Washington D.C, May 13, 2010 – Comprehensive energy and climate change legislation took one step closer to reality with yesterday’s release of the American Power Act by Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). The legislation is designed to garner the sixty votes needed to pass the Senate by focusing on bipartisan issues such as job creation, energy independence, national security and U.S. global economic leadership.

The American Power Act includes provisions for up to two billion tons of domestic and international offsets to be used for compliance annually, as well as “Early Offset Supply” provisions intended to recognize early-action investments in offsets and create a plentiful supply of high-quality offsets in the early compliance years. Under Section 740, programs that meet specified criteria will be approved by the EPA Administrator.

Winrock International’s American Carbon Registry (ACR) meets all of the Qualified Early Offset Program criteria including, but not limited to:

• Registers offsets created under standards and methodologies developed through a public consultation or peer review process;
• Requires that offsets be measurable, additional, verifiable, enforceable and permanent;
• Requires that offsets be verified by an accredited third-party independent verification entity; and
• Registers all offsets on a publicly accessible registry, with individual serial numbers assigned for each ton of carbon dioxide equivalent emission reductions.

According to these criteria, offsets registered on ACR are a recognized early action pick. Entities expecting to be regulated when legislation takes effect can bank offsets from Qualified Early Offset Programs against their future compliance obligation, thus reducing their costs. Offset funds, developers and aggregators can be confident that projects registered on ACR will be in pre-compliance demand.

“Project developers are confident that ACR meets all of the legislative criteria in the American Power Act as a Qualified Early Offset Program,” states John Hodges, President of SunOne Solutions, a leading U.S. carbon offset project developer and aggregator. “There is belief in the market that Administrator approval of ACR for early action is very likely based on ACR’s rigorous offset standards, the environmental pedigree of its parent organization, Winrock International, and the substantive body of carbon methodological work for which Winrock has been known over the years.”

As the first U.S. voluntary carbon offset registry, established in 1997, ACR has demonstrated integrity, innovation and client service and has over a decade of operational experience in development of high quality carbon offset standards, offset issuance, serialization and transparent on-line reporting. ACR has issued over 30 million project based carbon offsets, and in 2008 was the most widely used voluntary carbon market registry in the world according to the 2009 Ecosystem Marketplace State of the Voluntary Carbon Market report.

“As a U.S. offset program with a long track record, American Carbon Registry has earned a well deserved imprimatur for lowest risk and highest quality,” said John Kadyszewski, Director of

ACR. “The integrity of our program is highlighted by the transparency of our process and the extensive experience of our team in working with the EPA, USDA and other relevant U.S. government agencies to develop carbon offset methodologies based on sound peer-reviewed science.” 

ACR is unique among established U.S. offset programs in the depth and breadth of expertise within its parent organization in carbon science related to land use change and forestry, agriculture and sustainable biofuels. Winrock experts have developed land use change and forest carbon methodologies for the UNFCCC, CDM, World Bank, United Nations, US DOE, USAID, EPA and USDA, among others.

ACR is currently developing several new innovative and scalable offset methodologies for the U.S. forestry and agriculture sectors. This ACR priority aligns well with the legislation which highlights improvements in agricultural efficiency and terrestrial sequestration as well as land use change and forestry activities as eligible offset project types.

Other eligible project types highlighted in the American Power Act include nitrogen fertilizer management, for which ACR has a forthcoming methodology; Carbon Capture & Sequestration, a project type in which only ACR has protocols and registered volume; and projects reducing fugitive methane emissions from landfills, coal mines and oil and gas facilities. ACR recently approved the first U.S. methodology for fugitive methane emissions in the oil and natural gas sector. The methodology, developed by Verdeo Group and Devon Energy Corporation, was approved through the ACR’s scientific peer review process.

“Verdeo and Devon chose to work with ACR on the pneumatic conversion methodology because we valued the rigorous standards and environmental integrity offered by its scientific peer review process,” said John Savage, Managing Director of Verdeo Group. “ACR is the only U.S. offset program to utilize a peer review process which engages leading subject matter and technical experts in the process of evaluating a methodology.  We found that ACR’s process strengthened the quality of the methodology and positions it for eligibility in a future federal compliance program.”

Christopher Berendt, Vice President and head of the Environmental Markets Practice at Pace Global Energy Services opines “ACR strikes the balance between environmental integrity and the evolving commercial flexibility needed to promote broad market participation. That balance will be key in providing a plentiful early supply of compliance-grade offsets for regulated entities and achieving the American Power Act’s targeted GHG reductions at reasonable cost to those companies and their customers.”

ARLINGTON, VA, March 29, 2010 — The American Carbon Registry (“ACR”) has approved the first U.S. carbon offset methodology for a fugitive methane emission reduction project in the oil & gas sector, which was developed collaboratively by Verdeo Group, Inc. (“Verdeo”) and Devon Energy Corporation (“Devon”).  This methodology will enable oil & gas companies to generate carbon offset credits by retrofitting existing highbleed pneumatic controllers with low-bleed options, thus reducing fugitive emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas (GHG).

“We are thrilled to approve the first methodology that provides a framework for oil & gas companies to reduce a significant source of GHG emissions by implementing a technology retrofit solution,” said Nicholas Martin, ACR’s Chief Technical Officer.  “We are confident that this methodology, which was subject to ACR’s stringent scientific peer review process, meets the highest standards of environmental integrity in the market today,” he added.

Pneumatic controllers use a pressurized gas, typically natural gas for applications in the oil & gas sector, to regulate process variables such as pressure, flow rate and liquid level.  While pneumatic controllers are designed to vent emissions of methane under normal operating conditions, high-bleed controllers vent more of these emissions than low-bleed alternatives.  According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), high-bleed pneumatic controllers are among the largest sources of vented methane by equipment type in the domestic oil & natural gas industry.

Voluntary retrofits of high-bleed pneumatic controllers have long been encouraged by voluntary programs such as EPA’s Natural Gas STAR Program.  Despite the many successes of the Gas STAR Program, oil & gas companies have been slow to retrofit high-bleed pneumatic controllers for a number of reasons: high-bleed pneumatic controllers work well, company-wide retrofits represent a complex undertaking, and the economic value of the retrofit may be small relative to other core business investment opportunities.  As a result, though new wells are typically equipped with low-bleed technology, oil & gas companies have rarely undertaken retrofits of the thousands of wells with existing high-bleed pneumatic controllers.

“The value of this methodology is that it will provide an additional incentive for Gas STAR members or any oil & gas producer to consider voluntary pneumatic retrofits and to verify and register emission reductions using industry best practices,” said John Savage, Managing Director for Verdeo.  “These retrofits, which are driven by the incentives of carbon offset credits, generate permanent emission reductions and result in valuable gas savings,” he added.

These projects are also valuable given that climate change legislation introduced in Congress has proposed recognizing them under an offset program.  For example, reductions of vented and fugitive emissions from the oil & natural gas sector were listed as potentially eligible by both “The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act” that was introduced by Senators Kerry and Boxer last fall, and the “Clean Energy Partnerships Act of 2009” that was introduced by Senators Stabenow, Baucus, Klobuchar, Brown, Begich and Harkin.

The approval of this methodology has encouraged Devon to undertake a wide-scale retrofit of high-bleed pneumatic controllers with WellMark’s Mizer® Pilot Valves, which are low-bleed pneumatic controllers.  This project, which has achieved certification under ACR and will be verified later this year, is expected to generate significant reductions of methane.  “Devon has a corporate initiative to reduce GHG emissions and create tradable, bankable offset credits,” said Darren Smith, Manager of Environmental Health and Safety for Devon.  “This methodology allows us to quantify and verify GHG reductions in a credible and transparent manner, and sets the stage for us to pursue additional offset project development.”

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The American Carbon Registry is a leading voluntary offset program with strong standards for environmental integrity and over a decade of operational experience in development of high quality carbon standards and methodologies, as well as offset issuance, serialization and transparent on-line transaction reporting.  As the first private voluntary GHG registry in the U.S., ACR has set the bar for transparency and integrity that is the market standard today.  ACR is an enterprise of Winrock International, headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. www.americancarbonregistry.org 

Verdeo Group, Inc. is a leading provider of capital and project development solutions to mining and oil & gas companies.  Backed by Black River Asset Management, a subsidiary of Cargill, Inc., Verdeo is developing and financing some of the first innovative pre-compliance GHG emission reduction projects in North America.  Verdeo is based in Washington, DC, and has offices in Denver and Austin.  www.verdeogroup.com 

Devon Energy Corporation is an Oklahoma City-based independent energy company engaged in oil and gas exploration and production.  Devon is a leading U.S.-based independent oil and gas producer and is included in the S&P 500 Index.  Devon is a member of the EPA’s Natural Gas STAR Program and was named Natural Gas STAR Production Partner of the Year in 2005.  www.devonenergy.com 

WellMark is an ISO9001:2008-certified manufacturer of pneumatic and electric instrumentation, primarily serving the oil and gas industry.  In addition to its broad range of products, including level controls, dump valves, safety relief valves and chemical injection pumps, WellMark continues to help oil and gas producers meet their EPA Natural Gas STAR Program pledge of reducing methane emissions by developing environmentally-conscious alternatives to conventional high-bleed pneumatic devices.  www.wellmarkco.com

Contact:

Mary Grady, American Carbon Registry Tel:  (805) 884-1961 Email:  mgrady@winrock.org

John Savage, Verdeo Group, Inc. Tel:  (512) 695-2110 Email:  jsavage@verdeogroup.com

Darren Smith, Devon Energy Corporation Tel:  (405) 228-8584 Email:  darren.smith@dvn.com

Copenhagen and Washington D.C., March 18, 2009 – With forestry offsets likely to play a major role in the future United States cap and trade scheme, American Carbon Registry, a leading U.S. non-profit greenhouse gas registry, today, released its much-awaited Forest Carbon Project Standard at Point Carbon’s Carbon Markets Insights 2009, Copenhagen.

Developed by parent organization Winrock International’s renowned team of carbon experts including three co-Nobel Peace Prize recipients for their contribution to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the new standard bears the stamp of scientific credibility and transparency.

“I am pleased that with this publication we have been able to build on over a decade of Winrock’s leadership and expertise in this area working with a number of recognized organizations including the Clean Development Mechanism, The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, International Tropical Timber Organization, Voluntary Carbon Standard and California Climate Action Registry,” said Dr. Sandra Brown, Winrock’s Chief Scientist, whose team developed the standard.

The new standard details requirements for afforestation and reforestation, improved forest management and reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) projects. Included are project eligibility requirements, additionality determination, methodologies and quantification tools for baselines, monitoring and leakage.

“There is no use in reinventing the wheel when solid science has already been applied to develop methodologies,” adds Dr. Tim Pearson of Winrock, lead author of the standard. “We recognize the value in a consistent technical approach.”

The American Carbon Registry’s Forest Carbon Project Standard offers project proponents several options for assuring the permanence of carbon stocks in forests.  As with other forestry standards, they can contribute an adequate number of offsets into a buffer account to be used if future carbon streams from a project were destroyed or otherwise unavailable.  However, the American Carbon Registry approach to buffer pool requirements is flexible as it allows for other insurance mechanisms, including the contribution of non-forest offsets as insurance.  Additionally, the Registry is developing additional insurance mechanisms as a service to its members.

”As a result of this flexibility, the Forest Carbon Project Standard approach  will enable registry members to monetize their forest offsets rather than hold them in a buffer account, increasing the number of high quality forestry offsets available to the marketplace,” comments Dr. Pearson.

Winrock International developed these standards as a result of a deep desire from both pre-compliance and voluntary buyers.  “The release of our Forest Carbon Project Standard is the key to moving the large 2009 pipeline of more than a million forestry tons through the process of registration,” said John Kadyszewski, director of the American Carbon Registry, and noted that this should help address the current market demand while building the offset pipeline for the coming years.

American Carbon Registry Founding Members like Entergy agree: “Because of Entergy’s ongoing efforts to actively participate in carbon offset projects, we pride ourselves on credibility and transparency, which is exactly what the Forest Carbon Project Standard will provide to the market,” said Brent Dorsey, director of Corporate Environmental Programs for Entergy Corporation.

The non-profit American Carbon Registry was originally founded as a means to harness the power of markets to improve the global environment. Stimulating the market for forestry offsets is not only key to stemming climate change, but also provides the right incentives and funding to reduce deforestation. All of these co-benefits tie directly into Winrock’s mission of empowering the disadvantaged, increasing economic opportunity and sustaining natural resources.

About the American Carbon Registry: 

The American Carbon Registry, an enterprise of Winrock International, is a leading non-profit U.S. carbon market registry and carbon technical services provider.  As the first private voluntary greenhouse gas registry in the U.S., American Carbon Registry boasts time-tested integrity in high quality carbon offset registration, organizational GHG inventory reporting and carbon technical services. The American

Carbon Registry was founded in 1997 as the GHG Registry by the Environmental Defense Fund and Environmental Resources Trust (ERT). The Registry and ERT joined Winrock International in 2007, expanding Winrock’s team of climate change, forestry, clean energy, agriculture, and carbon market experts. For more information on the Registry including a list of Founding Members, please visit www.americancarbonregistry.org.

Contact:

Edelman Mark Grundy, Communications Phone: + 1 917-517-4412 Email: mark.grundy@edelman.com

Edelman Anu Ramamurty, Communications Phone: + 1 212-704-8155 Email: anu.ramamurty@edelman.com

American Carbon Registry Mary Grady, Director of Membership and Registry Services Phone: + 1 703-525-9430 x 820 Email: mgrady@americancarbonregistry.org