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Shopping For State Constitutions: Unequal Gift Clauses As Obstacles To Optimal State Encouragement Of Carbon Sequestration, Nicholas Houpt
Shopping For State Constitutions: Unequal Gift Clauses As Obstacles To Optimal State Encouragement Of Carbon Sequestration, Nicholas Houpt
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Carbon capture and sequestration technology (CCS) could drastically reduce CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants, thereby mitigating climate change. CCS, however, faces a difficult barrier to market entry: liability for the technology’s many long-term risks. States would like to alleviate this long-term liability problem to capture CCS’s social benefits. Some state constitutions, however, have provisions called “gift clauses” that prohibit giving aid to private parties. This Note argues that some state constitutions’ gift clauses prevent indemnification of private CCS developers. As this Note’s fifty state survey shows, other state constitutions allow indemnification. This asymmetry in constitutionally-allowed financial encouragement results in …
Carbon Offshoring: The Legal And Regulatory Framework For Coal Exports, Daniel M. Firger, Robert Denicola, Katherine English, Daniel Raichel, Ross Wolfarth, Kennan Zhong
Carbon Offshoring: The Legal And Regulatory Framework For Coal Exports, Daniel M. Firger, Robert Denicola, Katherine English, Daniel Raichel, Ross Wolfarth, Kennan Zhong
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
This report examines the legal and regulatory framework for U.S. coal exports, focusing in particular on the significant improvements in railroad and port infrastructure that will be necessary in order to boost the volume of overseas coal shipments to the degree anticipated by recent industry projections. While existing railroads and ports have the capacity to handle current coal export volumes, much more infrastructure will be needed to meet surging foreign demand. A wide variety of new construction projects are under consideration to expand capacity and relieve congestion. These range from double-tracking existing Class I railroad rights of way to dredging …