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Research On Renewable Energy Project Opposition Selected For Environmental Law And Policy Annual Review Award, James Owsley Boyd

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A publication co-authored by Indiana University Maurer School of Law Dean Christiana Ochoa and 2021 Law School alumna Kacey Cook has been selected to appear in the 17th edition of the Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review.

“Deals in the Heartland: Renewable Energy Projects, Local Resistance, and How Law Can Help” was authored by Ochoa, Cook, and University of Minnesota Law School third-year student Hanna Weil and was published in January 2023 in the Minnesota Law Review.

Deals In The Heartland: Renewable Energy Projects, Local Resistance, And How Law Can Help, Christiana Ochoa

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Informed by original empirical research conducted in the Midwestern United States, this Article provides a rich and textured understanding of the rapidly emerging opposition to renewable energy projects. Beyond the Article’s urgent practical contributions, it also examines the importance of formalism and formality in contracts and complicates current understandings.

Rural communities in every windblown and sun-drenched region of the United States are enmeshed in legal, political, and social conflicts related to the country’s rapid transition to renewable energy. Organized local opposition has foreclosed millions of acres from renewable energy development, impeding national and state-level commitments to achieving renewable energy targets …

Powerhouses: A Comparative Analysis Of Blockchain-Enabled Smart Microgrids, Michael Mattioli, Scott J. Shackelford

Articles by Maurer Faculty

For over a century, electricity in the United States has been generated and sold mainly by centralized powerplants. Although this model of power collection and distribution has many advantages, resiliency is a growing problem. Brittle infrastructure and growing complexity have made the nation’s power grid less reliable over the past twenty years. Some technologists believe the solution is to go small. In the past five years, small communities in the United States and overseas have built “micro-grids”—networks of roof-top solar panels that store electricity in communal banks of batteries, combined with software that allows homeowners and businesses to buy and …

Water, Water, Anywhere?: Protecting Water Quantity In State Water Quality Standards, Julie F. Youngman

Indiana Law Journal

Although much of the earth’s surface is covered with water, less than one percent of water is available for human use. Water is becoming progressively scarcer worldwide, as demand increases and pollution, drought, and climate change jeopardize access to clean water. The United States is no exception to that trend. Effective regulation of water supplies can blunt the impacts of water scarcity. This Article suggests that states can—and should—regulate instream flows and lake levels in their federally-mandated water quality standards, with an eye toward conserving scarce water resources. Regulating water quantity as an element of water quality is not only …

Energy Re-Investment, Hari M. Osofsky, Jacqueline Peel, Brett H. Mcdonnell, Anita Foerster

Indiana Law Journal

Despite worsening climate change threats, investment in energy—in the United States and globally—is dominated by fossil fuels. This Article provides a novel analysis of two pathways in corporate and securities law that together have the potential to shift patterns of energy investment.

The first pathway targets current investments and corporate decision-making. It includes efforts to influence investors to divest from owning shares in fossil fuel companies and to influence companies to address climate change risks in their internal decision-making processes. This pathway has received increasing attention, especially in light of the Paris Agreement and the Trump Administration’s decision to withdraw …

Draining The Flooded Markets: Tariffs, Suniva & Solar Energy Investment, Michael A. Stroup

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Demand for solar energy in the United States has increased significantly over the past half century. Despite the falling costs of solar infrastructure, the United States solar energy market is at a turning point. In 2017, two insolvent U.S. solar manufacturers, Suniva and SolarWorld America, successfully petitioned the International Trade Commission (ITC) to invoke Section 201 of the 1974 Trade Act. The two U.S. manufacturers argued that a surplus of imported Chinese solar panels has driven the cost of solar infrastructure too low and forced them out of the market. The ITC responded by recommending tariffs on global solar photovoltaic …

Fracking And The Rural Poor: Negative Externalities, Failing Remedies, And Federal Legislation, Matthew Castelli

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

This Note examines the relationship between the rural poor and the negative externalities of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”). It asserts that the rural poor are disproportionately burdened with fracking’s negative externalities and that comprehensive, national regulation is needed because current legal methods are insufficient to internalize these costs. The argument is made in four parts: describing fracking’s externalities; assessing their impact on the rural poor; analyzing current legal regimes; and proposing an equitable regulatory framework based on cooperative federalism.

Fracking produces three main categories of negative externalities: water, air, and land contamination. Water contamination can be caused by migration of fracking …

A Shift In The Wind: The Siting Of Wind Power Projects On Public Lands In The Obama Era, Eric S. Spengle

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Fight For Clean Technology Funds: Who Should Control The Future Of Low-Carbon Technology In The Developing World, William Gardner

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

As part of a multilateral climate change treaty, the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have discussed establishing an international aid mechanism, or fund, to support low-carbon energy generation and energy efficiency projects in developing countries. The selection of a fund administrator has been particularly contentious. Many developed countries believe that, rather than creating a new fund, the COP should use an already established one-the World Bank's Clean Technology Fund (CTF)-and select the World Bank as fund administrator.H owever, many developing countries believe the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC should create a …

Data Gaps In Natural Resource Management: Sniffing For Leaks Along The Information Pipeline, Holly Doremus

Indiana Law Journal

Despite wide recognition that natural resource management decisions are heavily dependent on the supply of scientific information, little attention has been paid to the processes by which that information is supplied. This paper lays out the key steps of the information supply pipeline, which include exploration, extraction, refining, blending, distribution, and consumption. Leaks in the pipeline can occur at any of these steps, interrupting the supply of information to decision makers. Because information supply is contextual and complex, no universal fix can address all information shortfalls. Nonetheless, several general recommendations emerge. First, decision makers must recognize the limits of scientific …

From Insull To Enron: Corporate (Re)Regulation After The Rise And Fall Of Two Energy Icons, William D. Henderson, Richard D. Cudahy

Articles by Maurer Faculty

For most Americans, the collapse of the Enron Corporation is without doubt the most memorable corporate event of their generation. Remarkably, few people are aware that the New Deal regulatory framework - which Congress recently reformed and toughened to in response to the Enron debacle - was itself erected in the wake of a strikingly similar corporate crash. In late 1931 and early 1932, the country looked on in horror as Samuel Insull's mighty and seemingly invulnerable electric utility holding company empire collapsed without warning, wiping out the holdings of over 1 million investors, most of whom believed that they …

Global Benefits Versus Local Concerns: The Need For A Bird's Eye View Of Nuclear Energy, Kathleen C. Reilly

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Ferc-Sec Overlapping Jurisdiction And The Ohio Power Litigation: A Loss For Ratepayers, Gary D. Levenson

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Federal Power Act's Controversial Municipal Preference: The Merwin Dam Dispute And Legislative Proposals To Amend Federal Hydro-Licensing Procedures, Daniel H. Cole

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Reviving The Federal Power Act's Comprehensive Plan Requirement: A History Of Neglect And Prospects For The Future, Daniel H. Cole

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In 1920, Congress enacted the Federal Power Act (FPA) to secure inexpensive and widely available power through federal licensing of private hydroelectric development in accordance with a "comprehensive plan." The Federal Power Commission (FPC) was charged with administering the statute and undertook its planning obligations with diligence, preparing plans for at least two river basins. However, chronic manpower and resource deficiencies soon led the FPC to neglect Congress' planning directive. No comprehensive plans have been produced since 1930, either by the FPC or its successor, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). This failure to plan, combined with the avalanche of …

The Federal Power Act's Controversial Municipal Preference: The Merwin Dam Dispute And Legislative Proposals To Amend Federal Hydro-Licensing Procedures, Daniel H. Cole

Articles by Maurer Faculty

For more than a half-century, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or Commission) and its predecessor, the Federal Power Commission (FPC), regulated hydroelectric development of the nation's rivers under the Federal Power Act (FPA) with little interference by Congress.' However, increasing criticism of the FERC has reawakened congressional interest in hydropower regulation.2 Congress recently considered a number of proposals to amend the FPA.8 Of these, seven related directly to a controversy born in the 1970s between public and private power:4 the issue of preference in competitive FERC relicensing proceedings.

Section 7(a) of the Federal Power Act directs the FERC to …

Regulatory Takings: The Supreme Court Runs Out Of Gas In San Diego, Douglas W. Kmiec

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Institutionalizing The Energy Crisis: Some Structural And Procedural Lessons, Alfred C. Aman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Automatic Fuel Adjustment Clauses: Time For A Hearing, Marshall A. Leaffer

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Through automatic fuel adjustment clauses, utilities in most states are permitted automatically to pass through to customers any increase in fuel costs, thereby circumventing a general rate hearing before a public utilities commission where the validity of any such rate increase could be publicly examined In this Article the author discusses the benefits and detriments of the automatic fuel adjustment clause, using the clause that existed in Ohio until quite recently as an example. He concludes that such a rate increase without a hearing can no longer be justified on the basis of uncontrollable fuel costs. Instead he advocates adoption …

Western Water Law And Coal Development, A. Dan Tarlock

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Competitive Aspects Of Utility Participation In Solar Development, William H. Lawrence, John H. Minan

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Geothermal Development And Western Water Law, A. Dan Tarlock, Owen Olpin, Carl F. Austin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Energy Crisis: A Few Perspectives, Alfred C. Aman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Water That Is Not Water, A. Dan Tarlock, Owen Olpin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The increased interest in the development of geothermal resources has given rise to the need for the formulation of a legal framework in which this development can be carried out. In this article, Mr. Olpin and Professor Tarlock analyze the proper relationship between western water law and geothermal resources development. They present an argument against the blanket application of western water law and propose a means of accommodating geothermal resources development with the protection of conventional water users.

Due Process And The Automatic Fuel Adjustment Clause, Randall Ogg

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

An Environmental Overview Of Geothermal Resources Development, A. Dan Tarlock, Richard L. Waller

Articles by Maurer Faculty

While the adverse environmental effects of geothermal resources development appear to be less severe than those created by other energy sources, geothermal development nonetheless poses serious environmental problems. Professor Tarlock and Mr. Waller identify and discuss four categories of potential adverse environmental impacts of geothermal development: land use disturbance, water pollution, air pollution and noise.

Geothermal Bibliography, A. Dan Tarlock, Richard L. Waller

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Administrative Agencies And The Energy Problem (Symposium Introduction), Ralph F. Fuchs

Indiana Law Journal

Administrative Law and the Environment: National Fuels Policy, Symposium

Balancing Environmental Considerations And Energy Demands: A Comment On Calvert Cliffs' Coordinating Committee Inc. V. Aec, A. Dan Tarlock

Indiana Law Journal

Symposium: Administrative Law and the Environment: National Fuels Policy

The Four Corners Power Complex: Pollution On The Reservation, Laurence A. Mchugh

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.