Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Energy (10)
- Climate change (9)
- Sustainable development (9)
- Energy law (8)
- Global warming (7)
-
- International environmental law (5)
- Energy poor (4)
- Energy poverty (4)
- Environmental law (4)
- Greenhouse gases (4)
- Treaties (4)
- Administrative law (3)
- Annual report (3)
- Developed countries (3)
- Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (3)
- Fossil fuels (3)
- Illumination (3)
- Indigenous (3)
- Kerosene (3)
- Kyoto Protocol (3)
- Model law (3)
- National legislation (3)
- Trade (3)
- American West (2)
- Black carbon (2)
- Cities (2)
- Decarbonization (2)
- Demand response (2)
- Developing countries (2)
- Electricity regulation (2)
Articles 1 - 30 of 42
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Structure Of U.S. Climate Policy, Michael Pappas
The Structure Of U.S. Climate Policy, Michael Pappas
Publications
Urgent emission reduction and community adaptation efforts are necessary to avert catastrophic climate-change harms. To assess our nation’s progress toward such efforts, this Article develops a comprehensive structural analysis of U.S. climate policy at the federal, state, and local levels. It observes that current climate policies reflect disparate federal, state, and local strategies around emissions regulation, emission reduction subsidies, adaptation, and liability approaches. The Article then analyzes the dynamics between federal, state, and local strategies in these policy areas.
This examination leads to some surprising conclusions. Under current policy alignments, further emission regulation measures do not appear to be realistic …
The (Un)Just Use Of Transition Minerals: How Efforts To Achieve A Low-Carbon Economy Continue To Violate Indigenous Rights, Kathleen Finn, Christina A.W. Stanton
The (Un)Just Use Of Transition Minerals: How Efforts To Achieve A Low-Carbon Economy Continue To Violate Indigenous Rights, Kathleen Finn, Christina A.W. Stanton
Publications
No abstract provided.
Environmental Law, Disrupted By Covid-19, Rebecca Bratspies, Vanessa Casado Peréz, Robin Kundis Craig, Lissa Griffin, Sarah Krakoff, Keith Hirokawa, Katrina Kuh, Jessica Owley, Melissa Powers, Shannon Roesler, Jonathan Rosenbloom, J. B. Ruhl, Erin Ryan, David Takacs
Environmental Law, Disrupted By Covid-19, Rebecca Bratspies, Vanessa Casado Peréz, Robin Kundis Craig, Lissa Griffin, Sarah Krakoff, Keith Hirokawa, Katrina Kuh, Jessica Owley, Melissa Powers, Shannon Roesler, Jonathan Rosenbloom, J. B. Ruhl, Erin Ryan, David Takacs
Publications
For over a year, the COVID-19 pandemic and concerns about systemic racial injustice have highlighted the conflicts and opportunities currently faced by environmental law. Scientists uniformly predict that environmental degradation, notably climate change, will cause a rise in diseases, disproportionate suffering among communities already facing discrimination, and significant economic losses. In this Article, members of the Environmental Law Collaborative examine the legal system’s responses to these crises, with the goal of framing opportunities to reimagine environmental law. The Article is excerpted from their book Environmental Law, Disrupted, to be published by ELI Press later this year.
Agency Genesis And The Energy Transition, Sharon B. Jacobs
Agency Genesis And The Energy Transition, Sharon B. Jacobs
Publications
Commentators and policymakers frequently propose new government agencies in response to novel or intractable problems. New agencies can refocus public attention on the problems they regulate. They can attract new talent and bypass calcified or captured channels. But they are also costly, and there is no guarantee that they will be more successful than their predecessors.
This Article examines agency genesis at the state level. In the process, it expands recent thinking about the administrative separation of powers to the states. At the federal level, setting up agency rivalries within the executive branch can be an effective tool for mitigating …
Global Energy Poverty: The Relevance Of Faith And Reason, Lakshman Guruswamy
Global Energy Poverty: The Relevance Of Faith And Reason, Lakshman Guruswamy
Publications
The challenge of energy poverty (EP) primarily confronts the least developed countries (LDCs) of the world, located in Africa and Asia, but is also prevalent within segments of more advanced developing countries in Asia. This article will first delineate the nature of global energy poverty that results in the premature deaths of millions of people and leads to pervasive sickness among many more millions. The article will next sketch the legal and political responses to this problem that have generally applied principles of sustainable development (SD) and the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of 2015 adopted by the General Assembly …
The Statutory Separation Of Powers, Sharon B. Jacobs
The Statutory Separation Of Powers, Sharon B. Jacobs
Publications
Separation of powers forms the backbone of our constitutional democracy. But it also operates as an underappreciated structural principle in subconstitutional domains. This Article argues that Congress constructs statutory schemes of separation, checks, and balances through its delegations to administrative agencies. Like its constitutional counterpart, the “statutory separation of powers” seeks to prevent the dominance of factions and ensure policy stability. But separating and balancing statutory authority is a delicate business: the optimal balance is difficult to calibrate ex ante, the balance is unstable, and there are risks that executive agencies in particular might seek expansion of their authority vis-à-vis …
Sustainable Development: Energy, Justice, And Women, Lakshman Guruswamy
Sustainable Development: Energy, Justice, And Women, Lakshman Guruswamy
Publications
This article will first offer a functional synopsis relevant to its remit, of the concept of sustainable development (SD) embodied in international law and policy that reflects a tension between economic and social claims as contrasted with environmental protection. While the dominant place acquired by the economic and social dimensions of SD will be recognized, it will argue consistent with the predicate of justice discussed in the article, that the protection of the human environment encompasses the plight of the energy poor and their women and children. Second, the article will delineate the contours of one of the great developmental …
Standing Rock, The Sioux Treaties, And The Limits Of The Supremacy Clause, Carla F. Fredericks, Jesse D. Heibel
Standing Rock, The Sioux Treaties, And The Limits Of The Supremacy Clause, Carla F. Fredericks, Jesse D. Heibel
Publications
The controversy surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline (“DAPL”) has put the peaceful plains of North Dakota in the national and international spotlight, drawing thousands of people to the confluence of the Missouri and Cannonball Rivers outside of Standing Rock Sioux Reservation for prayer and peaceful protest in defense of the Sioux Tribes’ treaties, lands, cultural property, and waters. Spanning over 7 months, including the harsh North Dakota winter, the gathering was visited by indigenous leaders and communities from around the world and represents arguably the largest gathering of indigenous peoples in the United States in more than 100 years.
At …
Operationalizing Free, Prior, And Informed Consent, Carla F. Fredericks
Operationalizing Free, Prior, And Informed Consent, Carla F. Fredericks
Publications
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) has acknowledged varying ways in which international actors can protect, respect and remedy the rights of indigenous peoples. One of these methods is the concept of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) as described in Articles 10, 19, 28 and 29. There has been much debate in the international community over the legal status of the UNDRIP, and member states have done little to implement it. In applied contexts, many entities like extractive industries and conservation groups are aware of risks inherent in not soliciting FPIC and have endeavored to …
Administrative Dissents, Sharon B. Jacobs
Administrative Dissents, Sharon B. Jacobs
Publications
Commissioners, like judges, dissent. They do so at length, with vigor, and with persistence. Yet while separate judicial decisions are the subject of a rich literature, their administrative counterparts have long languished in obscurity. A closer look is warranted, however, because studying administrative dissent can enhance our understanding of internal agency operations as well as the relationships between agencies and other actors. This Article presents the results of an original review of separate statements at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission dating back four decades. It uses these findings to move beyond two common generalizations about …
Agency Innovation In Vermont Yankee's White Space, Emily S. Bremer, Sharon B. Jacobs
Agency Innovation In Vermont Yankee's White Space, Emily S. Bremer, Sharon B. Jacobs
Publications
The literature on “agency discretion” has, with a few notable exceptions, largely focused on substantive policy discretion, not procedural discretion. In this essay, we seek to refocus debate on the latter, which we argue is no less worthy of attention. We do so by defining the parameters of what we call Vermont Yankee’s “white space” — the scope of agency discretion to experiment with procedures within the boundaries established by law (and thus beyond the reach of the courts). Our goal is to begin a conversation about the dimensions of this procedural negative space, in which agencies are free …
Energy Deference, Sharon B. Jacobs
Energy Deference, Sharon B. Jacobs
Publications
Electricity law is complex, and the Supreme Court knows it. Lawyers are familiar with the adage that generalist courts tend to defer to agency decisions where the subject matter is complex or technical. But what features of a case make the Court more or less likely to defer to the agency's judgment? And how exactly do deference regimes work in the presence of complexity? This essay offers insights gleaned from Court's opinion in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission v. Electric Power Supply Ass’n (“EPSA”). It explains, first, that Courts are highly deferential in energy cases due to both the complexity of …
Accidents Of Federalism: Ratemaking And Policy Innovation In Public Utility Law, William Boyd, Ann E. Carlson
Accidents Of Federalism: Ratemaking And Policy Innovation In Public Utility Law, William Boyd, Ann E. Carlson
Publications
Decarbonizing the electric power sector will be central to any serious effort to fight climate change. Many observers have suggested that the congressional failure to enact a uniform system of electricity regulation could stifle the transition to a low-carbon electricity grid. This Article contends that the critique is overstated. In fact, innovation is occurring across different aspects of the electricity system and across different types of states in ways one would not expect to see under a single, national approach. As the Article demonstrates, this innovation stems in part from Congress’s failure to enact a single, national approach to electricity …
Model Law On Lighting For Developing Countries, Lakshman Guruswamy, Audrey M. Huang, Mahir Haque, Ugyen Tshering
Model Law On Lighting For Developing Countries, Lakshman Guruswamy, Audrey M. Huang, Mahir Haque, Ugyen Tshering
Publications
No abstract provided.
The Energy Prosumer, Sharon B. Jacobs
The Energy Prosumer, Sharon B. Jacobs
Publications
Decentralization is becoming a dominant trend in many industries, and the electricity industry is no exception. Increasing numbers of energy consumers generate their own electricity and/or provide essential grid services such as storage, efficiency, and demand response. This Article offers a positive account of the emergence of these new energy actors, which it calls "energy prosumers. " It then frames several doctrinal and procedural puzzles that prosumers create, including jurisdictional puzzles, distributional concerns, and democratic challenges. Ultimately, it concludes that prosumers can be a positive disruptive force in the electricity industry if courts and regulators can manage these challenges effectively. …
Introduction To Model Laws On Lighting, Lakshman Guruswamy
Introduction To Model Laws On Lighting, Lakshman Guruswamy
Publications
No abstract provided.
Model Law On Lighting For Developed Countries, Lakshman Guruswamy, Jason Aamodt, Anne Aguirre, Yazan Fattaleh, Gianna Fitzsimmons, Teresa Milligan, Giedre Stasiunaite
Model Law On Lighting For Developed Countries, Lakshman Guruswamy, Jason Aamodt, Anne Aguirre, Yazan Fattaleh, Gianna Fitzsimmons, Teresa Milligan, Giedre Stasiunaite
Publications
Bypassing Federalism And The Administrative Law Of Negawatts, Sharon B. Jacobs
Bypassing Federalism And The Administrative Law Of Negawatts, Sharon B. Jacobs
Publications
Presidential unilateralism has become a defining feature of the executive branch. But a related and equally important phenomenon has been largely ignored: federal agency efforts to circumvent statutory federalism boundaries. This move, which the Article calls "bypassing federalism, " involves using existing jurisdictional authority to work defacto, rather than dejure, reallocations of power. The Article explores agency bypassing through the lens of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's ("FERC's") promotion of demand response in electricity markets. Demand response refers to customer sales of negative watts, or "negawatts," back to the electrical grid. FERC, eager to promote demand-side management programs but stymied …
Plenary Energy, Carla F. Fredericks
Plenary Energy, Carla F. Fredericks
Publications
An incompatible relationship exists between the federal trust responsibility over Indian tribes and tribal sovereignty, the conflicting nature of which has been exacerbated by numerous judicial confirmations of the unbridled congressional plenary power over all tribal affairs. Nowhere is there more conflict between the trust responsibility and sovereignty than within the context of mineral resource development on tribal lands. The evolution of the regulatory framework of Indian mineral development can be viewed as a continuum, with maximum trust obligation and minimum tribal sovereignty on one extreme, and an inversion of these two variables on the other. There currently exists pending …
Public Utility And The Low-Carbon Future, William Boyd
Public Utility And The Low-Carbon Future, William Boyd
Publications
Substantial reductions in global power sector emissions will be needed by midcentury to avoid significant disruption of the climate system. Achieving these reductions will require greatly increased levels of financing, technological innovation, and policy reform. In the United States, the scale and complexity of the overall challenge have raised important questions regarding prevailing regulatory and business models, with much scrutiny directed at the traditional practice of public utility regulation. Recognizing the many valid criticisms leveled against public utility regulation and the important questions raised about the viability of traditional utility business models, particularly in the face of substantial growth in …
Introductory Remarks: International Energy Governance, Lakshman Guruswamy
Introductory Remarks: International Energy Governance, Lakshman Guruswamy
Publications
No abstract provided.
How Can The Rural Energy Poor Obtain Appropriate Sustainable Energy Technologies?, Michael Waggoner
How Can The Rural Energy Poor Obtain Appropriate Sustainable Energy Technologies?, Michael Waggoner
Publications
Solutions to a current serious problem for the rural energy poor might best be found at least in part in older practices.
The problem comes from cooking over open fires, impairing the health of the cook and of others in her family, using fuel so inefficiently as to threaten forests, and releasing soot that contributes to global warming. Small, cheap, reliable cooking stoves could address these issues, improving health by reducing smoke and exhausting it through a chimney and thus away from the cook, using fuel more efficiently so that less needs to be gathered, and more completely burning the …
Who Killed The Hybrid Car? State And Local Green Incentive Programs After Metropolitan Taxicab V. City Of New York, Jonathan Skinner
Who Killed The Hybrid Car? State And Local Green Incentive Programs After Metropolitan Taxicab V. City Of New York, Jonathan Skinner
Publications
Unnecessarily broad preemption ruling under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act discourages other states and municipalities from pursuing innovative, environmentally beneficial policies.
Energy Justice And Sustainable Development, Lakshman Guruswamy
Energy Justice And Sustainable Development, Lakshman Guruswamy
Publications
Sustainable Development ("SD")--an expression of distributive justice--is the foundational premise of international energy and environmental law. It posits that international answers to environmental and energy problems cannot be pursued as independent and autonomous objectives but must be addressed within the framework of economic and social development. SD has been politically institutionalized in the Millennium Development Goals and a plethora of significant international instruments. Perhaps more importantly from a legal standpoint, SD is unequivocally codified, in the most widely accepted international energy and environmental treaties. This Article affirms the importance and continuing applicability of SD to the "other" third of the …
Judging Treaties, Lakshman Guruswamy
Beyond Enron: Regulation In Energy Derivatives Trading, Alexia Brunet, Meredith Shafe
Beyond Enron: Regulation In Energy Derivatives Trading, Alexia Brunet, Meredith Shafe
Publications
No abstract provided.
International Environmental Law: 2006 Annual Report, Jane C. Luxton, Lakshman Guruswamy, Kevin L. Doran
International Environmental Law: 2006 Annual Report, Jane C. Luxton, Lakshman Guruswamy, Kevin L. Doran
Publications
No abstract provided.
A New Framework: Post-Kyoto Energy And Environmental Security, Lakshman D. Guruswamy
A New Framework: Post-Kyoto Energy And Environmental Security, Lakshman D. Guruswamy
Publications
In this article Professor Guruswamy advances an argument for new energy agreements that address the immense global environmental challenge presented by the increasing global energy demands of both the developed and developing world. Arguing that new energy accords are needed to meet this challenge, he identifies and describes the decidedly interdisciplinary knowledge base and analytics required to negotiate such international instruments. The construction of these knowledge bases call for scientific, engineering, technological, legal, social, economic and behavioral expertise. Professor Guruswamy identifies pragmatic steps--including a targeted research agenda--that will contribute to such an undertaking and begin the arduous process of addressing …
Book Review, Lakshman D. Guruswamy
Arnold Schwarzenegger And Our Common Future, Sarah Krakoff
Arnold Schwarzenegger And Our Common Future, Sarah Krakoff
Publications
No abstract provided.