Energy and Utilities Law Commons^™

Drones, Henry H. Perritt Jr., Eliot O. Sprague

All Faculty Scholarship

Abstract

Drone technology is evolving rapidly. Microdrones—what the FAA calls “sUAS”—already on the market at the $1,000 level, have the capability to supplement manned helicopters in support of public safety operations, news reporting, and powerline and pipeline patrol, when manned helicopter support is infeasible, untimely, or unsafe.

Larger drones–"machodrones”–are not yet available outside battlefield and counterterrorism spaces. Approximating the size of manned helicopters, but without pilots, or with human pilots being optional, their design is still in its infancy as designers await greater clarity in the regulatory requirements that will drive airworthiness certification.

This article evaluates drone technology and design …

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 …

Wildearth Guardians V. Jewell, 738 F.3d 298 (D.C. Cir. 2013), Ross Keogh

Public Land & Resources Law Review

As part of a comprehensive strategy to keep coal “in the ground,” environmental plaintiffs challenged the BLM’s leasing of federally owned coal tracts in the Powder River Basin in 2010 on climate change grounds. WildEarth Guardians was the first suit to reach a federal circuit court, where the District of Columbia Circuit Court affirmed that the BLM’s environmental analysis of the climate change impacts of the leased coal was adequate under NEPA. Notably, in reversing the district court, the circuit court found that the plaintiffs had procedural standing.

Europe Should Dump Cap-And-Trade In Favor Of Carbon Tax With Reinvestment To Reduce Global Emissions, Stephen Sewalk

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

It is time for the European Union to dump the EU-ETS cap-and trade system, as it is not working. By adopting a carbon tax with reinvestment, the European Union (EU) could reduce its economy-wide emissions by forty-eight percent (and emissions from buildings and utilities by sixty-five percent) within twenty years while automatically putting in place a border tax adjustment. By adopting the carbon tax with reinvestment, the EU's trading partners would be heavily encouraged to adopt the same system, thereby dramatically reducing global emissions. This adoption would occur much like the EU adopting the Value-Added Tax and 150 countries following …

Climate Engineering Field Research: The Favorable Setting Of International Environmental Law, Jesse Reynolds

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

As forecasts for climate change and its impacts have become more dire, climate engineering proposals have come under increasing consideration and are presently moving toward field trials. This article examines the relevant international environmental law, distinguishing between climate engineering research and deployment. It also emphasizes the climate change context of these proposals and the enabling function of law. Extant international environmental law generally favors such field tests, in large part because, even though field trials may present uncertain risks to humans and the environment, climate engineering may reduce the greater risks of climate change. Notably, this favorable legal setting is …

Capital Rigidities, Latent Externalities, Shi-Ling Hsu

Scholarly Publications

Capital, one of two fundamental inputs to production, is critical to economic growth. As such, legal rules and institutions generally seek to create more of it, and they also seek to protect existing capital from policy changes. However, capital is often durable, and during its natural life, information may emerge pointing to negative externalities resulting from operation of that capital. Legal rules and institutions, in seeking to stimulate and sustain economic growth by promoting and protecting capital, thus tend to induce the creation of excess capital. This abundance of capital creates excess resistance to new regulation or policy reform, as …

Table Of Contents

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

No abstract provided.

Oil And Gas Law: From Habendum To Patent Law, Emir Crowne, Barbero C. Michael

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

This article outlines and addresses the specific patent issues affecting the oil and gas industry. In so doing, it argues that the business realities of the industry, coupled with its fast-paced environment, make it a perfect example of why the current patent prohibition against professional skills and business methods must be reformed.

Masthead & Front Matter

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

No abstract provided.

The Walking Dead Or Weekend At Bernie’S? How The Public Trust Doctrine Threatens Alternative Energy Development, Michael Julius Motta Jr.

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

One of the oldest doctrines of environmental law, the public trust doctrine, is sufficiently ambiguous that it risks threatening widespread adoptions of alternative energy sources such as wind energy. Because of this, the public trust doctrine threatens the protection of the environment in the name of protection of the environment. Yet, the public trust doctrine and future energy policy should be complementary and not exclusionary of each other. In light of this, whether an agency has public trust authority should be determined based on six factors: the legal authority of state fiduciaries; due diligence by state fiduciaries in determining if …

Reconsidering Regulatory Uncertainty: Making A Case For Energy Storage, Amy L. Stein

Florida State University Law Review

This Article begins the complex dialogue that must take place to address the emerging technologies providing energy storage for our electricity grid. Energy storage has the capacity to be a game-changer for many facets of our grid, providing better integration of renewable energy, enhanced reliability, and reduced use of carbon-intensive fuels. Energy storage faces a number of obstacles, however, including technological, financial, and regulatory uncertainty. This Article focuses on the regulatory uncertainty, and defends the proposition that not all regulatory uncertainty is created equal. It argues for differential treatment of this uncertainty, depending on its context, scope, and source, and …

Say What? The Resolution Of Ambiguous Written Agreements In West Virginia, James Matthew Davis

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Unringing The Bell: Time For Epa To Reconsider Its Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding, David Yaussy, Elizabeth Turgeon

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Feed-In Tarrifs In Turmoil, Lincoln L. Davies, Kirsten Allen

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Drilling And Deductions: Making The Section 170(H) Conservation Easement Work In The Shale Boom Era, Michael T. Fulks

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Water Quality Standard Setting Under The Clean Water Act: Is It Nimble Enough To Avoid Wasteful Spending On The Wrong Goals, Christopher B. Power, Jennifer J. Hicks

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Geology, The Marcellus Shale, Experts, And Dispute Resolution, Itzchak E. Kornfeld

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reconsidering Regulatory Uncertainty: Making A Case For Energy Storage, Amy L. Stein

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article begins the complex dialogue that must take place to address the emerging technologies providing energy storage for our electricity grid. Energy storage has the capacity to be a game-changer for many facets of our grid, providing better integration of renewable energy, enhanced reliability, and reduced use of carbon-intensive fuels. Energy storage faces a number of obstacles, however, including technological, financial, and regulatory uncertainty. This Article focuses on the regulatory uncertainty, and defends the proposition that not all regulatory uncertainty is created equal. It argues for differential treatment of this uncertainty, depending on its context, scope, and source, and …

Facts, Fiction, And Perception In Hydraulic Fracturing: Illuminating Act 13 And Robinson Township V. Commonwealth Of Pennsylvania, Joshua P. Fershee

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Foreword, Phillip Saunders

Dalhousie Law Journal

This special edition of the Dalhousie Law Journal includes selected papers from the 4th East Coast Seminar of the Canadian Energy Law Foundation. The scope and depth ofthe articles which follow demonstrate the growing maturity ofthe East Coast Energy sector, both inthe refinement and further definition of the offshore exploration and exploitation regimes that were the focus ofthe 1st East Coast Seminar in 2000, and the increasing relevance of government and industry interest in land-based hydrocarbons as well as alternative energy sources such as wind and tidal power. This collection reflects the importance of these developments, and also extends to …