future-focused

Practices

The Liskow Climate Change team guides clients through the complex, ever-changing labyrinth of regulations, statutes, and practices concerning the implementation of policies connected with global climate change. Despite being relatively new and still evolving, it’s a field that touches virtually every facet of environmental law. To date, however, it lacks a single, comprehensive body of regulations consistently applied. Our role is to assist our clients in hitting this moving target. Their businesses often depend on it.

Overview

The two defining characteristics of climate change practice are its breadth, and its demands for extraordinary versatility. This plays to our considerable strengths as a firm known for our intimate, firsthand working knowledge of the real-world impacts and demands of environmental law. We can boast an unrivaled level of experience when helping clients define and execute against the climate change aspects of a project.

Helping clients hit a moving target

Climate change is a collection of numerous approaches to a global issue, applied in a staggering range of situations, by an equally wide range of agencies and actors. There is no cohesive, organized scheme as of yet, Whether it speaks to the compliance requirements for reporting greenhouse gas emissions as part of permitting, business opportunities presented by shutting down mature oil and gas wells and generating credits, or operating a carbon capture and storage facility, Liskow almost certainty has been there and done that.

Seeing – and planning for – what’s next.

Climate change practice demands a considerable degree of anticipatory lawyering. Liskow excels at this. We keep abreast of legislative and political trends, and strive to tell our clients what’s coming. If it’s a statute, we’ll tell them what they should do now to comply or help change it. We help our clients adapt, and by so doing, minimize risk, maximize opportunity, and in many cases, thrive.

Solving Multifaceted Problems.

Climate change issues rarely arise in isolation. They’re created through a variety of mechanisms, and we’re effective in managing them because we bring the seasoned expertise of a team that’s worked in a whole array of substantive legal topics. That informs our judgment and gives us the ability to provide uniquely strategic thinking. Through a variety of different mechanisms, effectively managing climate change matters requires expertise in a wide range of substantive legal topics, as well as judgment and strategic thinking.

This often means helping to shape the work of the regulators themselves. With respect to climate change, we’re regularly retained by clients to comment on rulemaking procedures, or challenge rules, or simply educate regulators and lawmakers. We’ll assist with the climate change aspects of permitting in NEPA or IT analysis, or advise on the development of specific, climate change-focused projects, including renewable energy, carbon capture and storage, or other cutting-edge technologies.

Notable Experience

  • We worked with a major oil company on a $20 billion gas-to-liquid project. Natural gas is both abundant and affordable relative to other fuels, and this project was intended to make liquid fuels from natural gas at scale. As part of the project, Liskow helped the company devise a permitting strategy for concentrating C02 from the process and using it for enhanced oil recovery by a partner rather than venting it into the atmosphere.
  • We’re counseling a client on the construction of a grain storage facility on the Mississippi River. The project is strategically important and a major business opportunity, but climate change issues will be considered as part of the permitting stage. Additionally, significant environmental justice issues are in play. Multiple, complex, and interrelated issues make this a challenging project, and Liskow is acting as the project’s environmental counsel throughout.

We are known for these strengths

  • Commenting on rulemakings on behalf of clients to regulatory authorities in the process of defining regulations and applicable laws.
  • Educating regulators and lawmakers on implications and alternatives to potential rules; including challenging rules when appropriate for clients.
  • Assistance in reporting data and information with respect to climate change-related projects.
  • Helping clients with the climate change aspects of permitting in NEPA or IT analyses connected with projects.
  • Helping to develop climate change-related projects, such as renewable energy, or carbon capture, utilization, and storage
I have worked with several of the attorneys at Liskow and Lewis on a variety of health, safety and environmental issues. I have found them to be outstanding.
Best Lawyers Client Comment
Environmental Law 2022

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