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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Case Against Regional Transmission Monopolies, Kristen Van De Biezendos
The Case Against Regional Transmission Monopolies, Kristen Van De Biezendos
Faculty Scholarship
Over the next decade, the United States will need to build significant regional transmission infrastructure to achieve the country’s goal of net-zero power by 2035. However, there is a significant barrier: the transmission system is almost entirely owned by private monopolies. As a result, the grid has grown not to serve the public interest but in accordance with the economic priorities of these monopolies, which are not incentivized to innovate, find efficiencies, or lower costs. Past attempts to encourage competitive bidding for regional transmission projects have been stymied by laws intended to protect the monopolies, including the right of first …
The Unnatural Disaster Of Insurance, Underinsurance, And Natural Disasters, Kenneth S. Klein
The Unnatural Disaster Of Insurance, Underinsurance, And Natural Disasters, Kenneth S. Klein
Faculty Scholarship
This article presents a novel data set describing the frequency of materially inadequate homeowner insurance in the event of a total loss. For decades, after a natural disaster, large percentages of homeowners who have lost their homes report suffering a second devastating loss — that, entirely to their surprise, they are vastly underinsured. These reports provocatively suggest that a large majority of all insured homes in the United States — not just homes destroyed by a natural disaster—might be profoundly, unknowingly, and unintentionally underinsured. Insurance companies reject this possibility. Insurers posit that underinsurance is rare, that other than after natural …
Is Fire Insurable?, Kenneth S. Klein
Is Fire Insurable?, Kenneth S. Klein
Faculty Scholarship
The focus of this chapter is on the extant data on the prevalence, causes, and depth of inadequate, unavailable, and/or unaffordable dwelling insurance for fire, and what might be done about it. Whether it is ‘bushfire’ in Australia or ‘wildfire’ in the United States, the frequency, intensity, and cost of fire is increasing, with no reason to expect the upward trend to dissipate any time soon. Most homeowners want to insure their homes for fire and think they both have done so and done so adequately. More often than not, they are wrong. And many are finding that insurance now …
Genetically Engineered Food, Food Security, And Climate Change, Joanna K. Sax
Genetically Engineered Food, Food Security, And Climate Change, Joanna K. Sax
Faculty Scholarship
Malnutrition is the leading cause of death and disease worldwide. Climate change is an existential crisis. We need to feed people and address the role of agriculture in climate change – at the same time. This is problematic, as agriculture inherently creates issues that contributes to climate change. Utilizing science, through genetically engineered crops, is one way to close the harm gap between food security and climate change. This essay addresses the controversial issue of genetically engineered crops with the complicated issues of food security and climate change by analyzing three main issues: (1) how the science of genetically engineered …
The Legal Role In Building Sustainable Public Health (Symposium Transcript), Joanna K. Sax
The Legal Role In Building Sustainable Public Health (Symposium Transcript), Joanna K. Sax
Faculty Scholarship
The article presents a discussion of food as a public health issue, beginning with why science matters and utilizing science to solve food as a public health issue, especially as it relates to sustainability and climate change. Consumer misperceptions of the risk created by new scientific technologies (e.g., GMOs), or even older scientific technologies, may thwart use of such technologies to solve sustainability problems. The talk addresses why consumers might inappropriately assign risk to certain scientific applications and ways that we might want to think about resolving that issue or closing the divide between consumer misperception of risk and evidence-based …
Beyond Emissions: Migration, Prisons, And The Green New Deal, Wyatt Sassman, Danielle C. Jefferis
Beyond Emissions: Migration, Prisons, And The Green New Deal, Wyatt Sassman, Danielle C. Jefferis
Faculty Scholarship
The Green New Deal is a bold resolution that asks us to envision climate policy beyond emissions reductions and pollution controls. The proposal seeks to reduce environmental impacts, including by dramatically reducing carbon emissions, while supporting domestic manufacturing, unionized labor, sustainable agriculture, and social equity. The Biden Administration has expressed support for the Green New Deal as “a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face,” and the proposal has influenced the Administration’s early actions to reduce carbon emissions. How can the Green New Deal’s framework guide climate policy beyond emissions reductions, and who should be a part of …
Ashes To Ashes: A Way Home For Climate Change Survivors, Kenneth S. Klein
Ashes To Ashes: A Way Home For Climate Change Survivors, Kenneth S. Klein
Faculty Scholarship
In 2020, the United States suffered a record number of named storms, a record number of storms causing $1 billion or more in damage, a derecho that destroyed much of Iowa’s corn crop, and previously unheard-of levels of wildfire frequency and damage in California, Oregon, and Washington. The effects of climate change are causing a crisis of affordable, available homeowner insurance. As more and more homes in the United States are in high-risk areas for natural catastrophes, insurers increasingly choose not to offer insurance at all in some communities, exclude disaster risks from coverage in others, and dramatically raise prices …
Does A Rising Tide Lift All Boats? Sea Level Rise, Land Use, And Property Rights, Laura M. Padilla
Does A Rising Tide Lift All Boats? Sea Level Rise, Land Use, And Property Rights, Laura M. Padilla
Faculty Scholarship
This Article considers the competing interests of landowners, governments, and academics; Part I describes the problem-sea level rise and its projected acceleration. Part II details sea level rise physical and economic impacts. Part III discusses a range of adaptation responses to the problem, and Part IV explores the sea level rise-adaptation strategies' potential legal challenges. This Article focuses on California, but the problems, solutions, and challenges pervade coastal communities everywhere.