Digital Commons Network^™

Framing A “Wicked” Debate: Subsistence, Nutrition, And Indigenous Rights Versus Deforestation, Air Pollution, And Climate Change, Cynthia Fowler

Faculty Scholarship

This presentation considers anthropogenic environmental change as a wicked problem in which multiple, divergent understandings of complex systems and changing conditions coexist. The stakes are high with this wicked problem for the whole Earth and all of humanity. Stakes are especially high in the tropical agropastoral communities whose resource management systems are the subject of much consternation and, at the same time, whose systems are incompletely known.

Cooperative Transboundary Mechanism, Alena Drieschova, Gabriel Eckstein

Faculty Scholarship

Management of transboundary waters in increasingly becoming more challenging, and climate change is likely to exacerbate these pressures. Not least because climate change is a global issue, adaptation will require an international response. This book aims to identify issues, both theoretical and practical, that States face in establishing cooperative transboundary mechanisms to effectively adapt water management to climate change. Furthermore, it will address complex legal hurdles that existing transboundary water institutions face when attempting to adapt existing mechanisms to function in a changing climate. It will also provide an overview of best practices in transboundary adaptive water governance thus far, …

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 …

President Obama Tackles Climate Change Without Congress, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

With a majority of the House of Representatives hostile to regulatory action on climate change, President Obama announced in his January 2013 State of the Union address, and again shortly thereafter in his second inaugural address, that he would use his existing statutory authority to move on what he called a threat to future generations. The president followed through on June 25 with a detailed action plan.

This article describes the principal elements of The President's Climate Action Plan and the progress so far in implementing it.

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.