The New Carbon Cycle

Article Published in Fuel Magazine Discusses How Carbon Credits Can Finance Use of Flared Gas

In the July 2008 edition of FUEL magazine I published an article discussing how carbon credits can serve to help finance local uses of natural gas that is otherwise flared or vented.  The article is entitled “Carbon Credits: New Uses for Financing Natural Gas.” 

In the article, it is explained that “The World Bank has formed a group that is working to reduce natural gas venting or flaring, based in part on its recent report estimating global vented or flared natural gas reaches about 14 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). The burning of the natural gas reportedly produces 400 million tons a year of carbon dioxide, which GHG [greenhouse gases] scientists blame for contributing to climate change.”

The article also discusses the fact that  “one of the means by which natural gas is captured and moved to markets such as the United States is through liquid natural gas (LNG) projects.”  However, “often there is no perceived market for this gas, and no known way of financing the transport of it to market if identified.” The article explains how GHG emission reductions can produce carbon credits, which can then be sold and serve as a basis for helping finance more local markets for flared natural gas.  Deatherage discusses carbon trading, “pollution rights,” cap-and-trade systems, and other market aspects of climate change. I conclude that “emission markets encourage capital to reduce GHGs and provide economic benefit to developing countries to be invested in these projects as they find substantial return on their investments.  Carbon trading may prove to be a key element to many of these projects, including those to reduce the venting and flaring of natural gas.”

To view the full article, please visit www.hartfuel.com.

Clean Tech Inventors and Start Up Companies Looking for Capital

As gas prices climb and energy security and climate change drive public policy and private investment, inventors and entrepreneurs are moving into the clean tech and greenhouse gas reduction business at a rapidly growing pace.  The green inventors need capital to start get their business going.  To find this startup capital, they are looking to angel investors, venture capital funds, and private equity firms.

The investment community is investing more and more money in companies in the clean tech space. We are seeing more and more companies and inventors contacting us to find out how they can obtain financing, how greenhouse gas reductions from their technologies and processes can be monetized in the form of carbon credits, and what the regulatory and legislative landscape may be in the future that would make their inventions more profitable.

This is a growing area for our law firm and we see more venture capital firms and private equity firms looking to invest in this space.  All of the nascent companies require capital to get their business off the ground.  Some of the companies we are currently working with include companies looking to build wind power projects in Africa, to reduce fuel consumption from truck fleets, to reduce nitrogen fertilizer use, to avoid deforestation, and to develop geothermal energy projects.

Energy efficiency, energy security, climate change, and carbon trading opportunities will drive more capital to inventors and companies that develop the ideas and technology to solve these critical issues.  Finding capital will be an essential part of making these ideas and technologies a reality.