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Full-Text Articles in Law
Community Empowerment In Decarbonization: Nepa’S Role, Wyatt G. Sassman
Community Empowerment In Decarbonization: Nepa’S Role, Wyatt G. Sassman
Washington Law Review
This Article addresses a potential tension between two ambitions for the transition to clean energy: reducing regulatory red-tape to quickly build out renewable energy, and leveraging that build-out to empower low-income communities and communities of color. Each ambition carries a different view of communities’ role in decarbonization. To those focused on rapid build-out of renewable energy infrastructure, communities are a potential threat who could slow or derail renewable energy projects through opposition during the regulatory process. To those focused on leveraging the transition to clean energy to advance racial and economic justice, communities are necessary partners in the key decisions …
Scientific Uncertainty And The National Environmental Policy Act—The Council On Environmental Quality's Regulation 40 C.F.R. Section 1502.22, Mark Reeve
Washington Law Review
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires federal agencies to prepare Environmental Impact Statements (EIS's) for all major actions significantly affecting the environment. The EIS must disclose and evaluate alternative actions and their environmental consequences. Congress did not address the problem of scientific uncertainty when it passed NEPA. Ten years later, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) tackled the issue by including section 1502.22 in its new regulations governing EIS production. The section provides that if scientific uncertainty exists but can be cured by further research the agency must do or commission the research. If the necessary research is exorbitantly …