Energy and Utilities Law Commons^™

Collaborative Governance: Lessons For Europe From U.S. Electricity Restructuring, Charles H. Koch Jr.

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

'Steel In The Ground': Greening The Grid With The Iutility, Joseph P. Tomain

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

As the United States addresses climate change through carbon reduction strategies, it must focus on the two major parts of our energy portfolio - oil and electricity. Electricity is a central focus because over one-half of all electricity generated is derived from coal-burning power plants, which are notoriously dirty. Other cleaner and renewable sources of electricity, such as wind and solar power, are available. However, over the last hundred years, the electricity industry has been constructed to serve large-scale, centralized and capital-intensive coal and nuclear plants.

There are good economic reasons for building large power plants. Economies of scale can …

Jousting At Wind Mills: When Wind Power Development Collides With Oil, Gas, And Mineral Development, K.K. Duvivier, Roderick E. Wetsel

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Success for the renewable energy economy rides on wind power. Although wind currently accounts for only one percent of the total electricity generation in the United States, the Obama administration hopes to leverage it to twenty-five percent by 2025. Even before setting the current goals, our government recognized wind power as 'the fastest growing source of new power generation.' As fate would dictate, some of the nation’s most promising wind resources overlap regions of the country rich in oil, gas, and other minerals. The intensive surface footprint of wind farms makes conflict with the development of underlying resources inevitable. This …

Evolving U.S. Clean Tech: Legislative Trends, Ursula Kazarian

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Climate Change, Consumption, And Cities, Alice Kaswan

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Part I of this Article highlights the nation’s high level of energy consumption and argues that policies directed solely at tailpipes and smokestacks will fail to reach climate change goals. Part II of this Article observes that recently proposed federal legislation does not sufficiently address consumption. Part III argues that direct local land use and green building measures can and should play a critical role in reducing demand. Part IV recognizes that, notwithstanding the institutional and practical arguments in favor of local initiatives, significant barriers could slow their adoption and implementation. Part V argues that federal legislation could overcome obstacles …

Creating A U.S. Carbon Market, Alex Hoover

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Climate Change, Energy, And Sustainable Development In South Africa: Developing The African Continent At The Crossroads, Edson L. Meyer, Kola O. Odeku

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

China’S Cleantech Landscape: The Renewable Energy Technology Paradox, Federico Caprotti

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Aquaponics & Landfill Methane Use: These Fetid Miasmata Smell Like Profitable Conservation, Blake M. Mensing

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

The Importance Of Venture Capitalism To Clean Technology And The Government’S Role In Fostering Its Development During The Recession, Janet Hager

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

The American Recovery And Reinvestment Act And A New Role For Government In Clean Technology Project Financing, James Hunter

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Tension Between Hydroelectric Energy’S Benefits As A Renewable And Its Detrimental Effects On Endangered Species, Janet M. Hager

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Dirty Fuel Incentives In The Bailout Bill, Rand Robins, Janet M. Hager

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Wind Power, National Security, And Sound Energy Policy, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Wind-generated electricity in the United States has grown by more than 400 percent since 2000. According to the Department of Energy, 6 percent of US land could supply more than one and a half times the current electricity consumption of the country. Yet, challenges remain in matching demand for electricity with supply of wind as well as achieving grid parity. Careful wind turbine and transmission line siting can occur through cooperation between federal, state, tribal, and civil society participation in decision-making. Tribal wind initiatives have shown that developing wind power can also benefit rural communities. Congress should pass a national …

Energy Policy, Intellectual Property, And Technology Transfer To Address Climate Change, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Using Local Knowledge To Shrink The Individual Carbon Footprint, Katrina Fischer Kuh

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Entire texts have been devoted to exploring the meaning of the term “lifestyle” and sociological understandings of lifestyle are complex and nuanced.For present purposes, however, a more simple articulation of the term will suffice. Lifestyle can mean “mode of living,” including “patterns of action” and “patterns of ways of living.” Without rendering judgment, one observation that can fairly be made about the current lifestyles and associated behaviors of Americans is that they indirectly and directly lead to the emission of a high volume of greenhouse gases (“GHGs”).⁷ Although an American diplomat is said to have remarked in preparing for …

Assessing The Challenges Of Geologic Carbon Capture And Sequestration: A California Guide To The Cost Of Reducing Co2 Emissions, Les Lo Baugh, William L. Troutman

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Overcoming Institutional Barriers To Biomass Power In China And India, Craig A. Hart, M.L Rajora

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

The Endangered Species Act: What We Talk About When We Talk About Recovery, Dale D. Goble

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Solar Rights, Sara Bronin

Faculty Articles and Papers

The rights to access and to harness the rays of the sun - solar rights - are extremely valuable. These rights can determine whether and how an individual can take advantage of the sun’s light, warmth, or energy, and they can have significant economic consequences. Accordingly, for at least two thousand years, people have attempted to assign solar rights in a fair and efficient manner. In the United States, attempts to assign solar rights have fallen short. A quarter century ago, numerous American legal scholars debated this deficiency. They agreed that this country lacked a coherent legal framework for the …

Geologic Co2 Sequestration: Who Owns The Pore Space?, Owen L. Anderson

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Dreadful Policing: Are The Semiconductor Industry Giants Content With Yesterday’S International Protection For Integrated Circuits?, Michael Fuerch

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Over the past twenty years, the semiconductor industry has grown rapidly. Technological advances have resulted in smaller, faster, and more cost-efficient semiconductor integrated circuits. Today, integrated circuits (“chips”) are found in the majority of electronic devices includes consumer electronics like computers, phones, televisions, and automobiles, and industrial electronics such as motor drives and programmable logic controllers.

This

Foreword: Energy And The Environment: Empowering Consumers, Katrina Fischer Kuh

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The conference Energy and the Environment: Empowering Consumers brought together legal scholars, attorneys, scientists, philosophers, journalists, sociologists, elected representatives, and agency experts. This symposium issue of the Hofstra Law Review presents a selection of papers from conference participants that, together, illustrate some of the opportunities, challenges, and diverse questions that arise in the effort to deploy energy and environmental law and policy to embrace individual consumers and combat climate change.

Energy Security, Green Job Creation, And Youth Innovation, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Biofuels: Potentials, Problems & Solutions, Richard L. Ottinger

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Biofuels have the exciting potential of mitigating the grave threats of global warming, reducing the world's dependence on imported oil from insecure sources and of reducing the skyrocketing costs of oil that are threatening to undermine the world's economies and devastating the people in non-oil producing, developing countries. For the people in these countries, biofuel offer a promising road to enhance development since they use local materials, can provide local jobs, and do not require the import of expensive equipment and expertise. Brazil has been the pioneer in the use of biofuel, allowing it to eliminate its oil imports, becoming …

Responsible Environmental Behavior, Energy Conservation, And Compact Fluorescent Bulbs: You Can Lead A Horse To Water, But Can You Make It Drink?, Hope M. Babcock

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Despite professing to care about the environment and supporting environmental causes, individuals behave in environmentally irresponsible ways like driving when they can take public transportation, littering, or disposing of toxic materials in unsound ways. This is the author's fourth exploration of how to encourage individuals to stop behaving irresponsibly about the environment they allege to care deeply about. The prior three articles all explored how the norm of environmental protection could be enlisted in this effort; this article applies those theoretical conclusions to the very practical task of getting people to switch the type of light bulb they use.

To …

Modern Lights, Sara C. Bronin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This Article functions as a companion to a piece, Solar Rights, recently published in the Boston University Law Review. In that piece, the author analyzed the absence of a coherent legal framework for the treatment of solar rights - the rights to access and harness the rays of the sun. The growing popularity of, and need for, solar collector technology and other solar uses calls for reform. Answering the call for reform in Solar Rights, this Article proposes a framework within which a solar rights regime might be developed. First, as a baseline, any regime must recognize the natural characteristics …

Modern Lights, Sara Bronin

Faculty Articles and Papers

This Article functions as a companion to a piece, Solar Rights, recently published in the Boston University Law Review. In that piece, the author analyzed the absence of a coherent legal framework for the treatment of solar rights - the rights to access and harness the rays of the sun. The growing popularity of, and need for, solar collector technology and other solar uses calls for reform. Answering the call for reform in Solar Rights, this Article proposes a framework within which a solar rights regime might be developed. First, as a baseline, any regime must recognize the natural characteristics …

Establishing An Aggressive Legal Framework For The Future Of Wind Energy In Europe, Tyler Hagenbuch

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Europe is the world's frontrunner in wind energy, and European governments are committed to aiding renewable energy entrepreneurs and investors. In April 2009, the EU passed a new Climate Action Directive. The Directive set goals for both increased use of renewable energy and decreases in greenhouse gas emissions. Despite this legislative success, the Climate Action Directive was widely criticized as insufficient and ineffective. Indeed, there are numerous substantive concessions given to industry in the emission reduction portion of the Directive. Dissenters argued the weaknesses of the emissions reduction Directive squandered the EU's opportunity to be a world leader in energy …

A Downwind View Of The Cathedral: Using Rule Four To Allocate Wind Rights, Troy A. Rule

Faculty Publications

The rapid pace of U.S. wind energy development is generating a growing number of conflicts over competing wind rights. The “wake” of a commercial wind turbine creates turbulence and unsteady wind flow that can reduce the productivity of other wind turbines situated downwind. Existing law is unclear as to whether a landowner who installs a wind turbine on its property is liable for the lost productivity of a downwind neighbor’s turbine resulting from such wake effects. Legal uncertainty as to how competing wind rights are shared among neighbors can induce wind energy developers to abandon otherwise lucrative turbine sites situated …