Environmental Law Commons^™

The Role Of Clean Hydrogen In The U.S. Transition To A Net-Zero-Carbon Economy, Miranda Barfield

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

The goal of this Article is threefold: first, to explain why clean hydrogen has become a key part of the United States’ decarbonization plans in recent years; next, to describe the existing and forthcoming U.S. policies and programs designed to incentivize and enable the growth of the domestic clean hydrogen market; and finally, to examine whether the U.S. is deploying the correct legal tools to successfully unlock the decarbonization potential of the clean hydrogen industry.

Section II explains the decarbonization potential of hydrogen, including an overview of U.S. emissions today and a background discussion of what hydrogen is, how it …

Repurposing Fossil Infrastructure, Heather E. Payne

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

Our built environment includes infrastructure dedicated to fossil fuels: wells, pipelines, compressor stations, refineries, fossil gas storage caverns, gas stations. One challenge as we decarbonize is how we will repurpose these locations and networks as we move toward a decarbonized world.

This Article imagines the outcomes for three distinct pieces of our fossil fuel infrastructure and how each could be a part of our decarbonized future. First, given the challenges seen building long distance transmission, local sources of renewable electricity will become even more critical. In many places, the most plentiful of these is rooftop solar, but it faces a …

Empowering Cca Leadership: Overcoming Legal And Policy Barriers To A 24/7 Renewable Energy Full Decarbonization Strategy, Doug Karpa

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

The public itself is the best guarantor of its own interests. Thus, the public utility regulatory oversight model that has dominated the electricity sector for over 100 years must be retooled for a modern, more complex era into one that allows greater democratic accountability to protect the public interest affordably. Given the dangerous urgency of the climate crisis, the fate of California and beyond may well depend on California leading by creating a modern governance structure to match its cutting-edge electricity sector.

Climate Change And Real Estate In California: Can Climate-Related Risk Be A Required Disclosure For Residential Real Estate?, Lindsey Jacques

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

This Article will examine whether liability can extend to residential real estate sellers for non-disclosure of climate change related risk. First, this Article will outline current California statutes and common law regarding disclosures of climate change risk to prospective buyers of real estate. Next, this Article will explore potential routes for expanding liability, then will follow with hypotheticals for specific types of climate-related risk. This Article concludes by considering likely outcomes and routes for sellers and their agents to evade such liability should an expansion of liability prove legitimate.

Discretion Bites: The Current State Of Animal Emergency Planning, Paige Chretien

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

Natural disasters have historically wreaked havoc on the lives of animals. Hurricane Katrina, which hit the gulf coast of Louisiana in 2005, exposed the tragic vulnerabilities of pets and pet owners in disasters and brought awareness to the significance of the human-animal bond.[1] As climate change will likely breed storms that are more deadly than their predecessors, planning and preparedness are essential to mitigating the impacts of these storms. The current status of animal emergency planning and preparedness in the state of California does not ensure that such vulnerable population will be adequately protected.
Part I begins by discussing the …

South Africa's Electricity Crisis: The Need To Reconcile Environmental Policy Decisions With International Treaties, Brittany D. Botterill

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

This Comment examines whether South Africa’s treaty obligations conflict with the requirement of the country’s government to provide electricity to a burgeoning home-owning population. Section II introduces Eskom, South Africa’s largest utility company, which produces most of the electricity used in South Africa and surrounding countries. Section III discusses South Africa’s role in the Southern Africa Power Pool and the additional obligations this membership places on the country. Section IV then examines the controversial loan that South Africa received from the World Bank to assist in building the Medupi coal-fired power plant. Section V illustrates South Africa’s climate change obligations …

Carbon Down Under - Lessons From Australia: Two Recommendations For Clarifying Subsurface Property Rights To Facilitate Onshore Geologic Carbon Sequestration In The United States, Tracy J. Logan

San Diego International Law Journal

This Comment’s analysis requires a few necessary assumptions. First, the feasibility of large-scale deployment of geologic CCS technology for the purposes of permanently storing CO2 is assumed. Second, the establishment of a regulatory framework with incentives to mitigate or offset GHGs is assumed. Third, the carbon-capture technology retrofitting of point-source emitters is assumed. And finally, the existence of infrastructure to transport supercritical CO2 to a storage site is assumed. This Comment contains five parts: Part I provides an introduction and overview to contextualize the need for CCS; Part II details the technology of GS; Part III is an overview of …

Adapting To Climate Change With Law That Bends Without Breaking, Holly Doremus

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

Climate change, the key environmental challenge of this century, is a tough problem for law in many ways. The topic of this panel, instrument choice, highlights a particularly difficult, important, and under-recognized aspect of the climate change challenge: the difficulty of devising a system of environmental law that combines the flexibility necessary to deal with a changing world with the rigidity and accountability essential to hold us to the difficult task of environmental protection.

The Effects Of Brazilian Agricultural Property Policies And International Pressures On The Soybean Industry: Incentives For Amazon Deforestation And How It May Be Reduced, Tyler E. Hazen

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

This Article begins in Part II with an overview of the Amazonian environment and the rise of soybeans as a lucrative export product. Part III discusses how Brazilian property law and land use culture has facilitated transformation of land for cultivation and ultimately, deforestation. Part IV discusses international reaction to Brazil’s sovereignty over the Amazon, including European import practices such as protectionism, desire for hormone-free products, as well as market incentives for soy raised on land that was not deforested. Finally, Part V offers solutions for working within the current system, aggressively supporting the policies against deforestation while respecting the …