Law Commons^™

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 …

Opposition To Renewable Energy Facilities In The United States, Hillary Aidun, Radhika Goyal, Kate Marsh, Neely Mckee, Maris Welch

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

More than 100 ordinances have been adopted in 31 states blocking or restricting new wind, solar, and other renewable energy facilities, and more than 160 of these projects have been contested in 48 states. Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law issued a report documenting these instances of local opposition to renewables.

State Authority To Preempt Local Laws Regulating Renewable Energy Projects, Michael B. Gerrard, Edward Mctiernan

Faculty Scholarship

The New York State Energy Plan, announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2015, calls for a doubling to 50 percent of the portion of the electricity used in the state that comes from renewable sources by 2030. This would lower greenhouse gas emissions, create jobs, and reduce the use of fossil fuels, especially natural gas.

Much of this new renewable energy would be generated by wind and solar projects. Some if it would be from wind facilities to be built offshore in the Atlantic Ocean; the rest would be on the land.

Carbon Pricing In New York Iso Markets: Federal And State Issues, Justin Gundlach, Romany M. Webb

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Does the law permit the New York Independent Service Operator (NYISO) to incorporate, directly or indirectly, a carbon price into New York State’s wholesale electricity market? And, if so, what is the appropriate design of a carbon pricing scheme for the NYISO market? For example, at what level should a carbon price be set and when/how should it be adjusted? How should the revenues generated by such a price be used? What impact (if any) will it have on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and New York’s Clean Energy Standard? This working paper explores answers to those questions with …

Legal Pathways For A Massive Increase In Utility-Scale Renewable Generation Capacity, Michael Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

Decarbonizing the U.S. energy system will require a program of building onshore wind, offshore wind, utility-scale solar, and associated transmission that will exceed what has been done before in the United States by many times, every year out to 2050. These facilities, together with rooftop photovoltaics and other distributed generation, are required to replace most fossil fuel generation and to help furnish the added electricity that will be needed as many uses currently employing fossil fuels (especially passenger transportation and space and water heating) are electrified. This Article, excerpted from Michael B. Gerrard & John Dernbach, eds., Legal Pathways to …

Federal Implementation Plans And The Path To Clean Power, Daniel Selmi

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Promulgated under the Clean Air Act in October 2015, the Clean Power Plan (“CPP”) requires states to significantly reduce carbon emissions from existing power plants and is the centerpiece of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) response to global warming. Many states have filed lawsuits challenging the CPP and some states have vowed that, if those suits are unsuccessful, they will refuse to implement it. In turn, EPA has proposed rules that would implement the CPP by imposing a “federal implementation plan” (“FIP”) upon those recalcitrant states under the authority of the Clean Air Act. Thus, the success of the CPP …

How Much Does The Existing Regulatory Patchwork Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions?, Justin Gundlach

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This paper offers an answer to the question, “What levels of greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions reduction do the constituent programs in the U.S.’s existing regulatory patchwork achieve?” Its answer represents an attempt to measure the same effect from eight regulatory interventions: EPA’s Prevention of Significant Deterioration program, as it is expected to operate following the Supreme Court’s UARG v. EPA decision in 2014; EPA’s Clean Power Plan; EPA’s renewable fuel standard; the federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards for light, medium, and heavy duty vehicles; the renewable electricity generation Production Tax Credit and Investment Tax Credit; the Regional Greenhouse Gas …

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.

Federal Regulatory Barriers To Grid-Deployed Energy Storage, Andrew Meyer

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Until recently, the most advanced form of grid-deployed energy storage involved pumping water up a hill. But “newer storage technologies like flywheels and chemical batteries have recently achieved technological maturity and are well into successful pilot stages and, in some cases, commercial operation”. If widely adopted these new energy storage technologies will fundamentally alter the operation of our electricity system

Court Ruling Gives Green Light To Epa Ghg Regulations – Positive For Natural Gas, Renewables, And Efficient Vehicles, Mark Fulton, Michael B. Gerrard, Jake Baker, Lucy Cotter

Faculty Scholarship

On June 26, 2012, a panel from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Court unanimously upheld the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) landmark greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations, keeping intact the EPA’s authority to regulate carbon emissions from vehicle tailpipes and stationary sources.

The case is of great importance as it effectively clears the way for the EPA to proceed with its proposed rules to regulate CO₂ emissions from both new power plants and from other new stationary sources, in addition to pressing ahead with new vehicle emission standards.

Increasing Use Of Renewable Energy: Legal Techniques And Impediments, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

The current turmoil in the Middle East and the consequent rise in oil prices are highlighting the long-recognized need for the United States to reduce its dependence on foreign energy sources. The most promising way to do that is through increased efficiency in our use of energy. My last column (Jan. 13, 2011) discussed the legal aspects of that measure. Today’s column is devoted to the legal aspects of the second most important way – increasing the share of the energy that we use that comes from renewable sources.

Model Municipal Ordinance Project Designed To Facilitate Wind And Solar Projects And Green Buildings, Michael B. Gerrard, Danielle Sugarman

Faculty Scholarship

Soaring oil prices and the reality of climate change have underscored the heed to reduce U.S. fossil fuel dependence by improving energy efficiency and by developing and expanding renewable sources of energy. The International Energy Agency declared in 2010 that "[i]ncreasing energy efficiency, much of which can be achieved through low-cost options, offers the greatest potential for reducing CO2 emissions over the period to 2050." Furthermore, increasing our reliance on renewable resources such as wind and solar energy is not only a prudent measure in helping America to improve its energy security, but is a necessary component of a basket …

New York's Revived Power Plant Siting Law Preempts Local Control, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

Taking most observers by surprise, the New York State Legislature on June 22, 2011, overwhelmingly passed The Power NY Act of 2011. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed it on Aug. 4. The new law revives Article X of the Public Service Law after a nearly nine-year hibernation. As before, the law creates a one-stop, state-led program for permitting electric generating facilities while preempting local requirements. But the new Article X differs from its predecessor in several important ways: It covers facilities as small as 25 megawatts (down from the prior 80 megawatts threshold), it has even more generous provisions for funding …