| clean air regulation advances
Defend the New EPA Rules

by ROBERT uKEILEY

robert ukeiley (rukeiley @ igc.org) is a lawyer who represents environmental nonprofits in clean air act litigation affecting energy issues.

The u.s. environmental Protection agency (ePa) has finalized three clean air act rules that can be key to leveling the economic playing field between dirty energy and clean energy. ePa has finalized the Mercury and air toxics standard (Mats), the cross-state air Pollution rule (csaPr) and the one-hour sulfur dioxide national ambient air quality standard (so2 NaaQs). i have discussed these rules in more detail in previous columns (see archives at solartoday.org/ digital). suffice it to say that they will cause a significant number of coal-fired power plants to close and will raise the levelized cost of energy from plants that remain operating. this will increase retail rates at utilities that stay wedded to dirty energy. it is important to note that despite the myth that coal-fired power plants are all baseload, in fact many of the coal-fired plants that are closing because of these rules have been operated as seasonal peakers to meet air-conditioning load on hot summer days.

these three rules should be a major boon to most aspects of the renewable energy and energy-efficiency industry. i say “should be” because the rules, while final in the sense that they are not drafts, are far from assured to actually stay in place on a permanent basis. all three rules are being challenged in court by the coal industry and by utilities that rely heavily on coal.

Find AIA/GBCI approved sessions at wref2012.org.

Earn aIa, GBCI Continuing Education Credits at WrEF 2012

the aMericaN iNstitute of architects (aia) and the Green building certification institute (Gbci) have each approved more than 30 sessions at wref 2012 for continuing education and learning unit (lu) credit. the sessions all fall in wref’s built environment track.

under the approval, an aia member can earn up to 20 aia health, safety, welfare and sustainable Design learning units by attending the full conference. alternatively, up to five lus can be earned by attending wref for as little as one day. a leeD Professional can earn up to 33 credits by attending the full conference.

“by attending, an architect can come up to speed on the state of the art in solar and sustainable design, and get all the required aia learning unit credits for an entire year,” said David Panich, chair of the solar buildings Division at the american solar energy society (ases).

these three rules should be
a major boon to most aspects of
the renewable energy and
energy-efficiency industry.

these court challenges are very political, so it is critical for businesses and trade associations to join in these cases to defend the rules by explaining that rules help to take away the unfair competitive advantage that dirty energy has enjoyed up until now. unfortunately, the renewable energy and energy-efficiency industry rarely does this. the lawsuit over the csaPr rule represents a small step forward. calpine, a mainly natural gas utility but with considerable geothermal assets and a small amount of photovoltaics, has joined the case to defend the csaPr rule. exelon, a mainly nuclear utility, is also in the case to defend the rule. (to be clear, in no way am i saying that nuclear is renewable energy or even that it is a good thing.) however, notably absent from this and other critical cases are pure-play or at least majority renewable energy and energy-efficiency companies.

the wref schedule includes forums and technical sessions highlighting topics ranging from active solar to zero-net-energy, and everything in between, including:

•;Daylighting;and;bioclimatic;design
•;Building-integrated;photovoltaics
•;Solar;shading;strategies
•;Building;performance;modeling;and;design;tools
•;Merging;of;sustainability;and;affordability
• Building case studies and examples of exemplary
design
•;Emerging;architecture;(highlighting;the;AIA;Commit-
tee on the environment 2011 award winners).
sessions approved for credit will be marked on the
detailed wref schedule with the terms “aia approved”
and/or “Gbci approved.” to view the schedule and to
register, go to wref2012.org.

of additional interest to architects, wref will host the annual meetings of the society of building science educators (sbse) and the ases solar buildings Division.