Law Commons^™

The Unfulfilled Promise Of Indian Water Rights Settlements, Heather Tanana, Elisabeth Paxton Parker

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

As climate change threatens an already-scarce resource, quantifying tribal water rights is critical to providing additional certainty to an uncertain future. In order to protect the future of their communities, it is critical that tribal water rights move from merely theoretical paper rights to actualized wet water rights.

In The Name Of Energy Sovereignty, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

Faculty Scholarship

Throughout history, the phrase "In the name of the King" justified actions that trumped the rights of citizens in order to safeguard the interests of the Crown. Today, in the name of energy sovereignty, states deploy the government apparatus to access oil and gas in other parts of the world, build pipelines on private lands, subsidize renewable energy, and nationalize their oil and power industries. States justify each of these actions by noting that they create a sense of energy independence, ensure security, or achieve other social and economic goals. Energy, however, cannot be trapped in one "realm." Its nature …

Characterizing Legal Implications For The Use Of Transboundary Aquifers, Gabriel Eckstein

Faculty Scholarship

Groundwater resources that traverse political boundaries are becoming increasingly important sources of freshwater in international and intranational arenas worldwide. This is a direct extension of the growing need for new sources of freshwater, as well as the impact that excessive extraction, pollution, climate change, and other anthropogenic activities have had on surface waters. It is also a function of the growing realization that groundwater respects no political boundaries, and that aquifers traverse jurisdictional lines at all levels of political geography.

Due to this growing awareness, questions pertaining to responsibility and liability are now being raised in relation to the use, …

Scotus Invalidates Obama Clean Power Plan, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

On June 30, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled in the case of West Virginia v. EPA that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could not implement the 2016 Obama administration Clean Power Plan (CPP). This article briefly discusses the CPP, the CPP litigation, the Court's opinion in West Virginia v. EPA, and what the decision means for Biden administration climate policy.

Impact Assessment And Responsible Business Conduct Tools In The Extractive Sector: An Environmental Human Rights Toolbox For Government, Business, Civil Society, And Indigenous Groups, Sara L. Seck, Charlotte Connolly, Penelope Simons, Audrey Axten

Responsible Business Conduct and Impact Assessment Law

This toolbox provides guidance on how governments, businesses, civil society, and Indigenous groups may encourage and adopt a human rights approach to impact assessment (IA). It forms part of a broader research project aimed at highlighting the interrelationship between IA laws and Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) tools, funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Knowledge Synthesis Grant: Informing Best Practices in Environmental & Impact Assessments (the “KSG”).

How Environmental Litigation Has Turned Pipelines Into Pipe Dreams, Madison Hinkle, Jesse J. Richardson

Law Faculty Scholarship

Proposed oil and gas pipelines have faced a myriad of legal challenges in the past several years. Even where pipeline proponents have prevailed, the cost and delay of protracted litigation has often caused cancellation of pipeline projects. In addition, presidential transitions have led to abrupt reversals of pipeline policies, which courts have often reviewed skeptically. This Article explores the regulatory framework for pipeline construction and analyzes recent lawsuits, describing the legal requirements that agencies must follow to change policies and discussing policies of the Obama and Trump Administrations in context of the legal challenges. It concludes by analyzing the approaches …

Lumpy Social Goods In Energy Decarbonization: Why We Need More Than Just Markets For The Clean Energy Transition, Daniel E. Walters

Faculty Scholarship

To avoid the worst consequences of global climate change, the United States must achieve daunting targets for decarbonizing its electric power sector on a very short timescale. Policy experts largely agree that achieving these goals will require massive investment in new infrastructure to facilitate the deep integration of renewable fuels into the electric grid, including a new national high-voltage electric transmission network and grid-scale electricity storage, such as batteries. However, spurring investment in these needed infrastructures has proven to be challenging, despite numerous attempts by regulators and policymakers to clear a path for market-driven investment. Unchecked, this problem threatens to …

Legal Provisions On Shared Use Of Mining Infrastructure: Rail, Port, And Power, Logan Hinderliter, Martin Dietrich Brauch, Perrine Toledano

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In 2011, CCSI began to research how mining infrastructure can be leveraged for sustainable development and in 2013 created an economic, legal, and operational framework to generate shared-use benefits from rail, ports, power, water, and internet and telecommunications. CCSI has published many works on shared use in the mining sector. Those works, along with other mining-related publications and mining concessions available online, ground the analytical framework of this paper, provide insight on the economic drivers of the mining sector, and detail how legal provisions – including laws, regulations, and contractual terms – can forefront shared use.

This paper is part …

Helping New Jersey State Agencies And Departments Align Their Actions With Ghg Reduction Mandates And Environmental Justice Principles, Jennifer Danis, Zoe Makoul

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This white paper analyzes New Jersey’s implementation gap in both the climate and justice space. Its findings are potentially applicable to the many other states who have set climate and justice goals, without robustly embedding them into their existing legal and administrative landscapes. New Jersey already has GHG reduction targets, a plan, and mapped pathways. While more aggressive tactics and targets may be required to meet evolving scientific knowledge, and cost-effective technology and markets will evolve over time, New Jersey’s climate-alignment tools and pathways are clear. The EMP, the 2020 GWRA 80x50 Report, and EO-274, among other strong state initiatives, …

Law School News: Fateful Decisions Led To The War In Ukraine 04-25-2022, Gregory W. Bowman

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Groundwater Laws And Regulations: Survey Of Sixteen U.S. States, Abigail Adams, Jack Beasley, Rebekah Bratcher, Justin Clas, Jackson Field, Ian Gaunt, Ashley Graves, Merrick Hayashi, Jenna Lusk, Matthew Maslanka, Erin Milliken, Connor Pabich, Margaret Reed, A. Wesley Remschel, Lauren Thomas, Ashley Wilde

EENRS Program Reports & Publications

This report is the second volume in a continuing project designed to explore and articulate the groundwater laws and regulations of all fifty U.S. states. This particular report presents surveys for sixteen states throughout the country. The first volume featured thirteen state surveys and can be found at: http://www.law.tamu.edu/usgroundwaterlaws.

The purpose of the project is to compile and present the groundwater laws and regulations of every state in the United States that could then be used in a series of comparisons of groundwater governance principles, strategies, issues, and challenges. Professor Gabriel Eckstein at Texas A&M University School of Law and …

Opposition To Renewable Energy Facilities In The United States: March 2022 Edition, Hillary Aidun, Jacob Elkin, Radhika Goyal, Kate Marsh, Neely Mckee, Maris Welch, Leah Adelman, Shane Finn

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Achieving lower carbon emissions in the United States will require developing a very large number of wind, solar, and other renewable energy facilities, as well as associated storage, distribution, and transmission, at an unprecedented scale and pace. Although host community members are often enthusiastic about renewable energy facilities’ economic and environmental benefits, local opposition often arises. This report updates a previous Sabin Center report, published in February 2021, and documents local restrictions on and opposition to siting renewable energy projects for the period from 1995 to early 2022. Importantly, the authors do not make normative judgments as to the legal …

Legal Challenges And Opportunities For Peer-To-Peer Electricity Trading In Thailand, Piti Eiamchamroonlarp

Centre for Commercial Law in Asia

Electricity is a critical resource for a country as it powers devices and enables modern living with digital transactions, crypto mining, deployment of electric vehicles (EV) etc. Given these emerging activities, electricity demand is forecasted to keep rising. The peak electricity load in Thailand for 2018, 29,969 MW, will likely increase to 53,997 MW by 2037. However, Thailand, as a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, must consider negative impacts on the environment from electricity generation. To meet these challenges, renewable resources are needed for cleaner electricity generation and ensuring security of electricity supply, while simultaneously …

Comparative Analysis Between Saudi Arabia And Norway In Moving Beyond Fossil Fuels Towards A Sustainable Economy: A Special Emphasis On The Renewable Energy Sector, Saad Nasser Alqahtani

Dissertations & Theses

Saudi Arabia is the largest economy in the Middle East and the 18th largest in the world. The country has the world's second-largest proven petroleum reserves and is the largest exporter of petroleum. In 2016, Saudi Arabia had the third highest estimated value of natural resources at $34.4 trillion (US). However, because of the 2014 oil crash, climate change, and the development of renewable energy technology, the government has decided to transition from its complete reliance on oil revenues and to start investing heavily in other non-oil sectors, such as the renewable energy sector. The Saudi government plans to generate …

State Broadband Profile - Ohio (Feb. 2022), New York Law School

Reports and Resources

No abstract provided.

Land Use Conflicts Between Wind And Solar Renewable Energy And Agriculture Uses, Peggy Kirk Hall, Whitney Morgan, Jesse Richardson

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Comments Submitted In Response To Request For Information To Inform Interagency Working Group On Mining Regulations, Laws, And Permitting, Robert B. Keiter, Jamie Pleune, Heather Tanana, Brigham Daniels, Tim Duane, Elisabeth Parker

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

On March 31, 2022, the Department of Interior announced the formation of an interagency working group to develop recommendations for improving Federal hardrock mining regulations, laws, and permitting processes, and invited public comment to help inform the efforts of the working group. The Request for Information sought, among other things, recommendations on “opportunities to reduce time, cost, and risk of permitting without compromising strong environmental and consultation benchmarks.” Members of the Wallace Stegner Center of Land Resources and the Environment, at the S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah submitted comments based on their shared expertise in mining law, …

North American Energy In The Crossfire, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez, James W. Coleman

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

North America is the beating heart of global energy markets undergoing a terrible energy crisis that threatens to upend both the economy and global security. The clearest path out of this global crisis is increasing energy supplies from North America, which can restore energy security and drive a transition to cleaner energy sources. The U.S., Mexico, and Canada have abundant and varied resources to surmount this challenge but are in dire need of stronger cooperation across borders, and between private and public actors to achieve this goal. This Article shows how energy law changes in the U.S. and Mexico present …

Preventing Emissions From Slipping Through The Cracks: How Collaboration On New Technologies To Detect Violations And Minimize Emissions Can Efficiently Enforce Existing Clean Air Act Regulations, Kathryn Caballero

Journal Articles

The link between air pollution and poor public health is well known and has been farther documented during the COVID-19 pandemic, 1 but EPA has outdated methods and rules to detect air emissions. Enforcing existing environmental regulations presents challenges because the detection and monitoring technologies identified in the regulations, or the regulation language itself, may not sufficiently identify environmental pollution, let alone complex environmental fraud. How can EPA best use new technologies and concepts to detect violations, with the intent of minimizing emissions, to improve human health and environmental outcomes during the lengthy process of drafting and publishing new regulations? …

Promoting Cost-Effective Grid Modernization, Jim Rossi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Recent legislative reforms enacted in several states grant incumbent utilities a right-of-first-refusal (ROFR) over new electric power transmission lines. Regional grid planners, who typically defer to state law, often avoid running competitive solicitations for regional transmission projects located in these states. As a result, state ROFR laws expose customers to excessive regional transmission costs.

Such state ROFR laws are constitutionally dubious, and ultimately harmful to customers. Customers affected by ROFR laws do not realize the cost savings and other benefits of competition, including superior cost containment and innovative grid modernization solutions. States can promote cost-effective grid modernization by encouraging competitive …

Paying For Energy Peaks: Learning From Texas' February 2021 Power Crisis, Colleen M. Baker, James W. Coleman

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

From February 14–19, 2021, winter storm Uri blanketed Texas with extreme cold. Tragically, the severe temperatures overwhelmed the state’s power system. Texas’ power grid ended up more than 20 Gigawatts short of the electricity Texans needed 2 – more power than all of California produces on an average day. Over two-hundred lives were lost3 and an estimated $295 billion in damage resulted.4 Yet many had long regarded Texas’ electric power system, and its regulation, as a model for others. What happened? That question is the focus of this article. This article first provides an overview of the severe power outages …

The (Un)Just Use Of Transition Minerals: How Efforts To Achieve A Low-Carbon Economy Continue To Violate Indigenous Rights, Kathleen Finn, Christina A.W. Stanton

Publications

No abstract provided.

Grid Reliability Through Clean Energy, Shelley Welton, Alexandra Klass, Joshua Macey, Hannah Wiseman

All Faculty Scholarship

In the wake of recent high-profile power failures, policymakers and politicians have asserted that there is an inherent tension between the aims of clean energy and grid reliability. But continuing to rely on fossil fuels to avoid system outages will only exacerbate reliability challenges by contributing to increasingly extreme climate-related weather events. These extremes will disrupt the power supply, with impacts rippling far beyond the electricity sector.

This Article shows that much of the perceived tension between clean energy and reliability is a failure of law and governance resulting from the United States’ siloed approach to regulating the electric grid. …

Evaluating Climate Risk In Nepa Reviews: Current Practices And Recommendations For Reform, Romany M. Webb, Michael Panfil, Stephanie H. Jones, Dena Adler

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

In recent years, policymakers, practitioners, and scholars have increasingly considered how climate change should factor into existing environmental review obligations, including review of U.S. federal agency actions under the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”). Attention thus far has focused primarily on the critical question of how to account for an action’s contribution to climate change via direct, indirect, or cumulative greenhouse gas emissions. However, less focus has been given to the equally critical question of how actions will be affected by, and can prepare for, the impacts of climate change. This paper combines an extensive review of previously conducted …

Regulating For Energy Justice, Alexandra B. Klass, Gabriel Chan

Articles

In this Article, we explore and critique the foundational norms that shape federal and state energy regulation and suggest pathways for reform that can incorporate principles of “energy justice.” These energy justice principles—developed in academic scholarship and social movements—include the equitable distribution of costs and benefits of the energy system, equitable participation and representation in energy decision making, and restorative justice for structurally marginalized groups.

While new legislation, particularly at the state level, is critical to the effort to advance energy justice, our focus here is on regulators’ ability to implement reforms now using their existing authority to advance the …