Energy and Utilities Law Commons^™

Cambria's Water War: Legal Analysis Of The Building Moratorium And Its Implications For Land Owners, Jayson Parsons

Political Science

With each passing year, Cambria, California's building moratorium becomes increasingly controversial. The moratorium, enacted by the local community services district in 1986 due to a series of water shortages, has resulted in nearly 43% of all property owners under the district's purview to be denied the ability to develop their parcels. This paper seeks to examine the constitutionality of this moratorium using relevant regulatory takings jurisprudence.

Reviewing United States Supreme Court precedent, including Pennsylvania Coal v. Mahon (1922), Penn Central Transport v. New York City (1978), Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council (1992), and Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council …

Carbon Outlasts The Law: States Walk The Constitutional Line, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

State carbon policies to control climate warming and our energy future are under legal attack. A successful barrage of litigation now invokes the dormant Commerce Clause and the Federal Power Act as interpreted through the Filed Rate Doctrine, as well as the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, to challenge the legal validity and sustainability of these state carbon-based laws. California and other states have survived these legal challenges sparingly, and then often only by prevailing with procedural defenses that dismiss the case before a decision on the legal merits of their state energy regulation. This Article examines and analyzes …

The Double Helix Of Supremacy And Commerce Clause Constitutional Restraints Encircling The New Energy Frontier, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

This article unwinds the legal double helix to examine the constitutional jurisdictional assault on American energy infrastructure and law. We examine pivotal elements of the Commerce Clause, the Supremacy Clause, and procedural aspects of ongoing challenges on energy and climate change law. We untwist and dissect energy law and regulation, focusing on key cases in the East, the Midwest, and California. In integrating the recent federal court interpretations, the Article I and VI constitutional double helix remains the critical legal restriction arresting the future of U.S. energy policy and infrastructure. Each region's law creates a distinct wedge into energy infrastructure, …

A Step By Step Look At Uarg V. Epa: A New Layer Of Greenhouse Gas Regulation, Kevin O. Leske

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Solving The Multimillion Dollar Constitutional Puzzle Surrounding State "Sustainable" Energy Policy, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

The U.S. confronted a Constitutional impasse: The ability of state government to enact sustainable energy statutes and regulations is significantly restricted by successful recent Constitutional legal challenges to states actions This article identifies a solution to implement legally ‘bulletproof’ sustainable regulation at the state level, circumventing the major Constitutional impasse now frustrating U.S renewable energy policy

U.S. sustainable energy policy is principally implemented through state law and regulation, through five types of state programs. As implemented, these five policies are now being challenged as unconstitutional and improper exercises of state government authority. There is a legally “bright” jurisdictional line nowhere …

The Undersigned Attorney Hereby Certifies -- The Washington Supreme Court Rule On Standards And Its Implications, Justice Sheryl Gordon Mccloud, Justice Susan Owens, Marc Boman, Joanne Moore

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

G Forces: Gideon V. Wainwright And Matthew Adler's Move Beyond Cost-Benefit Analysis, Janet Moore

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Dark Medicine: How The National Research Act Has Failed To Address Racist Practices In Biomedical Experiments Targeting The African-American Community, Anietie Maureen-Ann Akpan

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Do We Have It Right This Time? An Analysis Of The Accomplishments And Shortcomings Of Washington's Indian Child Welfare Act, Karen Gray Young

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Securing Food Justice, Sovereignty & Sustainability In The Face Of The Food Safety Modernization Act (Fsma), Eve Kerber

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Driving While License Suspended - Third Degree, A Framework For Requesting Alternative Sentences, Sahar Fathi

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

About The Authors

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Jacqueline Mcmurtrie

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Gideon At Fifty -- Golden Anniversary Or Mid Life Crisis, Kim Taylor-Thompson

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Fifty Years After Gideon: It Is Long Past Time To Provide Lawyers For Misdemeanor Defendants Who Cannot Afford To Hire Their Own, Robert C. Boruchowitz

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Gideon: Looking Backward, Looking Forward, Looking In The Mirror, Steven Zeidman

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Legal Financial Obligations: Fulfilling The Promise Of Gideon By Reducing The Burden, Travis Stearns

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Does The Right To Counsel On Appeal End As You Exit The Court Of Appeals?, Nancy P. Collins

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Improving Access To Justice: Plain Language Family Law Court Forms In Washington State, Charles R. Dyer, Joan E. Fairbanks, M. Lynn Greiner, Kirsten Barron, Janet L. Skreen, Josefina Cerrillo-Ramirez, Andrew Lee, Bill Hinsee

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Congress' Encroachment On The President's Power In Indian Law And Its Effect On Executive-Order Reservations, Mark R. Carter Jd, Phd

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Commonwealth Edison Co. V. State Of Montana: Constitutional Limitations On State Energy Resource Taxation, Nancy K. Stalcup

Pepperdine Law Review

This note examines the case of Commonwealth Edison Co. v. State of Montana, where the United States Supreme Court analyzed and defined the permissible limitations of state energy resource taxation. While the Court adhered to the test of constitutional taxation established in Complete Auto Transit Inc. v. Brady, which strongly upheld a state's sovereign right to tax a local incident of interstate commerce, the Court failed to realize the practical ramifications of its ruling in the context o the nation's energy problems.

Dynamic Energy Federalism, Hannah J. Wiseman, Hari M. Osofsky

Scholarly Publications

United States energy law and the scholarship analyzing it are deeply fragmented. Each source of energy has a distinct legal regime, and limited federal regulation in some areas has resulted in divergent state and local approaches to regulation. Much of the existing energy law literature reflects these substantive and structural divisions, and focuses on particular aspects of the energy system and associated federalism disputes. However, in order to meet modern energy challenges—such as reducing risks from deepwater drilling and hydraulic fracturing, maintaining the reliability of the electricity grid in this period of rapid technological change, and producing cleaner energy—we need …

Follow The Money! Article I And Article Vi Constitutional Barriers To Renewable Energy In The U.S. Future, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

When one "follows the money," the current Administration‘s economic stimulus funding injected unprecedented billions of dollars into new energy-related capital investments. In doing so, it endeavors to fundamentally re-sculpt the legal fabric and infrastructure of the U.S. economy in a once-in-a-generation change of watershed proportion. However, this re-sculpting is hitting fundamental constitutional barriers under Articles I and VI.

There is a jurisdictional barrier: Renewable energy investments, promoted primarily at the state level, confront real challenges pursuant to the Constitution‘s Supremacy Clause (Article VI) and Commerce Clause (Article I). Among the most litigated constitutional issues before the U.S. Supreme Court, these …

Check-In, Attendees Of The Symposium

NJTIP Annual Symposium

Check-in for the Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property's 7th Annual Symposium

Threading The Constitutional Needle With Care: The Commerce Clause Threat To The New Infrastructure Of Renewable Power, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

To date, the federal initiatives for renewable energy primarily focus on tax incentives and credits. State incentives comprise most of the other renewable energy incentives. Chief among these are Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPSs), feed-in tariffs, net metering, and system benefit charges/trust funds (SBCs). Government lacks the power to do anything it chooses. And this is especially true with the current state policy to build a new power infrastructure. The new energy infrastructure is all about renewable energy. Both SBC and RPS programs raise revenue by a charge reflecting the amount of power produced or transacted, and then distribute that revenue …

Reading The Standing Tea Leaves In American Electric Power Co. V. Connecticut, Bradford C. Mank

University of Richmond Law Review

The U.S. Supreme Court by an equally divided vote offour to four affirmed the Second Circuit's decision finding standing and jurisdiction in the case in American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut. While not binding as precedent beyond the Second Circuit,the case offers clues to how the Court is likely to rule in future standing cases. This article discusses the likely identities of the four Justices on each side of the standing issue in the case, as well as how Justice Sotomayor might have voted if she had not recused herself. Furthermore, the article examines how the decision expand- ed on …

Virtual "Nets" And Law: Power Navigates The Supremacy Clause, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

Net metering is the most utilized state incentive for renewable power nationwide, in place in more than eighty-five percent of all states. Utilities in all states have been required by federal law for the past seven years to make net metering available to all requesting customers. Yet a significant number of states have failed to comply with this federal law, and several other states have complied in a manner that has raised questions as to whether they have violated the Constitution's separation between state and federal jurisdiction over power. This article will not delve into the first issue of noncompliance …

"Going Green" The Wrong Way: How Governments Are Unconstitutionally Delegating Their Legislative Powers In Pursuit Of Environmental Sustainability, Brandon L. Boxler

Legislation and Policy Brief

Through either executive or legislative power, state and local governments are rapidly effecting policies that encourage environmental sustainability.  Many of these policies have logically targeted buildings and infrastructure, both of which have a significant adverse impact on the environment.  In the United States, 38 percent of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions and 67 percent of its electricity usage come from buildings.  New laws and policies are attempting to decrease these figures by requiring construction projects to “go green” and implement sustainable building practices.  These legal initiatives have the potential to create substantial environmental benefits by reducing energy consumption, greenhouse gas …

New Froniter In Urban Greenhouse Gas Emissions Regulation: Overview Of California's Senate Bill 375, Kira Hettinger

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.