Law Commons^™

The Antiregulatory Arsenal, Antidemocratic Can(N)Ons, And The Waters Wars, William W. Buzbee

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Clean Water Act has become a centerpiece in an enduring multifront battle against both environmental regulation and federal regulatory power in all of its settings. This Article focuses on the emergence, elements, and linked uses of an antiregulatory arsenal now central to battles over what are federally protected “waters of the United States.” This is the key jurisdictional hook for CWA jurisdiction, and hence, logically, has become the heart of CWA contestation. The multi-decade battle over Waters protections has both drawn on emergent antiregulatory moves and generated new weapons in this increasingly prevalent and powerful antiregulatory arsenal. This array …

Administrative States: Beyond Presidential Administration, Jessica Bulman-Pozen

Faculty Scholarship

Presidential administration is more entrenched and expansive than ever. Most significant policymaking comes from agency action rather than legislation. Courts endorse “the presence of Presidential power” in agency decisionmaking. Scholars give up on external checks and balances and take presidential direction as a starting point. Yet presidential administration is also quite fragile. Even as the Court embraces presidential control, it has been limiting the administrative domain over which the President presides. And when Presidents drive agency action in a polarized age, their policies are not only immediately contested but also readily reversed by their successors.

States complicate each piece of …

Behavioral Public Choice And The Carbon Tax, Gary M. Lucas Jr

Faculty Scholarship

In response to the historic Paris Agreement on climate change and to the Environmental Protection Agency’s recently finalized Clean Power Plan, economists and other climate policy experts have renewed the call for the United States to adopt a carbon tax. Opposition among the public presents a major obstacle. While a majority of the public supports government action on climate change, most people favor the use of “green” subsidies and command-and-control regulations—a fact that frustrates economists of all political stripes who contend that a carbon tax would be much cheaper and more effective. This Article argues that a cognitive bias known …

The Role Of Natural Gas In The Clean Power Plan, Lincoln L. Davies, Victoria Lumen

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

This article overviews the role that natural gas has played over time in the United States. It identifies and surveys five key historical roles that natural gas has served: (1) as an early competitor for lighting, (2) as a nuisance byproduct in oil production, (3) as a heating and appliance fuel, especially as pipeline technology improved, (4) as a catalyst for legal change during the energy crises, and (5) as an increasingly important fuel for electricity production. The article then examines the likely role of natural gas as way to address climate change in the United States, using the ideas …

Climate Regulation Of The Electricity Industry: A Comparative View From Australia, Great Britain, South Korea, And The United States, Lincoln L. Davies, Penelope Crossley, Peter Connor, Siwon Park, Shelby Shaw-Hughes

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Climate regulation of the electricity sector is one of the most important growing — and rapidly changing — areas of law and policy today. This is both because of the critical role that electricity plays in modern society, acting as economic lifeblood, and because of electricity’s part in driving climate change, accounting for more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally than any other activity. This article provides an introduction to different methods of regulating climate emissions from the electricity sector. It does so through detailed, comparative accounts of climate regulation of electricity in four different jurisdictions: Australia, Great Britain, South Korea, …

The Price Of Climate Deregulation: Adding Up The Costs And Benefits Of Federal Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards, Nadra Rahman, Jessica A. Wentz

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Federal climate regulations are currently under attack, in part due to the perception that these regulations will impose excessive costs on regulated industries and society as a whole. But according to federal projections, the benefits of these regulations would significantly outweigh the costs. We added up the projected economic impacts of major federal rules aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and found that the net benefits could reach nearly $300 billion per year by 2030. The rules will also generate a variety of non-monetized benefits, such as improved public health outcomes and the creation of jobs, as well as climate …

Clean Power Policy In The United States, Joseph P. Tomain

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Within the last year, the Obama administration has taken two significant and dramatic steps addressing the challenges of climate change and demonstrating a renewed leadership role for the US. First, as a signatory to the Paris climate agreements, the US has stepped forward to participate in that global effort after years of recalcitrance. The US, for example, signed the Rio Declaration in 1992 but five years later would not ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Now, though, the US has reversed course and has reentered the international climate conversation.

The second significant climate initiative came on the domestic front as the …

The Clean Power Plan, The Supreme Court’S Stay, And Irreparable Harm, Erin Ryan

Scholarly Publications

Invited by the American Constitution Society, this very short essay critiques the decision by the Supreme Court to stay implementation of the Clean Power Plan (CPP), the cornerstone of the Obama Administration’s climate policy, while twenty-nine states proceed with litigation against it. The CPP targets greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, which account for about a third of all U.S. carbon emissions. It provides for substantial flexibility in how reduction targets may be attained within states, but generators heavily invested in coal argue that implementation will require unfair and expensive changes. It therefore surprised no one that states closely aligned …

Climate Litigation Scores Successes In The Netherlands And Pakistan, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

Most U.S. climate change litigation falls into one of two categories. The vast majority of cases — which receive the bulk of the attention — are based on the Clean Air Act and other statutes. These include Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency (2007) and the current litigation over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Power Plan. The second category, and the focus of this article, comprises cases based on common law and the Constitution.

Effect Of The Paris Climate Agreement On U.S. Businesses, Michael B. Gerrard, Edward Mctiernan

Faculty Scholarship

In December, 195 countries convened in Paris for the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. To the surprise and delight of most of the participants, the conference ended in consensus among all the participants on a document, the Paris Agreement, that will be opened for signature on April 22, 2016. President Barack Obama has indicated that the United States will sign it. (Co-author Michael Gerrard participated in the conference.)

The Clean Power Plan Puzzle: The Future Of Efforts To Control Climate Pollution In The Northeast, David Gahl, Pearl Gray, Nick Martin

Environmental Law Program Publications @ Haub Law

In October 2015 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the first national plan to cut climate pollution from power plants. Called the Clean Power Plan (CPP), the effort requires a 32% nation-wide reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the power sector. The CPP also gives states multiple pathways to comply. Now states are on the clock: they must submit their individual compliance plans or signal their intent to submit multi-state plans by September 2016.

The nine states participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the first market-based trading platform established to cut climate pollution from power plants …

The Clean Power Plan: Issues To Watch, Robert L. Glicksman, Emily Hammond, Alice Kaswan, William Buzbzee, Kirsten H. Engel, David M. Driesen, Victor Byers Flatt, Alexandra B. Klass, Thomas Owen Mcgarity, Melissa Powers, Joseph P. Tomain

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Although the Clean Air Act is an imperfect tool for addressing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, it is the only available federal mechanism for directly addressing power plant carbon emissions. The Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan, published in final form in August 2015, tackles the challenge. This paper from the Center for Progressive Reform (CPR) compiles 13 separately authored essays from 11 CPR Member Scholars, each addressing a different topic related to the Clean Power Plan, and each representing the expertise and views of its individual author(s). Published in July 2015, just before the release of the final rule, the …

An Analysis Of Senator Mcconnell's Letter Urging States Not To Comply With Epa's Clean Power Plan, Daniel Selmi

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

On numerous occasions Senator Mitchell McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, has attacked the upcoming Clean Power Plan regulations that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is scheduled to issue in June of this year. Most notably, on March 19, 2015, he sent a letter to the National Governors Association urging the governors of all fifty states not to prepare state plans in response to those regulations. In that letter he laid out what he termed his “serious legal and policy concerns” regarding the EPA proposal. The letter received wide publicity.

Daniel Selmi has written an essay analyzing legal statements made by …

The Regulatory Contract In The Marketplace, Emily Hammond, David Spence

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

For decades, energy policy has struggled to reconcile two distinct visions for the future: the first seeks ever-more-competitive, efficient, and dynamic electricity markets; while the second seeks an ever-greener mix of electricity generation sources. Caught within this push-and-pull dynamic is the regulatory contract — a nineteenth-century concept that stands more for ordered regulation than competitive markets. This Article examines how piecemeal pursuit of two energy visions has produced mismatches between rapidly evolving markets and governance institutions that cannot change as quickly. To better evaluate these mismatches, the Article develops a framework that accounts not just for market operation and environmental …

Tackling Climate Change: Don't Forget Energy Efficency, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

Todd S. Aagaard and Joel B. Eisen write that one option available for states under the EPA's high-profile Clean Power Plan is relying on greater efficiency in energy usage and other demand-side strategies such as "demand response," which involves programs to reduce consumption at specific times of high electricity demand. However, a federal court recently cast a cloud over demand response's future.