Energy and Utilities Law Commons^™

Hoopa Valley Tribe V. Ferc, Fredrick Aaron Rains

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In Hoopa Valley Tribe v. FERC, the Hoopa Valley Tribe challenged the intentional and continual delay of state water quality certification review of water discharged from a series of dams on the Klamath River in California and Oregon. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the states of Oregon and California, and PacifiCorp, a hydroelectric operator, were implementing an administrative scheme designed to circumvent a one-year temporal requirement for review imposed on states by the Clean Water Act. This scheme allowed PacifiCorp to operate the series of dams for over a decade without proper state water quality certification. The United States …

Save Our Sound Obx, Inc. V. North Carolina Department Of Transportation, Mitch L. Werbell V

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled in favor of several governmental agencies seeking to construct a new bridge in the Pamlico Sound adjacent to North Carolina’s Outer Banks. For years, state and federal agencies have put forth a massive coordinated effort to address the constant weather damage and erosion which occurs to a section of North Carolina Highway 12. The court found the agencies properly cleared NEPA’s environmental review requirements for the bridge’s construction. Additionally, the opponent-litigants’ efforts to add claims challenging the project, based on new information about a shipwreck in the bridge’s path, were futile.

Recent Case Decisions

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Gaping Hole: Darning International Corporate Liability For Environmental Disasters And Human Rights, Veronica Threadgill

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Give Me Disproportionate Economic Hardship Or Give Me Death: The Application Of Administrative Review To The Renewable Fuel Standard – Sinclair Wyoming Refining Co. V. Epa, Andrew Rasbold

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

There Will Be Blood: The New Rules Of Oklahoma Oil And Gas Civil Liability, Hunter W. Mattocks

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

The Vicissitudes Of Life: Meier V. Chesapeake Operating, Kelsee Kephart

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Cybersecurity And Offshore Oil: The Next Big Threat, Jamie Crandal

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Editor's Introduction And Front Pages, Collin Mccarthy

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Sunny And Share: Balancing Airspace Entitlement Rights Between Solar Energy Adopters And Their Neighbors, Joshua B. Landis

Vanderbilt Law Review

In an effort to ameliorate the effects of climate change, state and local governments have made increasingly large commitments to support solar energy adoption. For solar investments to be successful, however, solar adopters require unobstructed access to sunlight, which is directly at odds with the interests of neighbors and developers who value vertical development, especially in urban centers. To mitigate these looming conflicts, governments have enacted a variety of laws that assign airspace entitlements to either solar adopters or their neighbors. Unfortunately, these solutions are all poorly tailored for dense cities, which is where future airspace conflict is likely to …

Energy Re-Investment, Hari M. Osofsky, Jacqueline Peel, Brett H. Mcdonnell, Anita Foerster

Indiana Law Journal

Despite worsening climate change threats, investment in energy—in the United States and globally—is dominated by fossil fuels. This Article provides a novel analysis of two pathways in corporate and securities law that together have the potential to shift patterns of energy investment.

The first pathway targets current investments and corporate decision-making. It includes efforts to influence investors to divest from owning shares in fossil fuel companies and to influence companies to address climate change risks in their internal decision-making processes. This pathway has received increasing attention, especially in light of the Paris Agreement and the Trump Administration’s decision to withdraw …

Widening The Power Gap: The Eighth Circuit’S Stringent Requirements For Class Actions In Environmental Contamination Cases, Emily Holtzman

Missouri Law Review

Pipeline construction is booming in the United States, yet it remains a polarizing topic for many because of environmental concerns. On the one hand, pipelines bring increased energy independence for the United States and are one of the safest ways to transport oil and gas.At the same time, fears of environmental damage have led to a growing and fierce opposition to pipeline construction. After the massive offshore rig spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, resistance to new projects like the Keystone Pipeline has received widespread media coverage. The protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline on the Standing Rock …

Public Utilities And Environmental Justice: Electric Restructuring And Deregulation And Low-Income Communities, James W. Moeller

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

Thirty years ago, Potomac Electric Power Company ("PEPCO") sold electric power generated by coal-burning power plants located in the Washington region. Today, PEPCO can sell electric power generated by coal-burning and nuclear power plants located in West Virginia, Pennsylvania,and Illinois. By importing electric power from those states, PEPCO can, in effect, export to those states the environmental impact of coal-burning and nuclear power plants that generate power for affluent PEPCO consumers in the District of Columbia and Maryland.This "outsourcing" of electric power generation was made possible by seismic changes in the structure of the electric utility industry wrought by Congress …

An Analysis Of United States Nuclear Power Plant Decommissioning Policy And The Public Participation Process, Alexis Stabulas

Sustainability and Social Justice

As the number of nuclear power plants slated for decommissioning increases, reflecting on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) decommissioning regulations in relation to public participation becomes increasingly important. When plants close, communities lose security in economics, employment, and environmental and human health. The NRC’s regulations on public involvement are very limited and generally stakeholders do not feel supported in the decommissioning process. Local and tribal governments, citizen groups, the general public, and those directly affected have all found the NRC’s public involvement inadequate, ineffective, and infrequent. The case studies of two completely decommissioned plants, Maine Yankee and Big Rock …

Energy Exactions, Jim Rossi, Christopher Serkin

Cornell Law Review

Exactions are demands levied on residential or commercial developers to force them, rather than a municipality, to bear the costs of new infrastructure. Local governments commonly use them to address the burdens that growth places on schools, transportation, water, and sewers. But exactions almost never address energy needs, even though local land use decisions can create signficant externalities for the power grid and for energy resources. This Article proposes a novel reform to land use and energy law: "energy exactions"-understood as local fees or timing limits aimed at addressing the energy impacts of new residential or commercial development. Energy exactions …

Microgrids: Legal And Regulatory Hurdles For A More Resilient Energy Infrastructure, Raquel Parks

Pace Environmental Law Review

Natural disasters and climate change have made it apparent that energy infrastructure needs to be modernized and microgrids are one type of technology that can help the electricity grid become more resilient, reliable, and efficient. Different states have begun developing microgrid pilot projects including California, New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. The City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is the first city to propose implementing “energy districts” of microgrids that will serve as critical infrastructure, in the first phase, and then expand to commercial and community settings. This large project involves many shareholders including public utilities, government agencies, and private entities. Utilizing microgrids …

Law, Cultural Heritage, And Climate Change In The United States, Casey J. Snyder

Pace Environmental Law Review

Climate change is a reality. What happens climatically over the upcoming centuries is partially dependent on the comprehensiveness of a global response to curb emissions of greenhouse gases. However, within a century, forecasts predict a one-meter sea level rise that could have grave implications to our society: the loss of an incalculable extent of cultural heritage. This Article examines the threat climate change poses to physical cultural heritage, like archaeological sites and historic structures, and the current framework of law, regulation, and policy in the United States meant to protect these resources. This Article blends research and data from climate …

State Public Nuisance Claims And Climate Change Adaptation, Albert C. Lin, Michael Burger

Pace Environmental Law Review

This Article explores the potential for state public nuisance claims to facilitate adaptation, resource protection, and other climate change responses by coastal communities in California. The California public nuisance actions represent just the latest chapter in efforts to spur responses to climate change and attribute responsibility for climate change through the common law. Part II of this Article describes the California public nuisance lawsuits and situates them in the context of common law actions directed against climate change. Part III considers the preliminary defenses that defendants have raised and could raise in the California public nuisance lawsuits, including the existence …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recent Case Decisions

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.