The Nickel Report

The American Bar Association published an article, You’ve Come a Long Way Baby, or Have You?, which highlights the results of a new study by Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP attorneys Shannon S. Broome, Lauren Bachtel, and Jennifer MikoLevine, and environmental litigation specialist Richard M. Pavlak, shedding light on whether the environmental bar is achieving gender equality. The authors acknowledge and appreciate the important contributions of the late Richard Pavlak (who passed away unexpectedly shortly before the online version became available) for his graphical presentation of the results of the study.

Increased use of renewable fuels is a core element of our country’s quest for energy independence and has also been used to incentivize private efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Now more than ten years old, the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program has helped make ethanol made from sugarcane and compressed natural gas produced from sludge at municipal wastewater treatment facilities common household concepts. While the vast majority of renewable fuel producers are compliant, the program has suffered from high-profile cases of fraud and abuse requiring federal enforcement, including criminal prosecutions.