In January 2021, the mining sector was made eligible for coverage under the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST-41) program, a pilot project designed to expedite federal permitting. Although mining projects have been eligible for over two years, only recently was the first one posted on the Permitting Dashboard.

The Inflation Reduction Act and Federal Buy Clean Initiative have each inspired states and municipalities to regulate embodied carbon (Scope 3) using “Buy Clean” policies and legislation. Reducing embodied carbon has become mainstream, and environmental product declarations (EPDs) have surfaced as the tool. Are EPDs alone enough? Is the compliance timeline sufficient? On February 1, 2023, the Environmental Law Institute hosted a panel of experts that provided an update on Buy Clean policy, green funding, the status of carbon emissions, and a primer on EPDs.

As population growth and increased electrification rapidly raise demand for power, U.S. electric grids are struggling to keep pace, and the need for more transmission capacity is pressing. The U.S. Congress has delegated its interstate commerce authority to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to regulate interstate transmission rates. Meanwhile, states regulate intrastate transmission rates. What is perhaps surprising, though, is the fact that states generally have authority over the siting and construction of interstate transmission lines.

This Article explores the environmental justice, climate justice, and sustainable development implications of the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act, which encourages domestically produced and processed minerals for the country’s energy transition from fossil fuels.

As noted by the International Energy Agency, taxation is a necessary component of strategies to increase adoption of electric vehicle (EV) technology. In the United States, taxation has supported the energy policy of increased uptake of EVs. This Article focuses on the evolving U.S. tax policy, highlighting the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. It addresses continuing challenges and ways to meet those challenges, including examining some European policies for encouraging EVs. The author concludes by recommending policies that may be consistent with existing U.S.

In 2015, the United Nations Member States, including the United States, unanimously approved 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030. In a forthcoming book, leading legal scholars examine each of the SDGs and recommend a suite of government, private-sector, and civil society actions to help the United States achieve these goals. This Article is adapted from Chapter 7 of that book, Governing for Sustainability (John C. Dernbach & Scott E. Schang eds., ELI Press, forthcoming 2023).

Many chemicals and hazardous substances are kept in places that can withstand ordinary rain, but not severe storms or floods. If these events occur and the chemicals are released, people and the environment may be endangered. This Article discusses the hazards posed to chemical and waste disposal facilities by extreme weather events that would be worsened as a result of climate change, and how U.S. laws do (or do not) deal with these hazards; and considers how the law would need to change to cope with what would happen to these facilities in a potentially 4°C world.