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Duane Morris Partner Sheila Hollis to Moderate Panel at ABA's 39th Annual Conference on Environmental Law
March 18, 2010 | Salt Lake City, Utah
| The Grand America
Duane Morris partner Sheila Slocum Hollis will be moderating a panel at the American Bar Association's (ABA) 39th Annual Conference on Environmental Law, to be held on March 18-21, 2010, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ms. Hollis will serve as moderator during a discussion on the topic "The New Grid: How to Build and Pay for It" on Friday, March 19, from 8:10 a.m. to 10 a.m.
The existing electric grid is overloaded in key stretches as well as antiquated and out of sync with modern information systems. Some cost estimates for completing the regeneration of the American grid exceed $50 billion. Like many great and popular concepts, there are challenging complexities and barriers to the actual investment in and construction of such a huge initiative. The New Grid includes a "Smart Grid," a popular concept on the lips of politicians, regulators, high-tech players, environmental organizations, consumers and electric generators. The Obama administration favors implementation of policies, funding, and support for the New Grid as part of the solution to economic stagnation and environmental/greenhouse gas emissions problems. But the questions of who will pay, when will they pay and how the benefits of a New Grid will flow are at the core of this dream. The siting, authorization and cost-allocation process are likely to be daunting.
About the ABA's 39th Annual Conference on Environmental Law
This is the nation's leading environmental law conference during a period of dramatic change as the Obama administration puts its imprint on the nation's environmental laws. Cutting-edge sessions will include: climate change—reporting from Copenhagen and beyond, as well as the nuts and bolts of the new mandatory GHG reporting rule; the future of civil and criminal enforcement; fostering the new green energy grid; and overhaul of TSCA; as well as developments in clean air, clean water, oceans, brownfields, Superfund, international environmental law, species protection and public lands, and environmental justice. Senior officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Justice, state and local governments, as well as non-governmental organizations, corporate counsel and private practitioners will present these topics. Our ethics panel will focus on potential traps for lawyers in the use of blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and other networking sites.
For more information or to register to attend the conference, please visit the ABA website.
