Media Clips From This Week - Running Shoes, Sustainable Aviation Fuel, COP26
COP26 wrapped up in Glasgow, and despite a lack of consensus, Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech, participated in a series of panels on transportation and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). A team from South Pole was also at COP26, and we continued to promote their net-zero report. We worked with On to help launch a new running shoe made from carbon emissions and continued to promote the collaboration between LanzaTech, Shell, SAS, and Vattenfalloup.vattenfall.com. Both helped us gain publicity worldwide, from North America to Europe, including Sweden and Spain, and in the Asia-Pacific area, including China and New Zealand. Finally, locally, we worked with the Guild of Artists and Artisans to promote the final art fair of 2021, with 60+ artists selling their masterpieces just in time for the holidays.
Media From The Past Week
It was another busy week for our clients wrapping up a trip by the US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and US Senator Jon Ossoff, as reported by Politico, among other news stories about LanzaTech, including this amazing video from Vice.
US Secretary of Energy Granholm and US Senator Ossoff Visit LanzaTech Innovation Hub in Georgia and Site of the World’s First LanzaJet Sustainable Fuels Plant
As the aviation industry calls for the transition to sustainable aviation fuel, more resources will be needed domestically to produce it. US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and US Senator Jon Ossoff toured LanzaTech's Freedom Pines Biorefinery in Soperton, Georgia, last week to highlight the investments the US government is making to achieving the President's climate policy while bolstering American infrastructure, creating jobs in rural America, and leveraging waste gases to produce fuel while keeping carbon underground.
Media Coverage From the Past Week (October 1, 2021)
We had another busy week working on behalf of our clients. Today, the U.S. Secretary of Energy (and former Governor of Michigan) Jennifer Granholm, along with U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia) visited LanzaTech and LanzaJet’s biorefinery in Soperton, Georgia. We worked with the Department of Energy and Senator Ossoff’s office to coordinate that visit. This weekend the Guild of Artists and Artisans is hosting their Annual Artoberfest, and we were able to develop content for the Washtenaw Area Apartment Association.
Congress to debate energy reform this week
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, today released the text of the Chairman's Mark of the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733), this past Friday. New and revised language in the Chairman's Mark released include:
• Specifies distribution of emissions allowances; • Ensures that the majority of investments in the bill are for consumer protection; • Includes new provisions to address clean coal technology; • Increases investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy; • Reduces greenhouse gas emissions and increases investments in the transportation sector; • Enhances agriculture and forestry provisions; • Directs assistance to rural communities; • Includes greater assistance for small and medium refineries; • Enhances the role of tribes; • Increases the size of the market stability reserve; and • Promotes advanced renewable fuels.
To see a copy of the bill, find it here. To find the differences between the earlier version? For more information on the bill and hearings scheduled for this week, beginning, contact dcherrin@cherrinlawgroup.com.
Michigan...It is time to seize the opportunity
Although it is officially summer, there is a big chill across Michigan. With the auto industry firmly in control by the federal government, Congress continues to focus on the economy, the environment and on everyone’s health. Just before the July 4th recess, the U.S. House of Representatives passed The American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act (HR 2454), a major piece of legislation affecting climate change, energy and the environment. While Detroit and the entire state of Michigan continue to struggle, we must find opportunity amidst crisis and take advantage of every and any opportunity to restore stability to Michigan’s economy. There is no doubt that our struggling automakers and suppliers will receive additional help once ACES passes Congress. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) also will provide much needed assistance for Detroit and for Michigan.
Restoring stability and setting a path to economic diversity requires leadership to make a bad situation good. The climate change legislation contains a number of provisions that can bolster our state’s position, bring our auto industry into the next generation and help diversify our state’s economy so we are no longer a one-industry town. This includes:
Retooling existing and recently abandoned plants to meet new fuel and energy standards.
Retrofit plants to accommodate electronic vehicle production.
Securing funding for Detroit’s efforts to create light rail and mass transit in the region and become a model for other communities by adapting the latest and cleanest transportation technology.
Direct engineers leaving the auto industry to create new companies to support the development and commercialization of clean energy technology.
Lobby the federal government to have Detroit house one of eight regional Clean Energy Innovation Centers.
Celebrate our collaborative efforts to incubate new companies in partnership with our universities through the University Research Corridor and Next Energy and identify federal resources to expand Next Energy and Tech Town.
This bill also contains a number of provisions vital to the growth of green vehicles and a number of opportunities to keep the engineers, designers and line workers recently laid off, from the auto industry, employed in Michigan. By no means is this a perfect piece of legislation, and it does not necessarily favor Detroit over other regions. However, it is a blueprint by which Detroit and this state must change if we are to weather this storm and restore stability to our economy and to our people. We as a state must work together to leverage our assets and seize the opportunities provided to us in this legislation. By taking advantage of the tools given to us, we can take advantage of the incentives and financial opportunities to retool our economy and emerge much stronger than we have ever been.