Law Commons^™

What’S Scope 3 Good For?, Madison Condon

Faculty Scholarship

Opposition to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) new rule on updated climate risk reporting has focused on one category of disclosures as particularly objectionable: Scope 3 emissions.⁷ Otherwise known as “supply chain emissions,” Scope 3 emissions have been voluntarily reported by a growing number of companies since the term was invented as part of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol in 2001.⁸ They include all the emissions both up and downstream of a corporations’ own activities: the emissions of the privately-owned factory that produced the shoes Target sells, as well as the emissions you burn while driving to the …

Centrality And Compliance: Unitary Vs. Federalist Political Systems In The Implementation Of The Kyoto Protocol In Argentina And Uruguay, Aidan Homan

Baker Scholar Projects

When Uruguay and Argentina first gained their respective independence in the early 1800s, they appeared to be following the same path of development As countries that came from the same Spanish colonization, share almost identical agricultural economies, and retain a close relationship, it is logical that they would follow similar trajectories. This assumption proves to be inaccurate in more ways than one, but most prominently within the environmental sphere. One way to analyze this difference in policy implementation lies in compliance with international environmental treaties which contain specific goals and limits for all parties involved. The Kyoto Protocol presents a …

Transferred Emissions Are Still Emissions: Why Fossil Fuel Asset Sales Need Enhanced Transparency And Carbon Accounting, Jack Arnold, Martin Lockman, Perrine Toledano, Martin Dietrich Brauch, Shraman Sen, Michael Burger

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

In a widely reported trend, the “Oil Supermajors” — BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Eni, ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies — are selling off many upstream fossil fuel assets.

Selling these assets to entities that will continue producing and selling the fossil fuel resources does not necessarily reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but the supermajors have used these asset sales to support claims that they are making progress toward reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Emissions reporting frameworks allow companies to conflate the apparent emissions reductions from asset sales with direct reductions from efficiency improvements and asset retirements. In doing so, they hinder the ability …

Global Climate Governance In 3d: Mainstreaming Geoengineering Within A Unified Framework, Gabriel Weil

Scholarly Works

The failure of conventional climate change mitigation to reduce climate-related risks to tolerable levels has spurred interest in more unconventional—and riskier—climate interventions. What currently sounds like science fiction could become a reality in the not-so-distant future: planes blasting particles into the sky to block the sun, vast deserts covered with mirrors, algae sucking carbon into the depths of the ocean. Scholars tend to lump all these unconventional climate measures together in a fuzzy category called “geoengineering,” and set them apart from conventional climate change mitigation. But the characteristics of climate interferences vary across three distinct dimensions, which the mitigation-geoengineering dichotomy …

Climate Change As Systemic Risk, Barnali Choudhury

Articles & Book Chapters

Hindsight tells us that COVID-19, thought by former President Trump and others to have come out of nowhere, is more aptly labelled a “gray rhino” event, one that was highly probable and preventable. Indeed, despite considerable evidence of the impending threats of pandemics, for the most part, governments failed to prepare for the pandemic, resulting in wide-scale social and economic losses.

The lessons from COVID-19, however, should remind us of the perils of ignoring gray rhino risks. Nowhere is this more apparent than with climate change, a highly probable, high impact threat that has largely been ignored to date. Despite …

The Carbon Price Equivalent: A Metric For Comparing Climate Change Mitigation Efforts Across Jurisdictions, Gabriel Weil

Scholarly Works

Climate change presents a global commons problem: Emissions reductions on the scale needed to meet global targets do not pass a domestic cost-benefit test in most countries. To give national governments ample incentive to pursue deep decarbonization, mutual interstate coercion will be necessary. Many proposed tools of coercive climate diplomacy would require a one-dimensional metric for comparing the stringency of climate change mitigation policy packages across jurisdictions. This article proposes and defends such a metric: the carbon price equivalent. There is substantial variation in the set of climate change mitigation policy instruments implemented by different countries. Nonetheless, the consequences of …

Persistent Regulations: A Detailed Assessment Of The Trump Administration's Efforts To Repeal Federal Climate Regulations, Jessica A. Wentz, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

This paper takes a critical look at what the Trump administration has actually accomplished in terms of repealing and modifying greenhouse gas emission standards and otherwise advancing its pro-fossil fuel agenda. As detailed herein and summarized in Figures 1 and 2, the scope of the efforts taken pursuant to this agenda is extremely broad – there are dozens of different deregulatory actions underway at various agencies, most notably the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). But in most cases, the pace of these efforts has been quite slow. This is particularly true for efforts to repeal or revise major regulations like the …

Mitigating Climate Change Through Transportation And Land Use Policy, Alejandro E. Camacho, Melissa L. Kelly, Nicholas J. Marantz, Gabriel Weil

Scholarly Works

A number of U.S. state and local governments have adopted strategies for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation and land development. Although some have made significant progress in reducing GHG emissions from the power sector, transportation emissions in most states continue to rise. This Article details the range of existing and proposed state interventions to reduce transportation sector GHG emissions, analyzes the trade offs of these strategies, and offers recommendations to improve and supplement such initiatives, including strategic use of planning mandates and funding and technical assistance. Additionally, regulating land use, shifting transportation spending, removing barriers to implementing road …

Beyond The Pipeline Wars: Reforming Environmental Assessment Of Energy Transport Infrastructure, James W. Coleman

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

In recent years the role of transport infrastructure in energy markets has become a flashpoint for legal conflict. On one hand, the world is experiencing an unprecedented build-out all kinds of energy transport: oil and gas pipelines, liquefied natural gas projects, power transmission, and port facilities for coal and oil. On the other hand, environmental advocates have increasingly insisted that pipelines and other transport projects should not be built if they would encourage fossil fuel production in markets “upstream” and fossil fuel consumption in markets “downstream” of these projects.

Governments have struggled with how to respond. President Obama famously promised …

Decarbonizing Light-Duty Vehicles, Amy L. Stein, Joshua P. Fershee

UF Law Faculty Publications

Reducing the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% from 1990 levels by 2050 will require multiple legal pathways for changing its transportation fuel sources. The Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) authors characterize transforming the transportation system as part of a third pillar of fundamental changes required in the U.S. energy system: “fuel switching of end uses to electricity and other low-carbon supplies.” The goal is to shift 80%-95% of the miles driven from gasoline to energy sources like electricity and hydrogen. Relying upon the DDPP analysis, this Article, excerpted from Michael B. Gerrard & John C. Dernbach, …

The Role Of Individual And Household Behavior In Decarbonization, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Paul C. Stern

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article asks: why does household behavior matter for deep decarbonization, and how can laws, policies, and programs that target behavior change be employed to facilitate decarbonization? Individuals and households can affect carbon emissions in multiple ways through their behavior as environmental activists, by offering support or opposition to environmental public policies in their citizen roles, by exerting influence within organizations of which they are a part, by making investment decisions based on carbon considerations, and by acquiring and using energy and carbon-emitting goods and services or meeting their needs in ways that do not emit greenhouse gases. Each of …

Agenda: Seeds Of Change: Responding To Global Change In A Bottom-Up World, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment, University Of Colorado Boulder. School Of Law, Posner Center For International Development, Resolve (Firm), Newmont Mining Corporation

Seeds of Change: Responding to Global Change in a Bottom-Up World (Martz Winter Symposium, February 12-13)

Sponsors: Posner Center for International Development, RESOLVE, Inc., Newmont Mining Corporation, and Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment.

Conference moderators, panelists and speakers included University of Colorado Law School professors Phil Weiser, Sarah Krakoff, Britt Banks, and Lakshman Guruswamy.

This conference is made possible through the generous support of donors who sponsored this year’s Martz Sustainability Symposium (including Newmont Mining Corporation) and those who have invested in our Clyde O. Martz Endowed Fund for Natural Resources Management (including Brian Dolan and Davis Graham and Stubbs LLP). The Martz Natural Resources Management Fund was established in the memory …

Contemporary Practice Of The United States Relating To International Law, Kristina Daugirdas, Julian Davis Mortenson

Articles

In this section: United States Objects to Russia’s Continued Violations of Ukraine’s Territorial Sovereignty, Including by Convoys Purporting to Provide Humanitarian Aid • United States and Afghanistan Sign Bilateral Security Agreement • United States Announces “Changes and Confirmations” in Its Interpretation of the UNConvention Against Torture • United States and China Make Joint Announcement to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Bolstering Multilateral Climate Change Negotiations • United States Deepens Its Engagement with ISIL Conflict • NATO Affirms that Cyber Attacks May Trigger Collective Defense Obligations

The State Response To Climate Change: 50 State Survey, Laura Jensen, Kelly Nishikawa, Benjamin Lowenthal

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This survey accompanies Global Climate Change and U.S. Law, Second Edition (Michael B. Gerrard and Jody Freeman, eds, 2014). It compiles state legislation, rules and executive orders that specifically address climate change as of the end of April 2014. It also includes a wide variety of state activities that may have an impact on greenhouse gases including legislation related to energy efficiency and renewable energy. The focus of this material is to provide readers with an understanding of the range of state activity that may contribute to greenhouse gas reduction and climate change. Some types of energy efficiency, alternative fuels …

Slides: Details Of The Regulatory Framework: Air Quality Regulation Of Oil And Gas Development, Olivia D. Lucas

Water and Air Quality Issues in Oil and Gas Development: The Evolving Framework of Regulation and Management (Martz Summer Conference, June 5-6)

Presenter: Olivia D. Lucas, Esq., Counsel, Faegre Baker Daniels

22 slides

International Trade And Investment Law And Carbon Management Technologies, Shi-Ling Hsu, Nigel Bankes, Anatlole Boute, Steve Charnovitz, Sarah Mccalla, Nicholas Rivers, Elizabeth Whitsitt

Scholarly Publications

Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases will require the developing carbon management technologies that are not currently available or that are not currently cost-effective. While market mechanisms, such as carbon pricing, must play a central role in stimulating the development of these technologies, governmental policy aimed at fostering carbon management technologies and lowering their costs must also play a part. Both types of policies will form part of an optimal greenhouse gas control portfolio. This article develops a framework of international trade and investment law insofar as they may affect carbon management technologies. While it is commonly perceived that international trade …

Slides: What Does Climate Change Mean For Cold Water Fisheries, Stan Bradshaw

Water, Climate and Uncertainty: Implications for Western Water Law, Policy, and Management (Summer Conference, June 11-13)

1 page "Abstract" and 8 slides

Who Regulates The Smart Grid?: Ferc's Authority Over Demand Response Compensation In Wholesale Electricity Markets., Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

This Article argues that Order 745 is both justified under the Federal Power Act (FPA) and important to ensure the transition to a clean energy future. A challenge to Order 745, Electric Power Supply Association v. FERC, is currently pending in the D.C. Circuit. This Article contends that Order 745 should be upheld against this challenge because it fits within FERC's broad authority to regulate the wholesale power markets.

Energy And Environmental Law, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

This chapter covers energy law, which focuses on the production, distribution, conservation, and development of energy resources. State and federal energy laws and regulations are designed to keep prices to consumers down (particularly in certain energy industries which state and federal governments monitor to keep markets as competitive as possible) and to address economic, environmental, and national security issues.

Toward A Sustainable Future: An Environmental Agenda For The Second Term Of The Obama Administration, David M. Uhlmann

Other Publications

Much was at stake in the Presidential election of 2012, which was marked by heated debate over the trajectory of the economy, the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, and the fat of the President's health care plan. The candidates disagreed about nearly every issue from foreign policy and the war on terror to a woman's right to choose and same-sex marriage. Lost amid the din and never mentioned in the Presidential debates or most of the campaign speeches was another divisive topic: how our environmental laws and policies should address global climate change and chart a sustainable future for …

Climate Change Action Without Congress, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

Congress has not enacted major environmental legislation since 1990, and no end to the paralysis is in sight. Nonetheless, there is a great deal that the Obama Administration can do with its existing statutory powers to fight climate change.

Land Use And Climate Change: Lawyers Negotiating Above Regulation, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Sea level rise requires a new paradigm for controlling the development of coastal lands that are in harm’s way, calling for adjustments in the law, legal practice, and legal education. This article discusses the historical tendency of the law to adjust to changes in society and the recent emergence of new legal institutions and strategies for mitigating and adapting to climate change, particularly sea level rise. It illustrates how the lack of certainty about the extent and pace of sea level rise collides with the total takings doctrine of the Lucas case to frustrate the application of traditional land use …

Slides: Envirofit: Making The World Fit For Humanity, Jessica Alderman

2012 Energy Justice Conference and Technology Exposition (September 17-18)

Presenter: Jessica Alderman, Director, ENVIROFIT

15 slides

Playing Without Aces: Offset And The Limits Of Flexibility Under Clean Air Act Climate Policy, Nathan D. Richardson

Faculty Publications

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to move ahead with regulation of greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act (CAA). Previous work has indicated that basic forms of compliance flexibility—trading—appear to be legally permissible under section III of the CAA. This Article takes a close look at more expansive and ambitious types of flexibility: trading between different kinds of sources, biomass co-firing, and above all, offsets. It concludes that most types of such extended flexibility are either legally incompatible with the CAA, or so legally problematic that EPA is unlikely to adopt them. This has important implications …

Climate Change And The Roles Of Land Use And Energy Law: An Introduction, David Markell

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Slides: Air Quality - Oil And Gas Development, Paul R. Tourangeau

Air Quality Impacts from Oil and Gas Development (January 27)

Presenter: Paul Tourangeau, Assistant General Counsel, DCP Midstream, LP and former Director, Colorado Air Pollution Control Division, addresses regulatory requirements and policies related to air emissions from the oil and gas sector, including recent and current initiatives at the state and federal level

8 slides

Heat Expands All Things: The Proliferation Of Greenhouse Gas Regulation Under The Obama Administration, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

The Obama Administration has been moving aggressively to control greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act and other pre-existing statutory authority. Much of this new regulation was facilitated – if not mandated – by the Supreme Court’s decision in Massachusetts v. EPA. These regulatory initiatives mark a dramatic expansion of federal environmental controls on private economic activity. These efforts are unwise. Regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, in particular, will impose substantial regulatory costs for minimal environmental gain. Extensive GHG regulation will not produce much actual climate change mitigation. Mitigating the threat of anthropogenic climate change requires …

Capturing Individual Harms, Katrina Fischer Kuh

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The aggregated lifestyles and behaviors of individuals impose significant environmental harms yet remain largely unregulated. A growing literature recognizes the environmental significance of individual behaviors, critiques the failure of environmental law and policy to capture harms traceable to individual behaviors, and suggests and evaluates strategies for capturing individual harms going forward. This Article contributes to the existing literature by approaching the problem of environmentally significant individual harms through the lens of environmental federalism. Using climate change and individual greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions as an exemplar, the Article illustrates how local information, local governments, and local implementation can enhance policies designed …

Controlling Greenhouse Gases From Highway Vehicles, Arnold W. Reitze Jr.

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

This article discusses the program aimed at increasing the efficiency of highway vehicles that is administered by the EPA under the Clean Air Act and by the Department of Transportation.

Solar Energy Development On The Federal Public Lands: Environmental Trade-Offs On The Road To A Lower-Carbon Future, Robert L. Glicksman

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The federal government has endorsed more extensive use of the federal public lands for the production of solar power, both to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change and to bolster the security of domestic energy supplies. Spurred by grant money made available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in 2010 approved nine utility-scale solar projects on public lands in California and Nevada. These projects were designed to avoid adversely affecting the habitats of endangered and threatened species that frequent the desert southwest and cultural resources important to …