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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, …
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 …
Tort Experiments In The Laboratories Of Democracy, Alexandra B. Klass
Tort Experiments In The Laboratories Of Democracy, Alexandra B. Klass
Alexandra B. Klass
This Article considers the broad range of “tort experiments” states have undertaken in recent years as well as the changing attitudes of Congress and the Supreme Court toward state tort law. Notably, as states have engaged in well-publicized tort reform efforts in the products liability and personal injury areas, they have also increased tort rights and remedies to address new societal problems associated with privacy, publicity, consumer protection, and environmental harm. At the same time, however, just as the Supreme Court was beginning its so-called “federalism revolution” of the 1990s to limit Congressional authority in the name of states’ rights, …
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 …