Policy Expertise
Ayres Law Group has significant experience shaping environmental policy on behalf of client interests. Our attorneys draft legislative language, prepare comments on proposed rules, and routinely meet with senior-level officials to advocate for our clients. We have long-standing relationships with key policy-makers at both the federal and state levels, which we utilize to help our clients shape national or state policy on air quality, energy, and climate matters.
Our lawyers have also served on national commissions reviewing the substance and process for administering national environmental policy, including:
- National Commission on Air Quality Report, To Breathe Clean Air, March, 1981
- Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government, Risk and the Environment: Improving Regulatory Decision Making, June, 1993
Market-based programs
More and more, environmental measures take the form of market-based programs. Our attorneys were deeply involved in the Congressional adoption of the successful market-based program for “acid rain,” as well as the climate legislation proposed in the last Congress, so we understand market-based emission control programs and how they affect your business.
In addition to advising on existing regulatory programs, our attorneys also help clients shape emerging market-based programs, such as the recent global warming legislation and the several state and regional climate programs. We analyze how market-based programs work and how clients can take advantage of them. And we help navigate through the process of trading emission allowances.
Our attorneys are thought leaders in the field of market-based programs, helping to shape market-based air quality legislation and regulation:
- Expanding the Use of Environmental Trading Programs Into New Areas of Environmental Regulation, 18 Pace L.Rev. 87 (Winter, 2000).
- Carbon Trading and Hydrogen -- Possibilities and Pitfalls (June 1998).
- Developing a Market in Emission Credits Incrementally: an ‘Open Market’ Paradigm for Market-Based Pollution Control, 25 BNA Env. Reptr., N0. 31, at 1522 (December 2, 1994).
