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Full-Text Articles in Law
Tackling Climate Change: Don't Forget Energy Efficency, Joel B. Eisen
Tackling Climate Change: Don't Forget Energy Efficency, Joel B. Eisen
Law Faculty Publications
Todd S. Aagaard and Joel B. Eisen write that one option available for states under the EPA's high-profile Clean Power Plan is relying on greater efficiency in energy usage and other demand-side strategies such as "demand response," which involves programs to reduce consumption at specific times of high electricity demand. However, a federal court recently cast a cloud over demand response's future.
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
Faculty Scholarship
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 …
Capital Rigidities, Latent Externalities, Shi-Ling Hsu
Capital Rigidities, Latent Externalities, Shi-Ling Hsu
Scholarly Publications
Capital, one of two fundamental inputs to production, is critical to economic growth. As such, legal rules and institutions generally seek to create more of it, and they also seek to protect existing capital from policy changes. However, capital is often durable, and during its natural life, information may emerge pointing to negative externalities resulting from operation of that capital. Legal rules and institutions, in seeking to stimulate and sustain economic growth by promoting and protecting capital, thus tend to induce the creation of excess capital. This abundance of capital creates excess resistance to new regulation or policy reform, as …
"Maladaptive" Federalism: The Structural Barriers To Coordination Of State Sustainability Initiatives, Jim Rossi
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
While the federal government has been slow to address problems such as climate change, many states have adopted innovative approaches to address the climate impact of using natural resources to produce energy, including aggressive approaches to regulating carbon emissions and renewable and clean energy standards. This Article identifies an emerging challenge that subnational regulation faces in the energy and environmental context -- what I will call maladaptive federalism -- and argues that federalism discussions need to account for its possibility. Part I highlights adaptive regulation as a form of federalism, echoing a vision for subnational regulation many federalism scholars and …
New York State Leading On Utility Climate Change Adaptation, Ethan Strell, Christine Fazio
New York State Leading On Utility Climate Change Adaptation, Ethan Strell, Christine Fazio
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
In a precedent-setting decision, the New York State Public Service Commission unanimously approved a settlement on Feb. 20, 2014, requiring Con Edison to implement state-of-the-art measures to plan for and protect its electric, gas, and steam systems from the effects of climate change. Although issued in the context of Con Edison’s rate case, the commission’s order issued on Feb. 21, 2014, explicitly broadened the sweep of its order to address resiliency measures for all utilities in New York State.
The Day After Tomorrow: A Survey Of How Gulf Coast State Utility Commissions And Utilities Are Preparing For Future Storms, Katherine Carey
The Day After Tomorrow: A Survey Of How Gulf Coast State Utility Commissions And Utilities Are Preparing For Future Storms, Katherine Carey
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
With widespread outages caused by devastating natural disasters such as Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Ike in the nation’s recent memory, the public wants to know that the electric utility industry is prepared to withstand and respond to the storms of the future. But is the industry prepared? The government’s role in regulating the electric utility industry makes it impossible to properly analyze why industry players are prepared or unprepared without looking at the actions and decisions of the state regulatory officials. The industry’s actions are inherently tied to the regulations it is required to follow and the costs it is …
Federalism Obstacles To Advancing Renewable Energy, Michael B. Gerrard
Federalism Obstacles To Advancing Renewable Energy, Michael B. Gerrard
Faculty Scholarship
Many states have been taking steps to increase the use of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. However, because electricity is a commodity in interstate commerce and electrons once on the grid do not respect state borders, these state efforts have begun to collide with the dormant Commerce Clause (the principle that the Constitution’s grant of authority to Congress to regulate commerce among the states also limits the ability of the states to discriminate against other states) and related constitutional doctrines.