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Full-Text Articles in Law
Sea-Level Rise And Changing Times For Florida Local Governments, David Markell
Sea-Level Rise And Changing Times For Florida Local Governments, David Markell
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
The legal environment for local government in Florida is beginning to change when it comes to sea-level rise (sometimes referred to as SLR). Innovations in institutional structure and governance strategies are underway in the State as well. This paper reviews three recent developments, which relate primarily to comprehensive planning in the State, and explores their implications for Florida’s local governments, among others. It begins with the State’s decision, in 2011 legislation, to give local governments a new, optional tool – referred to as “Adaptation Action Areas” (AAAs) – to address sea-level rise and related issues in local comprehensive plans. The …
Legal Tools For Climate Adaptation Advocacy: The Electric Grid And Its Regulators – Ferc And State Public Utility Commissions, Payal Nanavati, Justin Gundlach
Legal Tools For Climate Adaptation Advocacy: The Electric Grid And Its Regulators – Ferc And State Public Utility Commissions, Payal Nanavati, Justin Gundlach
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
The electric grid connects electricity generators to consumers. State and federal regulators are tasked with ensuring that consumers have access to safe and reliable electricity at just and reasonable rates. The requirements of this task have and will continue to transform as technologies change and as the impacts of climate change alter the context in which the electric grid operates. Thus, regulators who make adapting to climate change a priority will better fulfill their mandate to ensure that utilities provide consumers with safe and reliable electricity at just and reasonable rates. Yet some regulators do not recognize how closely adaptation …
Considering The Effects Of Climate Change On Natural Resources In Environmental Review And Planning Documents: Guidelines For Agencies And Practitioners, Jessica A. Wentz
Considering The Effects Of Climate Change On Natural Resources In Environmental Review And Planning Documents: Guidelines For Agencies And Practitioners, Jessica A. Wentz
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
This paper describes how climate change will affect natural resources in the United States, and explains why consideration of how climate change will affect those resources is necessary in order to fulfill legal requirements under NEPA and other statutes governing the management of these resources. It also presents examples of how climate change has been meaningfully accounted for in environmental review and planning documents. The accompanying protocol contains guidelines for considering the impacts of climate change in environmental reviews as well as other planning documents (e.g., resource management plans and resource assessments).
Local Law Provisions For Climate Change Adaptation, Justin Gundlach, P. Dane Warren
Local Law Provisions For Climate Change Adaptation, Justin Gundlach, P. Dane Warren
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
In September 2014, New York enacted the Community Risk and Resiliency Act (CRRA), which requires in part that the New York Department of State (DOS) and the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) create model local laws relating to climate change adaptation for use by local governments. In an effort to assist the State with drafting model local laws for adaptation; to encourage the State to incorporate a broad range of adaptation strategies, including retreat from areas of high flood risk; and to assist local governments with implementation of these programs. The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law has assembled existing …
Integrating Climate Change Resilience Into Hud’S Disaster Recovery Program, Justin Gundlach, Channing R. Jones
Integrating Climate Change Resilience Into Hud’S Disaster Recovery Program, Justin Gundlach, Channing R. Jones
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s community development block grant disaster recovery program (CDBG-DR) can better and more clearly incorporate climate resilience and adaptation priorities. This article identifies and analyzes the statutes that have guided HUD's approach to disaster recovery to date, as well as forms of “soft guidance” issued by HUD for use by various stakeholders, including both HUD CDBG-DR program officers and the state and local officials that interact with them. Comparing these materials reveals a tension between the requirement that all projects funded by CDBG-DR “tie back” to the most recent disaster, and the logic …