the 8th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research, 2007.

His books include: The Commercial Law Of Intellectual Property (with Alces, Frisch and See), Aspen Publishing Co. (2003-2010 Cumm. Supp.) (treatise); Intellectual Property in Business Organizations (with Ghosh and Gruner), Lexis-Nexis Publishing Co. (2006) (unique and first-of-its-kind casebook on transactional IP); Defining Values For Research & Technology (Greenough, McConnaughay and Kesan (eds.)), Rowman & Littlefield Publishing (Fall 2006); Intellectual Property: Private Rights, the Public Interest, and the Regulation of Creative Activity (with Ghosh, Gruner & Reis), West Publishing Co. (2007) (casebook); Agricultural Biotechnology and Intellectual Property: Seeds of Change, Kesan (ed.), CABI Publishing Co., Oxford (2007).

He has received numerous, multi-year, research grants for his work in the areas of intellectual property and technology regulation from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Energy Biosciences Institute, the Federal Judicial Center, the Net Institute, the Coleman Foundation, and the University of Illinois Campus Research Board.

Professor Kesan continues to be professionally active in the areas of patent litigation and technology entrepreneurship. He was appointed by federal judges to serve as a Special Master in patent litigations, and has served as a technical and legal expert and counsel in patent matters. He also serves on the Boards of Directors/Advisors of start-up technology companies. He participated twice in panels at the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice Hearings on the Implications of Competition and Patent Law and Policy. He has also worked with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation on their intellectual property protection and technology commercialization activities in the former Soviet Union countries.

Professor Kesan was a JSPS Invited Fellow and Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan and has also served as a Foreign Research Fellow at the Institute of Intellectual Property (IIP) in Tokyo, Japan. He has also served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Georgetown University Law Center, and as the Jerold Hosier Distinguished Visiting Professor in Intellectual Property at DePaul University.

He serves as Faculty Editor-in-Chief of the University of Illinois Journal of Law, Technology & Policy (http://www.jltp.uiuc.edu), which published its inaugural issue in Spring 2001. He has also developed an online course on "Legal Issues in Technology Entrepreneurship," supported by a grant from the Coleman Foundation.

Professor Kesan received his J.D. summa cum laude from Georgetown University, where he received several awards including Order of the Coif, and served as Associate Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal. After graduation, he clerked for Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Prior to attending law school, Jay Kesan-who also holds a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering-worked as a research scientist at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in New York. He is a registered patent attorney and practiced at the former firm of Pennie & Edmonds LLP in the areas of patent litigation and patent prosecution. In addition, he has published numerous scientific papers and obtained several patents in the U.S. and abroad.

Professor Kesan was born in Mumbai, India, he is an avid cricket fan, and he continues to be active in professional activities in India.

Abstract: The proposed national Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) for the electric power industry is premised on a political economy claim of shared burdens and widespread geographic benefits in addressing the climate change impacts producing electricity. This paper questions argues that this political economy claim rests on shaky foundations. As to costs, the burdens of a national RPS are concentrated primarily on those states that do not have significant natural resources for renewable power productions. The climate change benefits of a national RPS are also overstated, as an RPS will produce substitution effects that limit the use of low carbon fuels such as natural gas and also fails to address the infrastructure barriers to widespread development of renewable power projects.

Bio: Jim Rossi is the Harry M. Walborsky Professor and Associate Dean for Research at Florida State University College of Law, where he teaches Administrative Law, Energy Law and Torts. His main energy law scholarship has focused on judicial review and deregulation as well as the relationship between economic incentives and legal regulation. His work studies the application of traditional public law doctrines -- such as the duty to serve, the takings protections of the U.S. Constitution, constitutional protections against parochial state regulation, the filed rate doctrine, and state siting laws -- to the evolving challenges presented in the energy industry from competition and climate change policies.

He is the author of REGULATORY BARGAINING AND PUBLIC LAW (Cambridge University Press 2005), a case study of deregulation in the electric power industry, and is co-author of ENERGY, ECONOMICS, AND THE ENVIRONMENT (Foundation Press, 2d ed. 2005) (with Fred Bosselman, Jacqueline Weaver, David Spence and Joel Eisen), the leading law school casebook on energy law. Beyond energy regulation, Professor Rossi has written extensively on state constitutions and state and federal administrative law. His articles have appeared in the Virginia Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Texas Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review, William & Mary Law Review, Iowa Law Review, Administrative Law Review, Energy Law Journal and many other journals. He is currently editing a book on state constitutions, DUAL ENFORCEMENT OF CONSTITUTIONAL NORMS: THE NEW FRONTIER OF STATE CONSTITUTIONALISM (forthcoming Oxford University Press 2010) (with James Gardner).

Professor Rossi has served as a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School, and he also has taught at Vanderbilt Law School, the University of Texas Law School and the University of North Carolina Law School. He holds an LL.M. from Yale Law School, a J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law, and a B.A. in economics from Arizona State University. Before entering academia, he practiced energy law in Washington, D.C., with Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan and Miller, Balis & O’Neil. He regularly speaks on energy issues and has served as a consultant on a variety of matters related to administrative law and economic regulation.

Abstract: The great challenge moving forward for standard setters is to establish environmental assessment, measurement and validation protocols for energy biomass. Existing agricultural conservation programs in the U.S. contain planning and assessment protocols, practice-based modeling, and program evaluation procedures that can inform greatly efforts to consistently define and implement "renewability" in biomass-specific mandates and subsidy programs. Federal agencies, the scientific community, and standard-setters must further strengthen their collaborative research efforts, however, to more fully understand biomass' potential to significantly improve the agro-environmental landscape. These findings should be incorporated into existing planning programs. This, in turn, will increase biomass producers' economic opportunities by helping them compete for existing conservation stewardship and other production subsidies, and may perhaps lead to improvements in the environmental performance of the entire agricultural sector.

Bio: Ms. Endres is senior regulatory associate in the Law and Regulation Program at the Energy Biosciences Institute in Illinois. A cum laude graduate of the University of Illinois School of Law, she developed her interest in agriculture and biofuels as a result of her years growing up in a small farming community in rural South Dakota. She earned her B.A. in Political Science from the University of South Dakota.

After graduation, she spent three years in Germany, where she earned her Master’s Degree in Administrative Management from the University of Maryland and became fluent in German. Upon returning to the U.S., she was selected as a Graduate Scholar for the N.Y. State Assembly’s Committee on Environmental Conservation.

Upon graduation from law school in 2000, Ms. Endres worked in a large Washington, D.C. litigation firm and clerked in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. She subsequently accepted a three-year clerkship in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. She is a published author in the nation’s top environmental law journals.

Abstract: Land use change may be the single most important factor in determining the sustainability of biofuels. Therefore, in order to ensure that legal standards are effective in limiting climate change forcings, it is essential that land use change be given thorough and rigorous treatment. Land use change affects climate through both biogeochemical and biophysical forcings. ‘Biogeochemical forcing’ refers to greenhouse-gas induced climatic changes. Biofuel life cycle analyses are increasingly including the most important elements required to thoroughly quantify the greenhouse gas effects of land use change, yet they are not comprehensive in all aspects and often use improper accounting for the timing of emissions. We present a method for thoroughly quantifying the greenhouse gas effects of land use change and assess the comprehensiveness of the accounting systems used by major fuel standards. ‘Biophysical forcings’ are the effects of land use change on climate through perturbation of water and energy between the land surface and the atmosphere. In some cases, these forcings can be far more influential than the biogeochemical forcings, however, they have largely been neglected in assessments of the impacts of biofuels-related land use change. We discuss the magnitude of these forcings and implications for the environmental impacts of biofuels. We conclude with recommendations as to how policies can improve their estimates of the climate effects of biofuels related land use change.

Bio: Dr. Kristina Anderson-Teixeira is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Energy Biosciences Institute at the University of Illinois. She received her PhD in Biology from the University of New Mexico. Her research focuses on interactions between terrestrial ecosystems and the climate system, with a current emphasis on the climate impacts of biofuels-related land use change. She is working to quantify the climate services of global terrestrial ecosystems using a metric that is both scientifically robust and meaningful to a wide audience, and that can be readily incorporated into biofuel life cycle analyses. In addition, Dr. Anderson-Teixeira is conducting field-based research on the potential of perennial grass bioenergy crops to mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration. Current research addresses how the climate value of an ecosystem is affected by disturbance-recovery dynamics, probable climate change impacts, and biophysical forcings.

Abstract: Cellulosic biofuels are being supported through mandates and subsidies to achieve energy security and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the transportation sector. The Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) seeks to provide incentives for collecting, harvesting, storing and transporting crop residues and establishing perennial bioenergy crops. We examine the implications of this program for the mix of cellulosic feedstocks likely to emerge to meet existing biofuel mandates and their implications for regional patterns of crop production, food and fuel prices and GHG emissions. We also examine the economic costs of the BCAP and consider alternative ways to design it to achieve GHG mitigation objectives more cost-effectively.

Bio: Dr. Madhu Khanna is a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. Her research focuses on environmental policy analysis and technology adoption.. She is leading the research program examining the land use, market and greenhouse gas implications of cellulosic biofuels at the Energy Biosciences Institute at the University of Illinois. She is a member of the Environmental Economics Advisory Committee of the Science Advisory Board of the US EPA. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. She holds editorial positions at several environmental and agricultural economics journals. She is a University of Illinois Scholar and a Leopold Leadership Fellow.

Abstract: Some of the most direct and immediate impacts of Global Climate Change are on agriculture. Rising sea levels displacing coastal farming communities, declining water supplies and shifting weather patterns raising the specter of drought and crop failures are just some of the effects already being experienced across the globe. As a result agricultural systems, people, and institutions will come under pressure and stress. Law and legal systems are significant institutions with critical roles to play in shaping a more sustainable future for nations and for individual farmers. Global climate change (GCC) will mean new challenges to the ideas of sustainable agriculture and sustainable development. Agricultural practices, in particular the concentrated production of livestock and deforestation to increase production, are significant contributors to the greenhouse gasses believed responsible for GCC. However, some of the most promising ideas for responding to GCC are agriculturally based, such as the use of some bio-fuels and increasing markets for carbon and other eco-system services, meaning agriculture has a potential role as an “answer” to GCC. The reality is without effective policy making agriculture may get it “coming and going” both through the adverse impacts of climate change and through costs and restrictions relating to legal and regulatory proposals to address GCC. But there is also a more hopeful possibility – that GCC will provide us the opportunity to develop more resilient and sustainable agricultural systems addressing the underlying resource needs of soil conservation, water quality protection and farmland preservation. The challenges posed by GCC may facilitate development of new innovative mechanisms to support farmers and landowners managing the land in ways to produce not just food but to reduce the impacts of GCC, such as markets for storing carbon, development of an array of sources of renewable, and support for promoting other climate friendly practices on the land.

It is against this backdrop of challenges and opportunities that the outcomes of the recent UN climate talks in Copenhagen, or COP 15, must be considered. While the run-up to COP 15 was filled with excitement and expectations the actual talks, which the author attended, and the specific outcomes that resulted were for many disappointing. This paper examines a range of the legal and policy issues raised by the global debate over climate change with the goal of providing helpful analysis and insight. It considers what has happened in the U.S. with the consideration of “cap and trade” legislation and the relation to the outcomes experienced at COP 15. The paper portrays this period as one of lost opportunities and examines how this experience may affect our ability to develop a more balanced renewable energy policy and limit the opportunities for agriculture to participate in potential markets for carbon. The paper concludes by looking forward to what may happen in American politics on climate change and agriculture to consider how this will impact a range of important issues, including our policy on biofuels.

Bio: Prof. Neil D. Hamilton, is the Dwight D. Opperman Chair of Law and Director of the Agricultural Law Center at Drake University Law School in Des Moines, Iowa. He has directed the Center since 1983 and helped establish its national and international reputation for excellence in research, education and public extension on food policy, agricultural law and rural development. He is past-president of the American Agricultural Law Association (AALA) and has authored several books, including the nationally award winning What Farmers Need to Know About Environmental Law (1990) and the Legal Guide to Direct Farm Marketing (1999). He has written numerous law review articles on topics such as: food democracy, rural lands, intellectual property rights and plant genetics, the future of agricultural law, sustainable agricultural land tenure, agricultural industrialization, and production contracts. He has conducted legal seminars throughout the U.S. and in twenty foreign countries. He was on the Advisory Board of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University from 1987 to 2008. He is on the boards of the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation and the Seed Savers Exchange. In 2008 he began teaching Legal Issues in Wind Energy, making Drake only the third U.S. law school to offer the class. From 2000 to 2006 he chaired the Iowa Food Policy Council and today serves as an informal adviser to U.S secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. He has a B.S. from Iowa State Univ., 1976 in Forestry and Economics, and a J.D. from Univ. of Iowa

Abstract: Land use change may be the single most important factor in determining the sustainability of biofuels. Therefore, in order to ensure that legal standards are effective in limiting climate change forcings, it is essential that land use change be given thorough and rigorous treatment. Land use change affects climate through both biogeochemical and biophysical forcings. ‘Biogeochemical forcing’ refers to greenhouse-gas induced climatic changes. Biofuel life cycle analyses are increasingly including the most important elements required to thoroughly quantify the greenhouse gas effects of land use change, yet they are not comprehensive in all aspects and often use improper accounting for the timing of emissions. We present a method for thoroughly quantifying the greenhouse gas effects of land use change and assess the comprehensiveness of the accounting systems used by major fuel standards. ‘Biophysical forcings’ are the effects of land use change on climate through perturbation of water and energy between the land surface and the atmosphere. In some cases, these forcings can be far more influential than the biogeochemical forcings, however, they have largely been neglected in assessments of the impacts of biofuels-related land use change. We discuss the magnitude of these forcings and implications for the environmental impacts of biofuels. We conclude with recommendations as to how policies can improve their estimates of the climate effects of biofuels related land use change.

Bio: I am a climate scientist studying the interactions between the atmosphere and the biosphere using models and observations. A goal of my research is to quantify a variety of land-atmosphere feedbacks that can amplify or dampen the effects of climate and land use change. My research is centered on three large regions of the Earth - the Arctic boreal forest and tundra ecosystems, the tropical forests of South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, and the agro-ecosystems of North America. Some of my projects include studying the effects of Arctic vegetation and atmospheric changes due to high latitude warming, the analysis of atmospheric teleconnections initiated by land cover change, the use of forest plantations to sequester carbon, and the variability of drought and extreme weather in the U.S. I develop and run a variety of global and regional climate and weather forecasting models as well as dynamic vegetation models to explore the interactions between the atmosphere and the land surface.