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Full-Text Articles in Law
Takings And Transmission, Alexandra B. Klass
Takings And Transmission, Alexandra B. Klass
Alexandra B. Klass
Ever since the Supreme Court’s controversial 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London, courts, state legislatures, and the public have scrutinized eminent domain actions like never before. Such scrutiny has focused, for the most part, on the now-controversial “economic development” or “public purpose” takings involved in the Kelo case itself, where government takes private property to convey it to another private party who promises to develop the property in a way that will increase the tax base, create new jobs, assist in urban renewal, or otherwise provide economic or social benefits to the public. By contrast, until recently, …
Property Rights On The New Frontier: Climate Change, Natural Resources Development, And Renewable Energy, Alexandra B. Klass
Property Rights On The New Frontier: Climate Change, Natural Resources Development, And Renewable Energy, Alexandra B. Klass
Alexandra B. Klass
This Article explores the history of natural resources law and pollution control law to provide insights into current efforts by states to create wind easements, solar easements, and other property rights in the use of or access to renewable resources. Development of these resources is critical to current efforts to address climate change, which has a foot in both natural resources law and pollution control law. This creates challenges for developing theoretical and policy frameworks in this area, particularly surrounding the role of property rights. Property rights have played an important role in both natural resources law and pollution control …
State Standards For Nationwide Products Revisited: Federalism, Green Building Codes, And Appliance Efficiency Standards, Alexandra B. Klass
State Standards For Nationwide Products Revisited: Federalism, Green Building Codes, And Appliance Efficiency Standards, Alexandra B. Klass
Alexandra B. Klass
This Article considers the federal preemption of state standards for building appliances and places the issue within the ongoing federalism debate over the role of state standards for “nationwide products” such as automobiles, pharmaceuticals, and other consumer products. Notably, residential, commercial, and industrial buildings make up approximately 40 percent of total U.S. energy demand and the same percentage of U.S. carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, while the appliances within those buildings are responsible for 70 percent of building energy use, making appliance efficiency a central component of any national effort to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. For decades …
Climate Change, Carbon Sequestration, And Property Rights, Alexandra B. Klass, Elizabeth J. Wilson
Climate Change, Carbon Sequestration, And Property Rights, Alexandra B. Klass, Elizabeth J. Wilson
Alexandra B. Klass
This Article considers the role of property rights in efforts to transport, inject, and store underground hundreds of million of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year from power plants and other industrial facilities in order to combat dangerous climate change. This technology, known as carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), could provide deep emission cuts, particularly from coal power generation, on a worldwide basis. In order to implement CCS, private operators and state and federal governments must be able to access hundreds of millions of acres of “pore space” roughly a kilometer below the earth’s surface in which to store …
Climate Change And Carbon Sequestration: Assessing A Liability Regime For Long-Term Storage Of Carbon Dioxide, Alexandra B. Klass, Elizabeth J. Wilson
Climate Change And Carbon Sequestration: Assessing A Liability Regime For Long-Term Storage Of Carbon Dioxide, Alexandra B. Klass, Elizabeth J. Wilson
Alexandra B. Klass
As the nation struggles with how to address climate change, one of the most significant questions is how to reduce increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. One promising technology is carbon capture and sequestration (“CCS”), which consists of capturing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and industrial sources and sequestering them in deep geologic formations for long periods of time. Areas for potential CO2 sequestration include oil and gas fields, saline aquifers, and coal seams. As Congress and the private sector begin to spend billions of dollars to research and deploy this technology, there has been insufficient attention …
The Frontier Of Eminent Domain, Alexandra B. Klass
The Frontier Of Eminent Domain, Alexandra B. Klass
Alexandra B. Klass
The Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London brought the issues of takings and public use into the national spotlight. A groundswell of opposition to government-initiated “economic development takings” the Court deemed a public use under the Fifth Amendment led to eminent domain reform legislation in over 30 states. Many people are surprised to learn, however, that another type of economic development taking is alive and well in many western states that are rich in natural resources. In those states, oil, gas, and mining companies have the power of eminent domain under state constitutions or state …
Punitive Damages And Valuing Harm, Alexandra B. Klass
Punitive Damages And Valuing Harm, Alexandra B. Klass
Alexandra B. Klass
In 2003, the Supreme Court created a presumption that only single-digit ratios of punitive damages to compensatory damages would satisfy substantive due process limits. The exception to this presumption is when the defendant’s misconduct results in only a small amount of compensatory damages or when harm is difficult to value. This Article proposes that while lower courts have properly departed from single-digit ratios where the compensatory damage are small, they have had more difficulty doing so when harm is difficult to value. As a result, lower courts are mechanically applying a single-digit ratio in cases where the Court’s current framework …