Mitchell Williams to host Environmental Insights Webinar

"ACE No More: Analyzing the D.C. Circuit's Vacatur and Remand of EPA's Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) Rule, the Biden Administration's Clean Slate to Regulate Carbon Dioxide, and Musings on the Energy Mix and Grid Resilience"

March 02, 2021

REGISTER HERE

Join Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard, P.L.L.C. for an Environmental Insights Webinar on Tuesday, March 16, 2021, as Mitchell Williams attorney Stuart Spencer and nationally-recognized energy and environment consultant Franz Litz will discuss the U.S. D.C. Circuit Court of Appeal’s January opinion vacating and remanding the ACE Rule, including an analysis of short and long-term implications on environmental, energy and administrative law.  They will also discuss the Biden administration’s climate agenda and how the vacatur of the ACE rule provides a clean slate within which to develop and implement a carbon dioxide mitigation and eventually a decarbonization strategy.  They will end their presentation with a high level discussion of grid considerations as related to fuel type and mix and how the issue of grid resiliency and reliability factors into a climate policy agenda.

About the Panelists:

Franz Litz brings over 25 years’ experience in environment and energy to his work consulting to state governments, think tanks, non-profit organizations and industry.  An accomplished facilitator, lawyer and thought leader, Franz has been especially active at the state and regional levels in the United States, helping to develop policy solutions to meet the challenge of climate change.

As a state official in New York, he was a driving force behind the development and launch of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a multistate program that has dramatically reduced emissions from the power sector across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.  Since leaving state service in 2007, he has worked with many other states and provinces, both individually and in regional groups of states and stakeholders, including the Western Climate Initiative, as well as regional groups in the Midcontinent, Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. He has done this work from posts with the World Resources Institute and the Pace Energy and Climate Center, and most recently through his independent consultancy, Litz Energy Strategies LLC. Franz’s current clients include the Great Plains Institute, the World Resources Institute, the Georgetown Climate Center and the Energy Foundation.

Stuart Spencer is Counsel with Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates, & Woodyard, P.L.L.C., where he practices in the firm’s Environmental Practice Group.  He has over a decade’s worth of environmental legal, regulatory and policy experience, primarily in the area of Clean Air Act issues. 

Stuart is a former Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment, Division of Environmental Quality Associate Director, having headed up the Office of Air Quality as its Chief and then Director.  He is the Vice Chair of the Air Committee of the Arkansas Environmental Federation, serving on its Air Committee.  He is also the Vice Chair of the Arkansas Bar Association’s Environmental Section and the Co-Vice Chair of the Air Quality Articles Section of the American Bar Association.  Stuart regularly represents trade associations, utilities, and business clients in administrative rulemaking matters and all aspects of environmental permitting, compliance and enforcement processes.

The webinar will be held Tuesday, March 16, 2021, from Noon–1:15 CST. Registration is required. REGISTER NOW. The webinar is free but space is limited. The webinar has been submitted for 1.25 hours of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit by the Arkansas Continuing Legal Education Board. Attendees who are licensed in other states are responsible for applying for CLE credit in those states.

For more information please contact Vivian Koettel at vkoettel@mmlaw.com or (501) 370-4239.