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Articles 1 - 19 of 19
Full-Text Articles in Law
State Hazard Mitigation Plans And Climate Change: Rating The States, Matthew Babcock
State Hazard Mitigation Plans And Climate Change: Rating The States, Matthew Babcock
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Climate change is affecting and will continue to affect the frequency and severity of natural hazard events, a trend that is of increasing concern for emergency managers and hazard mitigation agencies across the United States. Proper response to these hazards will require preparation and planning. Unfortunately, states are not required to include analysis of climate change in their State Hazard Mitigation Plans, which leads to uneven treatment of the issue and missed opportunities for mitigation planning. This survey identifies those state plans that address climate change and climate-related issues in an accurate and helpful manner and those that do not. …
Carbon Capture And Storage Policy In China, Yan Gu
Carbon Capture And Storage Policy In China, Yan Gu
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
This paper examines the current state of Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage technology (CCUS) in China as well as the related climate change policy, laws, and initiatives that might be used to encourage the large-scale deployment of carbon sequestration in China. The paper is organized in six sections. Section I examines the overall status of CCUS development in China, including CCUS research activities and demonstration project deployment. Section II discusses the broader environment of national climate change policies issued by the State Council (namely the Central People’s Government) and how it accommodates CCUS development policy. Section III reviews China’s technology …
Nepa And Downstream Greenhouse Gas Emissions Of U.S. Coal Exports, Elizabeth Sheargold, Smita Walavalkar
Nepa And Downstream Greenhouse Gas Emissions Of U.S. Coal Exports, Elizabeth Sheargold, Smita Walavalkar
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
As U.S. coal exports increase and new infrastructure is proposed to improve access to markets in Asia, controversy has arisen regarding the scope of environmental review that should be carried out by government. In particular, there is significant disagreement as to whether the end-use of exported coal and the emissions generated by its combustion fall within the scope of environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). This paper considers this issue, examining the requirements of NEPA and its implementing regulations, as well as current practice by Federal agencies.
Envisioning Resilient Electrical Infrastructure: A Policy Framework For Incorporating Future Climate Change Into Electricity Sector Planning, Sam C.A. Nierop
Envisioning Resilient Electrical Infrastructure: A Policy Framework For Incorporating Future Climate Change Into Electricity Sector Planning, Sam C.A. Nierop
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Climate change needs to be incorporated in future designs of the electricity sector. This paper argues for a policy framework in which utilities take the lead by performing an electrical climate change impact assessment that evaluates to what extent utilities’ electrical assets are vulnerable to future climate change. Based on this assessment, electrical climate change adaptation plans should be formulated by the utility in cooperation with utility regulators, municipalities and supralocal governments. A collaborative process is essential, because adaptation measures need to be tailored to the regional circumstances and many types of adaptation measures require governmental approval. In order for …
"Green" Product Procurement Policy In The European Union: Treatment Of Lifecycle Carbon Analysis And Environmental Ppm Restrictions, Shawna Ganley
"Green" Product Procurement Policy In The European Union: Treatment Of Lifecycle Carbon Analysis And Environmental Ppm Restrictions, Shawna Ganley
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
With approximately 19% of the EU’s GDP going to government purchases, “green procurement” policies could potentially have a sizable impact on carbon emissions, and moreover could bolster the larger consumer market for sustainable goods. This white paper reviews current EC policy in this area, focusing particularly on the way in which the EC treats lifecycle analysis and non-product related “process and production methods” (PPMs), criteria that relate to the way in which the product was produced rather than to the physical properties of the final product. The paper also addresses some of the factors that may have stymied better uptake …
Recovering From The Recovery Narrative: On Glocalism, Green Jobs And Cyborg Civilization, Michael Burger
Recovering From The Recovery Narrative: On Glocalism, Green Jobs And Cyborg Civilization, Michael Burger
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
In this Essay, I make a preliminary foray into new narrative terrain, identifying several emerging legal storylines that have arisen in the wake of climate change disruptions and that I predict will prove influential in the coming years. In Part I, I discuss the ways in which new perceptions of scale are re-defining human beings' attachments to a sense of "place" or "dwelling" and are shaping new attitudes about what constitutes the local, posing potential problems for existing federalism schemes. In Part II, I discuss the ways in which America's long history of nationalizing nature manifests in the discourse surrounding …
Fracking And Federalism Choice, Michael Burger
Fracking And Federalism Choice, Michael Burger
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
In response to David B. Spence's "Federalism, Regulatory Lags, and the Political Economy of Energy Production," I offer a set of constructive challenges to his article. In Part I, I argue that fracking’s federalism-choice question has already been answered, and that but for the outdated and underjustified exemptions mentioned above, fracking is already under the jurisdiction of federal regulators. In Part II, I conduct an alternative federalism-choice analysis that adds to Professor Spence’s analysis in three ways. First, I balance his analysis by examining rationales commonly used to justify decentralization, rather than federalization, of environmental law. Second, I argue that …
Environmental Law/Environmental Literature, Michael Burger
Environmental Law/Environmental Literature, Michael Burger
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
What, is truly "environmental" about environmental law? This Article is the first attempt to answer this question by integrating Law & Literature scholarship with the study of environmental law. I argue that competing narratives of nature and culture common to the American environmental imagination play a more significant role in environmental law and litigation than previously acknowledged. These competing narratives, communicated through a known set of environmental stories and tropes, are used by attorneys to establish, frame, narrate and argue their cases, and they are absorbed, reimagined, reframed and retold by judges in their written opinions, making environmental law a …
Discussion Of Climate Change-Related Water Impacts In Federal Environmental Impact Statements (Eiss), January-September 2012, Cathy Li
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Climate change and its predicted effect on precipitation, temperature, storm frequency and intensity, global sea levels, and numerous other factors will pose significant challenges for the maintenance and operations of built infrastructure. Climate change is predicted to exacerbate water-related issues, such as water supply shortages brought on by increasingly severe droughts and more frequent or intense flooding caused by extreme precipitation events. Executive Order 13514 and subsequent instructions from the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) have directed federal agencies to prepare for and adapt to the changing environment in which they will have to operate. The National Environmental Policy Act …
The (Re)Federalization Of Fracking Regulation, Michael Burger
The (Re)Federalization Of Fracking Regulation, Michael Burger
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
The purpose of this Article is to defend environmental law's federalism choices from the insinuation that they do not match fracking's environmental impacts and to demonstrate that fracking does indeed belong under the umbrella of federal law. The Article proceeds in four Parts. Part I establishes the federalism-choice analysis framework and applies it to both state and federal regulation of fracking. Part II buttresses the conclusion that federal regulation of potential impacts on underground drinking-water supplies is appropriate through a fresh and extensive examination of the statutory scheme and legislative history of SDWA. Part III offers further support for federal …
Encouraging Energy Efficiency Through The Clean Air Act, Moneen Nasmith
Encouraging Energy Efficiency Through The Clean Air Act, Moneen Nasmith
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Energy efficiency measures provide tremendous opportunities for achieving effective and cost-friendly reductions in the emissions of greenhouse gases. In the absence of more comprehensive legislative efforts, proponents of energy efficiency projects can look to existing environmental laws for tools to promote and encourage energy efficiency and conservation. One such law is the federal Clean Air Act (“CAA”), which empowers the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) to use a variety of mechanisms to address air pollution and protect the public health. Although the statute and its accompanying regulations are complex, the CAA provides a number of important avenues for advocates of …
Will Greenhouse Gas Rules Prohibit New Coal Power Plants?, Christine Fazio, Ethan Strell
Will Greenhouse Gas Rules Prohibit New Coal Power Plants?, Christine Fazio, Ethan Strell
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Our article on June 28, 2012, discussed a proposed rule by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that would limit, for the first time, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from new fossil fuel-fired power plants. The proposal’s standard was based on the emissions of new natural gas-fired combined-cycle power plants. In order to meet the standards, new coal-fired plants would need to employ costly and untested carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. The proposal was criticized by supporters of the coal industry because the standard would essentially prevent any new coal-fired power plants from receiving Clean Air Act (CAA) construction permits. …
Managed Coastal Retreat: A Legal Handbook On Shifting Development Away From Vulnerable Areas, Anne Siders
Managed Coastal Retreat: A Legal Handbook On Shifting Development Away From Vulnerable Areas, Anne Siders
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Numerous legal tools already exist to assist federal, state, and local governments in conducting managed retreat away from the most vulnerable coasts. Scattered publications, toolkits, and websites describe a broad range of legal, policy, and regulatory tools. These tools have, with little fanfare, been used by communities around the United States to implement managed retreat. This Handbook collects examples, case studies, and lessons learned from some of these early innovators in the hope that their lessons can inform future efforts to limit the exposure of our communities to coastal threats. The key legal issues raised by these examples are also …
Legal Issues In Integrated, Multi-Pollutant Planning For Energy And Air Quality, Shawna Ganley, Shelley Welton
Legal Issues In Integrated, Multi-Pollutant Planning For Energy And Air Quality, Shawna Ganley, Shelley Welton
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
In the face of persistent air quality problems, as well as emerging concerns such as greenhouse gases and state budgetary constraints, states are looking to new ways to maximize air quality while minimizing costs. The non-profit Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) assists states in air quality management, and has recently proposed a new methodology for states to use in order to take a proactive, forward-thinking approach to optimize air quality. RAP’s proposed Integrated, Multi-Pollutant Planning for Energy and Air Quality (IMPEAQ) fosters long-range planning, multi-pollutant analysis and cost optimization modeling to enable state air quality districts to achieve efficient gains in …
Compilation Of International Authorities Supporting Specific Measures To Combat Climate Change, Fiona Kinniburgh
Compilation Of International Authorities Supporting Specific Measures To Combat Climate Change, Fiona Kinniburgh
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
This document is a compilation of international authorities that endorse or require various specific measures to combat climate change. The document comprises a non-exhaustive compilation of extracts from various international agreements, environmental treaties and resolutions / declarations of international organizations, as well as reports from several respected international bodies. While the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol and decisions of the Conference of the Parties contain the most authoritative and directly applicable obligations regarding climate change, other international conventions, declarations, agreements and charters also give legal support for some of these specific measures.
Red China Going Green: The Emergence And Current Development Of Carbon Emissions Trading In The World's Largest Carbon Emitter, Xiaotang Wang
Red China Going Green: The Emergence And Current Development Of Carbon Emissions Trading In The World's Largest Carbon Emitter, Xiaotang Wang
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
This paper focuses on one of China’s efforts to engage with climate change—the establishment and development of carbon emissions trading schemes (ETSs) in the country. Section II examines the shift from command and control approaches to market mechanisms in China’s climate policy over the past two decades, which primed the domestic scene for the emergence of carbon emissions trading. Section III studies the seven regional ETS pilots due to launch later this year, the success or failure of which will to a large extent determine the future of carbon markets in not only China, but most likely the rest of …
Technology Transfer And Dissemination Under The Unfccc: Achievements And New Perspectives, Stéphanie Chuffart
Technology Transfer And Dissemination Under The Unfccc: Achievements And New Perspectives, Stéphanie Chuffart
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Response to climate change will critically depend on the cost, performance, and availability of technologies that can lower emissions, mitigate, and adapt to climate change. Technological innovation can furthermore lower the cost of achieving environmental objectives. However, data from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice flag that although issues of technology transfer have been central to the UNFCCC since the negotiation of the Convention, there is still an urgent need for effective environmental technology diffusion. Building upon lessons learned from technology transfer activities under the Clean Development Mechanism and the …
Digest Of Hydraulic Fracturing Cases, Smita Walavalkar
Digest Of Hydraulic Fracturing Cases, Smita Walavalkar
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
As U.S. coal exports increase and new infrastructure is proposed to improve access to markets in Asia, controversy has arisen regarding the scope of environmental review that should be carried out by government. In particular, there is significant disagreement as to whether the end-use of exported coal and the emissions generated by its combustion fall within the scope of environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). This paper considers this issue, examining the requirements of NEPA and its implementing regulations, as well as current practice by Federal agencies.
Federal Regulatory Barriers To Grid-Deployed Energy Storage, Andrew Meyer
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