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Full-Text Articles in Law
Do Mess With Texas ... ? Why Rolling Easements May Provide A Solution To The Loss Of Public Beaches Due To Climate Change-Induced Landward Coastal Migration, Carolyn Ginno
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
This paper explores the viability of rolling easements in California as well as how they might be implemented. California has the opportunity to use rolling easement doctrine to fill the public policy vacuum created by the Severance decision. By messing with Texas; precedent, California could utilize rolling easements to preserve public access to its beaches in the wake of coastal inundation resulting from climate change.
Determining whether and how rolling easements might be used in California requires an understanding of climate change as a man-made phenomenon and the impacts it has on coastal property. The next sections will outline this …
Moving The Legal Needle Of Western Climate And Energy Options, Steven Ferrey
Moving The Legal Needle Of Western Climate And Energy Options, Steven Ferrey
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
All fifty U.S. states are not legally equal on energy options. The Western states are different from others in three notable regards, when assessing the possibilities and tools available to dictate their future energy landscapes. That future will not be based as much on traditional fossil fuel use. There will be a transition to more use of renewable energy, such that the majority of future electric power additions will be comprised of renewable energy.[1] For context, fossil fuels are transportable within the U.S.;either by pipeline or surface transport. Renewable energy is fixed in place and in its raw form is …
The Dirty Effects Of Clean Energy Technology: Supportive Regulations To Promote Recycling Of Lithium Ion Vehicle Batteries, Liz Harland
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
The discovery of potential environmental, geo-political, and human health concerns from the production and disposal of millions of Li-ion batteries each year demands stronger government policies to encourage recovery, recycling and reuse of Li-ion battery materials. The increasing demand for lithium will potentially shift the resource curse experienced by oil-rich countries to lithium-rich countries in South America, such as Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. Part II of this Comment provides an overview of the negative impacts associated with the mining, production, and disposal of Li-ion batteries. It examines the environmental and human health effects of mining lithium on surrounding communities, and …
Subnational Discretion Mediating New Climate Regulatory Challenges, Steven Ferrey
Subnational Discretion Mediating New Climate Regulatory Challenges, Steven Ferrey
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
Subnational units of government are critical actors in the U.S. federalist scheme of regulation. It was the original 13 colonies/states which were the core of the American experiment, and banded together as a nation for common defense and commerce after fighting for independence from the United Kingdom. The Constitution vested in the new federal government the treaty and war powers, as well as powers over interstate commerce.
Climate Change & The Public Trust Doctrine: An Analysis Of Atmospheric Trust Litigatin, Kassandra Castillo
Climate Change & The Public Trust Doctrine: An Analysis Of Atmospheric Trust Litigatin, Kassandra Castillo
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
As Professor Charles Wilkinson explains, “The public trust doctrine is rooted in the precept that some resources are so central to the well-being of the community that they must be protected by distinctive, judge-made principles.” Because a healthy and habitable atmosphere is essential to the survival of the human race, it is imperative that the public trust doctrine be interpreted in a way to include the atmosphere within its scope. Civil litigation is an effective legal mechanism to expand the public trust doctrine’s scope by way of the judiciary. Once a state judiciary can determine the applicability of the public …
Climate Change And Environmental Justice: Lessons From The California Lawsuits, Alice Kaswan
Climate Change And Environmental Justice: Lessons From The California Lawsuits, Alice Kaswan
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
This essay does not debate the political wisdom of suing; instead, it takes the suits as a given and attempts to enhance understanding of the environmental justice community’s climate justice agenda. It describes the role of environmental justice in the development of California’s climate law, AB 32, describes the lawsuits, and suggests some of the larger lessons about climate policy, cap-and-trade, and environmental justice that these lawsuits reveal. Ultimately, the environmental justice lawsuits highlight two primary themes: (1) the importance of a holistic approach to climate change policy that recognizes and integrates its multiple dimensions, including co-pollutant implications; and (2) …
Carbonite Legal Conflict In California, Steven Ferrey
Carbonite Legal Conflict In California, Steven Ferrey
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
This Article thaws several legal layers of California carbonite, tranche- by-tranche, and examines the legal fabric. First, in Section II we examine federal Constitutional challenges to California’s A.B. 32 and sustainable energy statutes under the Supremacy Clause. Section III analyzes litigation against California carbon control pursuant to the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. Section IV analyzes challenges to the California regulation pursuant to state law violations, distinguishing those which proceed from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and those which utilize other state administrative laws to challenge California’s carbon choices and implementation. Section V examines the trilogy of litigation set …
The Lacey Act Amendments Of 2008: The World's First Ban On Illegal Logging Combats Deforestation But Gets Stumped By Foreign Laws, Yijin J. Lee
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
By exploring the history of the United States’ legislative efforts in dealing with the problems deforestation has caused and the origins of the Lacey Act, it is possible to understand the inspiration behind the 2008 amendments to the act. Further, exploring the minute details of the Lacey Act amendments and understanding how the amendments have changed the power and meaning behind the original Lacey Act highlights the amendments’ strengths and weaknesses. Also, in understanding how the new amendments are being implemented and enforced, it is possible to see which federal agencies are putting force behind the words of the Lacey …
Electric Power Resource "Shuffling" And Subnational Carbon Regulation: Looking Upstream For A Solution, Jim Rossi, Andrew J.D. Smith
Electric Power Resource "Shuffling" And Subnational Carbon Regulation: Looking Upstream For A Solution, Jim Rossi, Andrew J.D. Smith
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
The potential for shuffling in wholesale power markets thwarts California’s ability to meet its AB 32 GHG emission reduction goals, and may even lead to emissions increases. Yet, as California’s efforts illustrate, resource shuffling is extremely difficult to regulate at the state level. Short of California aggressively reducing its emissions limits to reflect the leakage problem of shuffling, the state is incapable of solving the problem on its own.
As states follow California’s lead in crafting their own approaches to regulating GHG emissions, national solutions will be necessary to address the problem of resource shuffling, given interstate markets in wholesale …
Energy Policy, Extraterritoriality, The Dormant Commerce Clause, Alexandra B. Klass, Elizabeth Henley
Energy Policy, Extraterritoriality, The Dormant Commerce Clause, Alexandra B. Klass, Elizabeth Henley
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
This Article will focus specifically on potential challenges to state energy policy based on the “extraterritoriality doctrine” of the dormant Commerce Clause. In doing so, it considers two recent lawsuits involving dormant Commerce Clause challenges to state energy policy. The first is the lawsuit against the State of California over its Low Carbon Fuels Standard (LCFS) program on grounds that it discriminates against Midwest ethanol producers in favor of California ethanol producers and regulates extraterritorially in violation of the dormant Commerce Clause. The second is the lawsuit by the State of North Dakota, the North Dakota lignite coal industry, and …
Harmonizing Distributed Energy And The Endangered Species Act, J. B. Ruhl
Harmonizing Distributed Energy And The Endangered Species Act, J. B. Ruhl
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
This Article explores ways of harmonizing distributed energy and the ESA, a goal consistent with the national policy for renewable energy conservation. Several legal practitioners and scholars have identified the ESA as a potentially significant constraint on the siting and operation of wind power facilities. The ESA has also been identified as a potential barrier to renewable energy in general, as solar power, biomass, and ocean tide and wave facilities could have their own sets of impacts triggering ESA regulation. But most of this attention has been devoted to utility-scale renewable energy, with distributed energy largely ignored or perhaps assumed …
Who Regulates The Smart Grid? : Ferc's Authority Over Demand Response Compensation In Wholesale Electricity Markets, Joel B. Eisen
Who Regulates The Smart Grid? : Ferc's Authority Over Demand Response Compensation In Wholesale Electricity Markets, Joel B. Eisen
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
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.
The Emergence Of Natural Gas And The Need For Cooperative Federalism To Address A Big "Fracking" Problem., Joshua P. Dennis
The Emergence Of Natural Gas And The Need For Cooperative Federalism To Address A Big "Fracking" Problem., Joshua P. Dennis
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
This Comment explores the recent emergence of natural gas production, the hydraulic fracturing process and briefly touches on the current regulatory system that oversees its operation. I then explain why the current regulatory system is insufficient to protect individuals and the environment from hydraulic fracturing. And lastly, I argue that a form of cooperative federalism is the best approach to regulate hydraulic fracturing.
Space Commercialization: The Need To Immediately Renegotiate Treaties Implicating International Environmental Law, Alexander G. Davis
Space Commercialization: The Need To Immediately Renegotiate Treaties Implicating International Environmental Law, Alexander G. Davis
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
Outer space is truly the final frontier for both scientific exploration and frontier-style commercialization. Given its extra-national nature, international treaties have formed the basis of space law, but these treaties predate any notion of the true potential for space commercialization. The private sector has relied on this regulation-free industry when developing its spacecraft, mission structure, and operating procedures, often to the detriment of Earth's and its surrounding environment, with space debris, i.e. space junk or space trash, and greenhouse gas emissions being the primary externalities. This Comment provides a background on the commercial space industry and applicable law and treaties, …
State Renewable Portfolio Standards: Is There A "Race" And Is It "To The Top"?, Lincoln L. Davies
State Renewable Portfolio Standards: Is There A "Race" And Is It "To The Top"?, Lincoln L. Davies
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
This Article proceeds in six parts. Part II offers a primer on RPSs, describing RPSs primary traits, how the laws are designed, why they are enacted, and how that relates to regulatory races. Part III overviews the literature on regulatory races, contrasting races to the bottom with races to the top. Part IV conceptualizes how state enactments of RPSs might be viewed as a race to the top. Part V examines evidence on whether RPSs can in fact be understood as a regulatory race. Using this evidence, Part V determines that state RPSs do not appear to be trending toward …
Why Not A Regional Approach To State Renewable Power Mandates?, Kirsten H. Engel
Why Not A Regional Approach To State Renewable Power Mandates?, Kirsten H. Engel
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
There is much to be said in favor of a regional approach with respect to renewable energy mandates. First, uniformity in the particulars of state RPS laws would assist the growing interstate renewable energy market. Second, allowing renewable power that is generated anywhere but delivered locally to satisfy the RPS of any of the states within the region, should enhance the reliability of the market for renewable power, increase the amount of intermittent power accommodated by the grid, and lower the price of renewable power. Each of these effects will strengthen the regional market for renewable power to the overall …
Solar Energy Development On The Federal Public Lands: Environmental Trade-Offs On The Road To A Lower Carbon Future, Robert L. Glicksman
Solar Energy Development On The Federal Public Lands: Environmental Trade-Offs On The Road To A Lower Carbon Future, Robert L. Glicksman
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
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 …
Clean Energy And The Price Preemption Ceiling, Jim Rossi
Clean Energy And The Price Preemption Ceiling, Jim Rossi
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
Part I of this Article provides an illustration of the feed-in tariff one clean energy innovation many state and municipal governments have enacted to encourage investment in renewable energy. In a nutshell, the feed-in tariff is a secure contract for renewable power at a set price over a term of years that provides a return to investors in these projects, such as a homeowner installing a solar panel or wind turbine. Part II of this Article describes preemption issues that have risen with feed-in tariffs under two federal statutes the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978, which requires utilities …
Administrative Absurdity: Why The Judiciary Should Uphold Epa's Use Of The Administrative Necessity And Absurd Results Doctrines Within The Tailoring Rule., David P. Vincent
Administrative Absurdity: Why The Judiciary Should Uphold Epa's Use Of The Administrative Necessity And Absurd Results Doctrines Within The Tailoring Rule., David P. Vincent
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
This Comment analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments advanced by EPA as well as its opponents regarding the Agencys reliance on these administrative law doctrines to tailor PSD and Title V applicability criteria. The Comment concludes with an explanation of why the judiciary will likely rule in EPAs favor in this instance.
Part I of this Comment introduces the Tailoring Rule, including its background and the emissions thresholds it seeks to implement regarding PSD and Title V programs. Part II presents EPAs legal basis for the creation and subsequent implementation of the Tailoring Rule, including the concept of …
Port And Coastal State Control Of Atmospheric Pollution, Michael W. Reed
Port And Coastal State Control Of Atmospheric Pollution, Michael W. Reed
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
Controlling atmospheric pollution which originates beyond national borders always presents difficult issues. The problems are multiplied when the source is a merchant vessel, registered under a foreign flag of convenience and operating seaward of state and federal sovereign limits. Nevertheless, international law provides alternative approaches through which the coastal sovereign may protect its onshore environmental interests.
The purpose of this paper is to lay out the problems, both factual and legal, and discuss means by which they may be resolved. California is used as a case study. The state has long suffered from excessive air pollution. Congress acknowledged the state?s …
Regulation, Climate Change, And The Electric Grid, Davod B. Spence
Regulation, Climate Change, And The Electric Grid, Davod B. Spence
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
In Part I of this essay, I outline some of the background characteristics of the electric grid, the way it is operated, and the way regulators and grid operators manage the sale and transmission of electricity across it. In Part II, I explore the opportunities and potential problems associated with integrating intermittent, renewable sources of electric generation into the grid. This discussion includes a review of a number of recent studies examining the GHG emissions effects of using fossil fueled generation to back up wind power, as well as the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission?s (FERC) recent rulemakings addressing this …
Energy And Animals: A History Of Conflict, Alexandra B. Klass
Energy And Animals: A History Of Conflict, Alexandra B. Klass
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
Environmental groups, federal and state agencies, and others who support the development of renewable energy have struggled in recent years with the adverse impacts of such development on animals and animal habitat. Although renewable energy development has the benefit of creating energy without the greenhouse gas emissions associated with traditional energy development, it does so through an intensive use of land, including federal public lands, thus competing with habitats for protected species and other wildlife. Conflicts between energy and animals, of course, are nothing new. Congress, agencies, and courts have attempted for decades to balance the public interest in domestic …
Effective Renewable Energy Policy: Leave It To The States?, Steven Weissman
Effective Renewable Energy Policy: Leave It To The States?, Steven Weissman
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
The federal system employed in the United States offers many models for cooperation between the federal government and the states in pursuit of important policy objectives. Under the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can establish air quality standards and delegate enforcement to the states. The Coastal Zone Management Act empowers states to establish plans for management of ocean waters close to shore and to have a say related to offshore projects that are in federal jurisdictional waters. The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 allows coal states to set and enforce their own rules related …
An Environmental Competition Statute, David M. Driesen
An Environmental Competition Statute, David M. Driesen
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
The next generation of environmental law should use economic incentives to creatively stimulate innovation in environmental technology. This Article proposes an environmental competition statute as a means of stimulating movement toward a more sustainable future. Such a statute would authorize those who achieve low emissions to collect the cost of achieving low emissions plus a premium from competitors with higher emissions.
This Article briefly explains the value of using this mechanism. It then canvasses the problems with the first and second generation of environmental law that an environmental competition statute can help us overcome. A detailed description of an environmental …
The Effects Of Brazilian Agricultural Property Policies And International Pressures On The Soybean Industry: Incentives For Amazon Deforestation And How It May Be Reduced, Tyler E. Hazen
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
This Article begins in Part II with an overview of the Amazonian environment and the rise of soybeans as a lucrative export product. Part III discusses how Brazilian property law and land use culture has facilitated transformation of land for cultivation and ultimately, deforestation. Part IV discusses international reaction to Brazil’s sovereignty over the Amazon, including European import practices such as protectionism, desire for hormone-free products, as well as market incentives for soy raised on land that was not deforested. Finally, Part V offers solutions for working within the current system, aggressively supporting the policies against deforestation while respecting the …
Looking Back To Move Forward: Revisiting The Btu In Evaluating Current Policy Alternatives, Walter Wang
Looking Back To Move Forward: Revisiting The Btu In Evaluating Current Policy Alternatives, Walter Wang
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
To evaluate the current policy alternatives, it is necessary to take a step back and revisit the Btu tax proposed by the Clinton Administration. Although seventeen years have passed since the Btu tax was proposed, and the U.S. is at war in theaters that are much different from those in which it was involved during the Clinton Administration, the landscape of the climate change debate has not changed dramatically. The lessons learned from the policies espoused by the Btu tax proposal may be critical in determining how to best approach climate change legislation today.
Enforcing Cap-And-Trade: A Tale Of Two Programs, Lesley K. Mcallister
Enforcing Cap-And-Trade: A Tale Of Two Programs, Lesley K. Mcallister
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
This Article uses the histories of the ARP and RECLAIM to show that even when monitoring and enforcement provisions for cap-and-trade programs are designed in a similar way, the resulting enforcement systems and enforcement outcomes may be very different. Part I of the Article tells the enforcement story of the ARP. It appears to be a story of regulatory efficiency and success. Part II tells the enforcement story of RECLAIM. While not a failure, RECLAIM enforcement seems to have been full of difficulties that necessitated large amounts of administrative time and resources. This part presents the results of an empirical …
Climate Change Law In And Over Time, Richard J. Lazarus
Climate Change Law In And Over Time, Richard J. Lazarus
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
The critical lesson for climate change legislation is that the pending lawmaking moment must include the enactment of provisions specifically designed to maintain the legislation’s ability to achieve its long-term objectives over the longer term. For climate change legislation to be successful, the new legal framework must simultaneously be flexible in certain respects and steadfast in others. Flexibility is necessary to allow for the modification of legal requirements over time in light of new information. Steadfastness or “stickiness” is important to maintain the stability of a law’s requirements over time. The need for both is particularly great for climate change …
Adapting To Climate Change With Law That Bends Without Breaking, Holly Doremus
Adapting To Climate Change With Law That Bends Without Breaking, Holly Doremus
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
Climate change, the key environmental challenge of this century, is a tough problem for law in many ways. The topic of this panel, instrument choice, highlights a particularly difficult, important, and under-recognized aspect of the climate change challenge: the difficulty of devising a system of environmental law that combines the flexibility necessary to deal with a changing world with the rigidity and accountability essential to hold us to the difficult task of environmental protection.
Federal Greenhouse Gas Control Options From An Enforcement Perspective, Scott Schang, Teresa Chan
Federal Greenhouse Gas Control Options From An Enforcement Perspective, Scott Schang, Teresa Chan
San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law
As part of the University of San Diego Law School’s Second Annual Climate and Energy Law Symposium, we decided to review the enforcement provisions of the main federal greenhouse gas control options, with a view to drawing lessons from that review that could inform policy choices and program design. Our review suggests that there are relative strengths and weaknesses, as well important tradeoffs to be made, in the enforcement provisions of each of the leading candidate programs. Our review further suggests that some revisions should be made to these provisions to help ensure that the greenhouse gas control programs meet …