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Individual Carbon Emissions: The Low-Hanging Fruit, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Jack Barkenbus, Jonathan Gilligan
Individual Carbon Emissions: The Low-Hanging Fruit, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Jack Barkenbus, Jonathan Gilligan
Michael Vandenbergh
The individual and household sector generates roughly 30 to 40 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and is a potential source of prompt and large emissions reductions. Yet the assumption that only extensive government regulation will generate substantial reductions from the sector is a barrier to change, particularly in a political environment hostile to regulation. This Article demonstrates that prompt and large reductions can be achieved without relying predominantly on regulatory measures. The Article identifies seven "low-hanging fruit:" actions that have the potential to achieve large reductions at less than half the cost of the leading current federal legislation, require …
Scientific, Legal, And Ethical Foundations For Texas Water Law., Gabriel Eckstein, Amy Hardberger
Scientific, Legal, And Ethical Foundations For Texas Water Law., Gabriel Eckstein, Amy Hardberger
Gabriel Eckstein
Water law is the field of law concerned with the ownership, control, and use of water resources, both surface and subsurface. Although most closely related to property law, recent developments in other legal fields, especially in environmental law, have heavily influenced the interpretation, application, and development of water law. As a result, water law today encompasses a broad perspective and often takes into account individual and community rights, environmental issues, commerce and economics, and other societal and legal concerns. Significantly, modern water law is also an interdisciplinary practice. In light of the continuously expanding body of knowledge of the hydrologic …
State Practice In The Management And Allocation Of Transboundary Groundwater Resources In North America, Gabriel Eckstein, Amy Hardberger
State Practice In The Management And Allocation Of Transboundary Groundwater Resources In North America, Gabriel Eckstein, Amy Hardberger
Gabriel Eckstein
Throughout the world, international and state political boundaries divide groundwater resources into politically convenient jurisdictions. Subsurface water, however, does not recognize such borders and flows freely without regard to overlying politics. This disregard for the political dimension, coupled with the growing global importance of fresh water, has the potential for aggravating disputes and conflicts over the use, allocation, and preservation of such resources. To date, widely accepted norms of international law applicable to transboundary aquifers have yet to emerge. However, local and regional agreements, including both formal and unofficial arrangements, suggest the emergence of state practice that should be considered …
Non-Enforcement Takings, Timothy M. Mulvaney
Non-Enforcement Takings, Timothy M. Mulvaney
Timothy M. Mulvaney
The non-enforcement of existing property laws is not logically separable from the issue of unfair and unjust state deprivations of property rights at which the Constitution's Takings Clause takes aim. This Article suggests, therefore, that takings law should police allocations resulting from non-enforcement decisions on the same "fairness and justice" grounds that it polices allocations resulting from decisions to enact and enforce new regulations. Rejecting the extant majority position that state decisions not to enforce existing property laws are categorically immune from takings liability is not to advocate that persons impacted by such decisions should be automatically or even regularly …
Smarter Finance For Cleaner Energy: Open Up Master Limited Partnerships (Mlps) And Real Estate Investment Trusts (Reits) To Renewable Energy Investment, Felix Mormann, Dan Reicher
Smarter Finance For Cleaner Energy: Open Up Master Limited Partnerships (Mlps) And Real Estate Investment Trusts (Reits) To Renewable Energy Investment, Felix Mormann, Dan Reicher
Felix Mormann
This policy proposal makes the case for opening Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) — both well-established investment structures — to renewable energy investment. MLPs and, more recently, REITs have a proven track record for promoting oil, gas, and other traditional energy sources. When extended to renewable energy projects these tools will help promote growth, move renewables closer to subsidy independence, and vastly broaden the base of investors in America’s energy economy.
Constitutional Challenges And Regulatory Opportunities For State Climate Policy Innovation, Felix Mormann
Constitutional Challenges And Regulatory Opportunities For State Climate Policy Innovation, Felix Mormann
Felix Mormann
This Article explores constitutional limits and regulatory openings for innovative state policies to mitigate climate change by promoting climate-friendly, renewable energy. In the absence of a comprehensive federal policy approach to climate change and clean energy, more and more states are stepping in to fill the policy void. Already, nearly thirty states have adopted renewable portfolio standards that create markets for solar, wind, and other clean electricity. To help populate these markets, a few pioneering states have recently started using feed-in tariffs that offer eligible generators above-market rates for their clean, renewable power.
But renewable portfolio standards, feed-in tariffs, and …
Beyond Tax Credits: Smarter Tax Policy For A Cleaner, More Democratic Energy Future, Felix Mormann
Beyond Tax Credits: Smarter Tax Policy For A Cleaner, More Democratic Energy Future, Felix Mormann
Felix Mormann
Solar, wind, and other renewable energy technologies have the potential to mitigate climate change, secure America’s energy independence, and create millions of green jobs. In the absence of a price on carbon emissions, however, these long-term benefits will not be realized without near-term policy support for renewables. This Article assesses the efficiency of federal tax incentives for renewables and proposes policy reform to more cost-effectively promote renewable energy through capital markets and crowdfunding.
Federal support for renewable energy projects today comes primarily in the form of tax incentives such as accelerated depreciation and, critically, tax credits. Empirical evidence reveals that …
Clean Energy Federalism, Felix Mormann
Clean Energy Federalism, Felix Mormann
Felix Mormann
Legal scholarship tends to approach the law and policy of clean energy from an environmental law perspective. As hydraulic fracturing, renewable energy integration, nuclear reactor (re)licensing, transport biofuel mandates, and other energy issues have pushed to the forefront of the environmental law debate, clean energy law has begun to emancipate itself. The emerging literature on clean energy federalism is a symptom of this emancipation. This Article adds to that literature by offering two case studies, a novel model for policy integration, and theoretical insights to elucidate the relationship between environmental federalism and clean energy federalism.
Renewable portfolio standards and feed-in …
The Role And Future Of Sovereign Wealth Funds: A Trade And Investment Perspective, Locknie Hsu
The Role And Future Of Sovereign Wealth Funds: A Trade And Investment Perspective, Locknie Hsu
Locknie HSU
Sovereign wealth funds ("SWFs") have been greeted with bothenthusiasm and suspicion. In one respect, they have been called "white knights," where they step in to inject financing to troubledentities.' In others, they have been called "Trojan horses" and"chameleons."