Stricter mandatory reporting - A result of the BP oil spill?

CALGARY, June 21 /CNW/ - McLennan Ross lawyer, Neil Mather, will be presenting on the wider legal implications of the mandatory greenhouse gas reporting rules at the Air & Waste Management Association's 103rd Annual Conference & Exhibition (ACE) on June 23rd, 2010 at the Calgary Telus Convention Centre.

"The recent media attention given to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will undoubtedly lead to an increase in the level of environmental risk disclosure required in the oil and gas industry and beyond," said Mather.

In fact, increases in reporting risk disclosure are already well underway with mandatory greenhouse gas reporting in Alberta, British and Columbia and Ontario already in place, and other jurisdictions in the process of implementing their own reporting regimes.

The pace of change with respect to mandatory reporting over the past few years has been fast and furious. For those individuals who are responsible for helping their organizations comply with greenhouse gas reporting, there has been little time to consider the wider effects that necessarily spring from measuring and reporting greenhouse gas data.

"Organizations need to understand that greenhouse gas data provided to regulators under Mandatory Reporting Rules not only informs future policy development but can signal to the market whether or not your organization faces future regulatory, financial, environmental or potentially litigation risk. The very nature of this data will have far reaching consequences if governments follow through with placing a hard price on carbon, either through cap-and-trade or carbon tax."

Members of the media are invited to attend Mather's address. Copies of his presentation are also available.

McLennan Ross is a well established law firm committed to serving the legal needs of Albertans and Northerners, with offices in Edmonton, Calgary and Yellowknife. More about the firm can be found at www.mross.com and www.oilsandslaw.com

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For further information: Felicity Booth, 403-303-9116