Energy and Utilities Law Commons^™

Energy Policy: Past Or Prologue?, Michael J. Graetz

Faculty Scholarship

The United States was remarkably complacent about energy policy until the Arab oil embargo of 1973. Since then, we have relied on unnecessarily costly regulations and poorly designed subsidies to mandate or encourage particular forms of energy production and use. Our presidents have quested after an elusive technological “silver bullet.” Congress has elevated parochial interests and short-term political advantages over national needs. Despite the thousands of pages of energy legislation enacted over the past four decades, Congress has never demanded that Americans pay a price that reflects the full costs of the energy they consume. Given our nation’s economic fragility, …

Energy And Environmental Justice: How States Can Integrate Environmental Justice Into Energy-Related Proceedings, James M. Van Nostrand

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Building- Related Renewable Energy And The Case Of 360 State Street, Sara Bronin

Faculty Articles and Papers

This Article argues that a well-conceived policy approach to building-related renewable energy (“BRRE”) — that is, renewable energy incorporated into inhabited structures and used by those structures’ occupants — could transform the way we produce and consume energy by maximizing efficiency while simultaneously minimizing energy sprawl. The vast majority of Americans favor renewable energy, at least in concept. Yet private property owners still face significant obstacles in trying to incorporate renewable energy into their projects. This Article analyzes barriers faced by the project team for 360 State Street, an award-winning, mixed-use LEED® Platinum building in downtown New Haven, Connecticut. Among …

Preventing Atoms For Peace From Becoming Atoms Of Terror: The National Environmental Policy Act Is Not A Vehicle For Addressing Terrorism, David D. Leege

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

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 …

Efficiency In The Regulatory Crucible: Navigating 21st Century ‘Smart’ Technology And Power, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

The flow of money in U.S. energy policy choices has consequences, and the Obama administration’s 2009 federal stimulus package presents an interesting policy scenario. The current administration wants to pivot postindustrial America away from emitting global-warming gases and powering its economy with fossil fuels. Indeed, changing the energy technology and infrastructure of the United States has been the cornerstone of the Obama administration’s domestic policy. The federal government devoted significant amounts of stimulus funding to this agenda. It also maintained preferences for certain investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy through the tax code. A change of this significance revolving …

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 …

Faculty

LSU Journal of Energy Law and Resources

No abstract provided.

Blowing Hot Air: An Analysis Of State Involvement In Greenhouse Gas Litigation, Caroline Cecot

Vanderbilt Law Review

In Massachusetts v. EPA (2007), the U.S. Supreme Court interpreted the Clean Air Act ("CAA") to require the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") to regulate greenhouse gas emissions1 from motor vehicles if the EPA Administrator finds that the emissions endanger public health and welfare ("Endangerment Finding"). In December 2009, the Administrator made such an Endangerment Finding, obligating the EPA to work with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ("NHTSA") to develop average fuel economy and greenhouse gas emission standards for new light-duty vehicles. After issuing proposals and reviewing comments from the public, the two agencies announced their groundbreaking final regulation ("Tailpipe …

The Landsafe Socioecological Development Model For The Customary Commons Of Zambia: Evolution And Formalization, I.P.A. Manning

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Tribal Energy Development: Renewables And The Problem Of The Current Statutory Structures, Judith Royster

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Global Public Goods, Governance Risk, And International Energy, Timothy L. Meyer

Scholarly Works

Scholars and commentators have long argued that issue linkages provide a way to increase cooperation on global public goods by increasing participation in global institutions, building consensus, and deterring free-riding. In this symposium article, I argue that the emphasis on the potential of issue linkages to facilitate cooperation in these ways has caused commentators to underestimate how common features of international legal institutions designed to accomplish these aims can actually undermine those institutions’ ability to facilitate cooperation. I focus on two features of institutional design that are intended to encourage participation in public goods institutions but can create the risk …

Clean Energy And The Price Preemption Ceiling, Jim Rossi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Since the New Deal, federal preemption has precluded many state and local regulatory decisions that depart from wholesale electric prices determined under federal standards. Recent decisions treat prices that meet the federal standard as a preemption ceiling, which prohibits states from setting prices that exceed the wholesale price set in a competitive market. Both appellate courts and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission - the primary federal agency responsible for the electric power sector - have recently applied a price preemption ceiling to clean energy policies. I argue in this Article that this price ceiling preemption approach hobbles the advancement of …

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 …

Enforcing The Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime: The Legality Of Preventive Measures, Cristian Defrancia

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Efforts to limit the proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear-weapons-related technology have increasingly involved economic, technological, and military forms of coercion implemented in an environment of low-level conflict. Coercive counterproliferation measures have included a range of actions, including targeted economic sanctions, industrial sabotage, cyber attacks, targeted killings, and military strikes. While the nonproliferation obligations of states are well-established under relevant treaties, state practice, and the international monitoring system of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), norms relating to the enforcement of those obligations are not clearly defined in legal instruments. This Article reviews the legality of prevention and enforcement measures …

Enhancing The Investor Appeal Of Renewable Energy, Felix Mormann

Articles

This Article introduces an investor-orented framework for the evaluation of renewable energy policy, applies these newly developed critea to a qualitative comparison of the primary policy instruments, and offers recommendations to enhance the investor appeal of renewable energy in the United States.

The multi-trillion dollar task of scaling-up renewable energy technologies to mitigate climate change, ensure energy security, and create green jobs is one of the most daunting challenges of the twenty-first century It is, in fact, too great a challenge for either the public or private sector to shoulder alone. Rather, public policy must catalyze private investment in renewable …

Can Vermont Put The Nuclear Genie Back In The Bottle: A Test Of Congressional Preemptive Power?, Hope M. Babcock

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Even before the nuclear core meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors in Japan re-stoked public anxiety about nuclear energy, Vermont’s Senate, under the auspices of Vermont Act No. 160, voted to block continued operation of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant after the expiration of its forty-year operating license. This article examines whether a state can legislatively override a permit issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission extending the license of a power plant. The author places this question within a broader federalism context, in which states assert their sovereign rights to regulate the environment in the shadow of federal mandates. …

Implementation Of The Arizona Water Settlement Act In New Mexico: An Overview Of Legal Considerations, Adrian Oglesby

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Becoming Positive About Being Carbon Neutral:Requiring Public Accountability Forinternet Companies, Alexandra L. Pichette

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Every year, worldwide dependence on Internet and other information technology services grows. In many ways, the increased use of electric energy is positive for the environment; after all, using the Internet to access a document uses less energy than printing and distributing that document. Nonetheless, Internet companies expend a great deal of energy when they, for example, fire up their servers to satisfy a search request. Studies show that Internet companies are disproportionately large energy consumers, and are responsible for a growing number of carbon emissions. As a result, environmentalists are becoming concerned about the effects of these emissions on …

Can We Regulate Our Way To Energy Efficiency? Product Standards As Climate Policy, Noah M. Sachs

Law Faculty Publications

In this Article, I demonstrate that the regulatory strategy for energy efficiency is working. Although information disclosure, financial incentives, and other softer alternatives to regulation play a vital role in reducing energy demand, these should be viewed as complements to efficiency regulation, rather than replacements. The regulatory approach has led to substantial cost and energy savings in the past, it has enjoyed bipartisan political support, and it targets products and behaviors that are difficult to address through other policy tools. Given the politics of climate change in the United States, which make federal carbon taxes or a cap-and-trade system infeasible, …