Energy and Utilities Law Commons^™

Constraining The Executive Branch: Delegation, Agency Independence, And Congressional Design Of Judicial Review, Jennifer L. Selin, Pamela J. Clouser Mccann

Northwestern University Law Review

While scholarship examining the relationship between Congress, federal agencies, and the judiciary reveals variation in the statutory details that affects administrative and judicial decision-making, few studies explore the extent to which congressional delegation decisions balance both the substantive and procedural independence of agencies against the possibility of the federal judiciary’s review of administrative action.

This Article enhances scholarly understanding of delegation by providing a qualitative, theoretical, and empirical account of the circumstances under which Congress manipulates federal agency exposure to the federal judiciary. Ironically, combined with statutory provisions dictating agency independence, increasing an agency’s exposure to unelected federal judges can …

Is One Cow’S Waste Another (Hu)Man’S Treasure? Exploring The Environmental And Energy Impacts Of Manure Biogas, Katie Thompson

Animal Law Review

There is no question that manure biogas, a form of natural gas derived from animal waste, is quickly becoming the most valuable product supplied by factory farms, known also as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Manure biogas can be used to produce heat, electricity, or transportation fuel, but its greatest profit stream rests in the myriad government credits and subsidies it can garner. Although turning trash into treasure by giving waste a new life may appear laudable and worthy of such investment, this Article argues that manure biogas is far from a sustainable solution to the United States’ environmental and …

Overcoming Obstacles To Equitable Energy Transitions And Promoting Energy Sovereignty For Us Tribal Nations, Don Lee

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This dissertation explores the potential of equitable energy transitions guided by the tenets of energy justice with a focus on Tribal energy sovereignty through renewable energy development. It contributes to the literature on the social acceptance of energy systems, public perceptions of renewable energy transitions, the ramifications of US federal Tribal law on Tribal energy development and sovereignty, and the implications of conforming to capitalist logics in the energy justice literature.

To understand the importance of building reciprocal and collaborative relationships, our team of researchers and Tribal members collaborated on the development of a methodology to survey respondents in a …

Building A Cleaner, More Resilient Energy System In Cuba: Opportunities And Challenges, Korey Silverman-Roati, Daniel Whittle, Romany M. Webb, Jeffrey P. Fralick, Lila Harmar

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Cuba’s energy sector is at a crossroads. The country’s mostly fossil fuel-fired energy system faces a number of longstanding and serious challenges, including breakdowns at aging power plants, decreasing fuel imports and fuel shortages, and the growing threat of climate change-related disruptions. In recent years, Cuba has seen frequent electric blackouts and brownouts that have affected residents, businesses, and government institutions island wide.

Compounding these problems, Cuba is facing a severe economic crisis. In 2022, year-on-year inflation was 39% (down from 77% in 2021). While inflation is estimated to have dropped to 30% in 2023, the price of food increased …

Energy Justice And Renewable Rikers, Rebecca Bratspies

University of Miami Law Review

Unsustainable energy practices generate the lion’s share of global carbon emissions as well as staggering levels of deadly particulate pollution. Replacing the current dirty, fossil fuel-based system with affordable, clean energy is both a human rights imperative and a climate change necessity. This transition, which has already begun, creates the opportunity to do things differently. By confronting the structural racism embedded in existing energy structures, we can build a just transition rather than just a transition. This Article uses New York City’s Renewable Rikers project as a case study to explore how we might take advantage of the intersections between …

Evolving Legal Conceptions Of “Energy Communities”, Uma Outka

University of Miami Law Review

The concept of “energy communities” has had long-standing and evolving significance in the United States and in other countries around the world. Under the Biden Administration, the term “energy communities” has acquired new legal meanings that differ by context and continue to evolve. This Article traces the shifting meaning of “energy communities” and examines how it relates to other dominant references to “communities” in the context of energy law and policy, including environmental justice, low-income, underserved, and disadvantaged communities, as well as newer community-scale energy system innovations, such as community solar or “advanced energy communities.” International comparisons, such as with …

California, An Island?, Lincoln L. Davies, Stephanie Lenhart

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

A monumental change quietly is unfolding in the American West. For decades, the region has lagged the rest of the nation in coordinating electricity operations. Multiple efforts to change this stalled or never got off the ground. Now, everything is different. In the face of climate uncertainty and deepening concern that the region is unprepared for its energy future, stakeholders—government, industry, interest groups—are posturing to create formal electricity markets that will transform the region’s infrastructure, resilience, and economy for the remainder of this century.

Two paths are on the table. In one, much if not all the West will join …

Permitting The Future, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

Introduction to the research colloquium, "Permitting the Future" (2023) sponsored by the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law and the Property and Environment Research Center.

Papers "explore the ways in which the extensive permitting and review requirements adopted at the federal and state level are constraining needed development and infrastructure and suggest possible avenues of reform."

Fueling A Hydrogen Boom: Federal And State Policies For Promoting Green Hydrogen, Kayna Lantz, Luke Sower

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

“Green” hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources could play a valuable role in the energy transition. Among other things, green hydrogen’s potential as a source of carbon-free, long-term energy storage could help the nation address the intermittency-related challenges associated with growing reliance on wind and solar power. Green hydrogen also has promise as an energy-dense fuel for industries that are difficult to electrify, such as long-haul transportation and steel and fertilizer manufacturing. Recent federal actions have provided some initial government support for green hydrogen technologies, but significant policy gaps remain. States and the federal government could do much more to …

U.S. Energy Information Administration Information Resources, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Provides information about the resources produced by U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration. These resources cover energy statistics for U.S., states, the United States, and foreign countries. They also cover energy products as varied as coal, natural gas, nuclear energy, petroleum, and renewable energy.

Path Towards Energy Sustainability: Amultidimensional Analysis Of Energypoverty In Philippine Households, Anna Katrina R. Ignacio, Maria Sofia Lei P. Puncia, Arlene B. Inocencio, Marites Tiongco, Mitzie Irene P. Conchada, Alellie B. Sobreviñas, Rens Adrian T. Calub

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Measuring energy poverty to meet one’s basic needs is vital for household assessments concerning accessibility of energy, affordability of energy prices, usage of energy resources, and sufficiency of energy consumption. In this Policy Brief, we have listed recommendations and rationale to improve the energy conditions of Philippine households.

Held V. State, Alec D. Skuntz

Public Land & Resources Law Review

On March 13, 2020, a group of 16 Montana children and teenagers filed a complaint in the First Judicial District, Lewis and Clark County against the State of Montana and several state agencies. These young Plaintiffs sought injunctive and declaratory relief against Defendants for their complicity in continuing to extract and release harmful amounts of greenhouse gases which contribute to climate change. Plaintiffs premised their argument on the Montana Constitution’s robust environmental rights and protections. The Defendants filed a motion to dismiss which the District Court granted in-part and denied in-part. Held provides a roadmap for future litigation by elucidating …

An Instrumental Perspective On Power-To-Gas, Hydrogen, And A Spotlight On New York’S Emerging Climate And Energy Policy, Tade Oyewunmi

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Industrial Policy And Local Content Rules In Us Energy Policy, Zachary Sturman, Timothy Meyer

Faculty Scholarship

The United States (US) has a long history of using local content requirements (LCRs) – laws, regulations, or governmental measures that condition a benefit, often financial support, on the use of a certain percentage of inputs from the local jurisdiction – to promote the development of favored domestic industries. The energy sector, as well as related infrastructure industries, have been no exception. Historically, the US has used LCRs and similar measures to promote the development of fossil fuel industries. More recent interest by policymakers in the US have spurred the use of local content rules tied to pipeline construction, as …

America’S Energy Policy: Where Energy Consumption Is Headed And Why Policy Needs To Change, Andrew Gillespie

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

Streamlining Or Steamrolling: Oil And Gas Leasing Reform On Federal Public Lands In The Trump Administration, Marcilynn A. Burke

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

“100 Percent Renewable”: Company Pledges And State Energy Law, Uma Outka

Utah Law Review

Corporate demand for clean power emerged with new force and influence in postelection energy policy. As the Trump Administration decisively reemphasized fossil fuels, leading companies countered by pledging to power their operations with renewable energy. This Article assesses recent regulatory reforms at the state level responsive to these corporate pledges and considers the barriers and opportunities the reforms present for companies, for states, and for emissions reduction goals. It traces how corporate energy purchasing has evolved and how new policy innovations are extending that trajectory across a growing number of states. With a focus on reforms expanding access to renewable …

Streamlining The Production Of Clean Energy: Proposals To Reform The Hydroelectricity Licensing Process, Travis Kavulla, Laura Farkas

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Hydroelectric power is an efficient and clean source of power. In an era when air emissions dominate public concern about the environmental effects of the energy sector, it is a paradox that among the most highly regulated energy projects are hydroelectric dams, which do not combust fuel. This is partly due to a failure of successive statutory enactments,which have transformed hydroelectric licensing from a regulatory “one-stop shop” with a single regulator, to a process chained to a bewilderingnumber of often conflicting regulatory agencies, often riven with delay. Hydroelectric licensing has also failed because its capacious standard of review encourages special-interest …

Grasping For Energy Democracy, Shelley Welton

Michigan Law Review

Until recently, energy law has attracted relatively little citizen participation. Instead, Americans have preferred to leave matters of energy governance to expert bureaucrats. But the imperative to respond to climate change presents energy regulators with difficult choices over what our future energy sources should be, and how quickly we should transition to them—choices that are outside traditional regulatory expertise. For example, there are currently robust nationwide debates over what role new nuclear power plants and hydraulically fractured natural gas should play in our energy mix, and over how to maintain affordable energy for all while rewarding those who choose to …

T-Rex, Jurassic Park And Nuclear Power: Nuclear Power Plants And The Courts After The Fukushima Nuclear Accident, Shigenori Matsui

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Beneficial Disruption: Vermont's Renewable Energy Standard And The Need For Innovative Utility Regulation In The 21st Century, Darren Springer

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Drilling For Common Ground: How Public Opinion Tracks Experts In The Debate Over Federal Regulation Of Shale Oil & Gas Extraction, Elizabeth Ann Glass Geltman

Publications and Research

Public interest in environmental and health impacts from shale oil and gas extraction (what the public calls “fracking”) is growing. Industry claims the public outcry against the new technology is not grounded in science. In February 2013, Resources for the Future (“RFF”) published a list of high priority “risk pathways” that experts from NGOs, academia, government, and industry all agreed were real concerns about fracking. This article used the risk matrix to evaluate whether public comments in dockets of federal agencies that proposed regulation concerning hydraulic fracturing tracked expert concern. The article found that the public tracked many of the …

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 …

Impact Of Executive Order 13211 On Environmental Regulation: An Empirical Study, Elizabeth Ann Glass Geltman

Publications and Research

A great deal has been written about the Energy Policy Act of 2005 exempting oil and gas operations using hydraulic fracturing from the purview of certain federal environmental laws. Far less attention has been paid to George W. Bush’s Executive Order 13211 (EO 13211), entitled “Actions Concerning Regulations that Significantly Affect Energy Supply, Distribution or Use.” The executive order requires federal agencies to evaluate the impact of federal regulations on “supply, distribution and use of energy.” This study examined the impact of EO 13211 on United States environmental and conservation regulations proposed and promulgated by federal agencies. The study found …

Revitalizing Dormant Commerce Clause Review For Interstate Coordination, Jim Rossi, Alexandra B. Klass

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Interstate coordination presents one of the most difficult challenges for American federalism as well as for energy markets and policy. Existing laws vest the approval of large-scale energy infrastructure projects such as interstate oil pipelines and high-voltage, interstate electric transmission lines with state and local levels of government. At the same time, state siting and eminent domain regimes routinely enable and even encourage state regulators to hold out from approving interstate infrastructure projects, hobbling any hope for interstate coordination. This Article analyzes how judicial review under dormant Commerce Clause principles and doctrine can promote better interstate coordination by discouraging regulatory …

The Troubled Evolution Of Energy Policy In The Eec: A Discordant Note In The Harmonization Process, Jonathan D. Fishbane

Akron Law Review

This article will explore the troubled evolution of EEC energy policy and the attendant institutional and structural tensions that have militated against a cohesive energy policy and regulatory regime. Certainly, a by-product of such an inquiry is the issue of whether energy-based decision-making has been predicated upon a communitarian vision with Pan-European meaning, or whether nationalism and the pressures of the historical moment have determined the choice of rules to be made irrespective of long- term institutional considerations. While it is recognized that energy encompasses a variety of sources, including petroleum, coal, electricity, geothermal power, and nuclear energy, this article …

Foreign Oil And Taxation: The Need For A Coordinated Energy Policy, E.C. Lashbrooke Jr.

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Calibrating Liquefied Natural Gas Export Life Cycle Assessment: Accounting For Legal Boundaries And Post-Export Markets, James W. Coleman, Adebola Kasumu, Jeanne Liendo, Vivian Li, Sarah Marie Jordaan

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

The climate impact of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export from North America is one of the most pressing questions for Canadian and world energy policy today. This paper performs the first life cycle assessment (LCA) of the greenhouse gas emissions from LNG exports from Canada, assuming that importing countries use the natural gas for electricity generation. It shows that the climate impact of LNG depends on where it is sent. If LNG from Canada displaces electricity in coal-dependent countries, it will likely lower global greenhouse gas emissions. If it displaces electricity from countries that rely on low carbon sources such …

Fukushima's Shadow, Lincoln L. Davies, Alexis Jones

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The March 11, 2011 tragedy at the Fukushima Daiichi power station in Japan immediately etched its place in history as arguably the most noteworthy of the three nuclear energy disasters to date. This Article surveys the response to Fukushima both in Japan and worldwide. It observes that rather than stopping what many thought was a burgeoning "nuclear renaissance," the global policy reaction post-Fukushima was more varied. Using the examples of Germany, the United States, and China, the Article examines the three general approaches to nuclear energy that nations have followed since Fukushima: abandonment, status quo, and expansion. The Article then …

Innovations In Energy And Climate Policy: Lessons From Vermont, Benjamin K. Sovacool, Alex Gilbert, Brian Thomson

Pace Environmental Law Review

We ask in this article: how can planners and policymakers replicate Vermont’s energy and climate policies? We begin by explaining the research methods utilized for this article—mainly research interviews with a pool of experts, coupled with a targeted literature review. We then analyze the success of Vermont energy policy across four areas: energy efficiency, renewable energy, the smart grid, and energy governance. The following sections first explain how Vermont accomplished these successes, next identify a number of remaining barriers and elements of Vermont’s approach that may not be replicable, and finally present the article’s conclusions.