Energy and Utilities Law Commons^™

Covid-19 Impacts: How A Global Pandemic Amid The Sunsets Of The Ptc And Itc Made The U.S. Wind And Solar Industries More Resilient, Kimberly E. Diamond

Fordham Environmental Law Review

A cataclysmic event is sometimes the necessary catalyst for companies within certain industries to re- examine, radically shift, and replace their standard practices with technologically-advanced alternatives. In the United States, the occurrence of the Coronavirus pandemic (“COVID-19”) during the sunsets of the Production Tax Credit (“PTC”) and the Investment Tax Credit (“ITC”) created a unique confluence of factors that produced a perfect storm tantamount to such a cataclysmic event for companies in the wind and solar industries, particularly developers. Over the years, the domestic utility-scale wind industry has come to rely heavily upon the PTC, while the domestic utility- scale ...

Illegal Discharge: Exploring The History Of The Criminal Enforcement Of The U.S. Clean Water Act, Dr. Joshua Ozymy, Dr. Melisssa L. Jarrell

Fordham Environmental Law Review

The criminal prosecution of defendants that violate federal clean water laws has been ongoing for roughly four decades. Yet, we continue to have a poor understanding of how federal prosecutors use the U.S. Clean Water Act (“CWA”) to charge and prosecute criminals and the outcomes of those prosecutions. We use content analysis to analyze 2,588 federal criminal prosecution case summaries, 1983-2019, to gain a better historical understanding of how the CWA has been used as a prosecutorial tool, to bring out the major themes in the prosecutions, and quantify sentencing outcomes. Findings from the 828 CWA prosecutions undertaken ...

Red Tide: A Blooming Concern For Florida Manatees, Shannon Price Esq.

Fordham Environmental Law Review

Although red tides are a common and natural occurrence around the coast of Florida, within the last few decades they have intensified and become much more deadly. Several identifiable human-caused factors exacerbate the size, concentration, and duration of the harmful algae bloom and disturb the environment’s natural balance. The Florida Gulf Coast provides all the algae’s necessary requirements for survival, the perfect storm to create a resilient super bloom that annihilates its host ecosystem.

This article explains the plight of Florida manatees who, like other marine animals and plants, are being injured or killed by this algae crisis ...

"Eco" Your Own Way: An Argument For State-Specific Climate Change Legislation, Amanda Voeller

Fordham Environmental Law Review

The consequences of climate change seriously and immediately threaten the American way of life, but proposed federal legislation like the Green New Deal is overly broad, unrealistic, and inefficient. The most effective way for the United States to combat climate change is not with a one-size-fits-all plan like the Green New Deal, but with federal legislation that incentivizes states and cities to enact and enforce individualized, local climate legislation. Different states and cities have different climates, available energy sources, and transportation needs, so the federal government should use financial incentives to encourage states and cities to pass tailor-made bills and ...

The Use Of Regular Militaries For Natural Disasters After A Major Event Where The Military Was Seen As A Failure - The Somalia Effect In The Age Of Black Lives Matters And Covid-19, Donald D.A. Schaefer

Fordham Environmental Law Review

This is written as a continuation of Dr. Schaefer’s recent article entitled, “The Use of the Regular Militaries for Natural Disaster Assistance: Climate Change and the Increasing Need for Changes to the Laws in the United States, China, Japan, the Philippines, and Other Countries.” 2 Perhaps few other areas have affected so many people than the Covid-19 pandemic. Coupled with this has been the struggle over the use of force by the military and police in the age of “black lives matters” and the movements that have been transpired as a result. With the increased global warming likely to ...

The Norms Of Nuclear Accidents After Chernobyl, Melanie L. Oxhorn

Journal of Natural Resources & Environmental Law

No abstract provided.

The Federal Uranium Enrichment Program And The Criteria And Full Cost Recovery Requirements Of Section 161 Of The Atomic Energy Act, Charles H. Montange

Journal of Natural Resources & Environmental Law

No abstract provided.

European Community Energy Policy And Its Significance To American Coal Exports, James J. Friedberg

Journal of Natural Resources & Environmental Law

No abstract provided.

Florida's Harmful Algal Blooms: Tiny Organisms Needing Massive Legislation, Jillian Barnard

Environmental and Earth Law Journal (EELJ)

No abstract provided.

The Rights Of Nature Movement In The United States: Community Organizing, Local Legislation, Court Challenges, Possible Lessons And Pathways, Marsha Moutrie

Environmental and Earth Law Journal (EELJ)

No abstract provided.

Toto, I'Ve A Feeling The Environment Isn't Safe From Cryptocurrency Anymore: The Degrading Ecological Effects Of Bitcoin And Digital Currencies, Samantha T. Edgell

Villanova Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Wall That Trumps Environmental Law: A Review Of The Environmental And Legal Implications Of The U.S.-Mexico Border Wall, Olivia Merritt

Villanova Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Contested Places, Utility Pole Spaces: A Competition And Safety Framework For Analyzing Utility Pole Association Rules, Roles, And Risks, Catherine J.K. Sandoval

Catholic University Law Review

As climate change augurs longer wildfire seasons, safe, reliable, and competitive energy and communications markets depend on sound infrastructure and well-calibrated regulation. The humble wooden utility pole, first deployed in America in 1844 to extend telegraph service, forms the twenty-first century’s technological scaffold. Utility poles are increasingly contested places where competition, safety, and reliability meet. Yet, regulators and academics have largely overlooked the risks posed by century-old private utility pole associations in California, composed of private and public utility pole owners and some entities who attach facilities to utility poles. No academic articles have examined the rules, roles, and ...

Civil Liability Of The Nuclear Operator: A Comparative Study, Mohamed Mohamed Sadat

Journal Sharia and Law

One of the most important discoveries of modern science is nuclear energy, which has become a necessity due to the use of conventional energy sources is nearing completion in addition to the many uses of nuclear radiation in medicine and industry. Many states have taken the initiative to establish them private nuclear energy production in an attempt to capitalize on what this new type of energy facilities offers.. Through the study, we will address the study civil liability of the nuclear operator through the study of both the Egyptian and UAE laws, and that was the motivation for their choice ...

Revolving Doors - We Got It Backwards, Hadar Yoana Jabotinsky Dr.

University of Cincinnati Law Review

The revolving door phenomenon, in which senior public officials transfer from the public service to the private sector after finishing their term as public officials, and vice versa, is widespread. This gives rise to concern of regulatory capture, which happens when the regulators respond to the wishes of strong interest groups, such as the regulated industry, instead of protecting the interests of the general public. The solution is usually found in conflict-of-interest rules which set cooling-off periods for individuals moving from the public to the private sector. This paper proposes that although revolving doors do incur some costs, they also ...

Should The European Union Fix, Leave Or Kill The Energy Charter Treaty?, Martin Dietrich Brauch

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In the early 1990s, the European Economic Community – the predecessor of the European Union (EU) – spearheaded an initiative to promote international cooperation in the energy sector, particularly with post-Soviet States in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Out of this process the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) was born in 1994. Going much beyond international cooperation, the treaty allows foreign investors in the energy sector to sue their host States in international arbitral tribunals and claim monetary compensation when policy measures and other State action affect their interests.

Fast-forward to 2021. With 135 known cases initiated to date, the ECT’s is ...

Rethinking Grid Governance For The Climate Change Era, Shelley Welton

Faculty Publications

The electricity sector is often appropriately called the linchpin of efforts to respond to climate change. Over the next few decades, the U.S. electricity sector will need to double in size to accommodate electric vehicles, at the same time that it transforms to run entirely on clean energy. To drive this transformation, states are increasingly adopting 100% clean energy targets. But fossil fuel corporations are pushing back, seeking to maintain their structural domination of the U.S. energy sector. This article calls attention to one central but under-scrutinized way that these companies impede the clean energy transition: Incumbent fossil ...

Environmental Soft Law As A Governance Strategy, Cary Coglianese

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

Soft law governance relies on nongovernmental institutions that establish and implement voluntary standards. Compared with traditional hard law solutions to societal and economic problems, soft law alternatives promise to be more politically feasible to establish and then easier to adapt in the face of changing circumstances. They may also seem more likely to be flexible in what they demand of targeted businesses and other entities. But can soft law actually work to solve major problems? This Article considers the value of soft law governance through the lens of three major voluntary, nongovernmental initiatives that address environmental concerns: (1) ISO 14001 ...

Renewable Energy And Trade: Meeting The Paris Agreement’S Goals Through A Two-Step Jurisprudential Advance, Lisa Benjamin

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

Recent Case Decisions

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.