This Comment is based on Tom Hassenboehler’s remarks at the 2021-2022 Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review conference, available at https://www.eli.org/ environmental-law-policy-annual-review/2021-2022-ELPAR-conference.
One central but under-scrutinized way that fossil fuel companies impede the clean energy transition is by essentially running the United States’ electricity grid, writing its rules to favor their own private interests. In most of the country, the electricity grid is managed by Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs). RTOs are private membership clubs in which incumbent industry members make the rules for electricity markets and the electricity grid through private mini-democracies—with voting privileges reserved for RTO members—under broad regulatory authority.
This Comment provides an empirical snapshot of the environmental legal literature for the 2020-2021 academic year, as well as information on the top articles chosen for re-publication by the Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review (ELPAR), which is published by the Environmental Law Reporter in partnership with Vanderbilt University Law School.
The United States currently does not have capacity to recycle its waste domestically, nor can it export the amount of waste it once did. Many states are trying to solve this crisis through novel legislation, but states cannot solve this crisis on their own. This Article argues that the federal government should take the lead in developing new law and policy designed to increase national recycling rates.
Humans are inescapably dependent upon geological processes and structures. Many of these interactions are direct, such as when we cultivate the soil or mine the earth. However, the terms of our interaction with geology are usually invisible and unacknowledged. Although the relationships are complex, a firm understanding of the environment and our dependence on it cannot ignore the interconnections between earth’s systems, including subsurface geology, vegetation, oceans, and atmosphere.
What impact does inflation have on environmental sectors? Economists have recently raised concerns about “greenflation,” a term coined to describe rising commodity prices associated with going green, due to a higher demand for sustainable materials. The implementation of more carbon-neutral regulation and increasing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices may contribute to these rising costs. On January 26, 2022, the Environmental Law Institute hosted leading experts for an in-depth economic discussion about greenflation, regulations, and ESG practices.
Policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels are increasingly turning to building performance standards (BPSs) to reduce buildings’ contributions to climate change. A key question in designing BPSs is what “metric” the standards should use to gauge a building’s performance. This Comment provides general background information on the case for regulating energy use in buildings, reviews the two general categories of metrics in existing BPSs and explains why an energy efficiency-based standard is superior to a greenhouse gas-based standard, and highlights the findings from a study of N
Gasoline is the source of 17% of U.S. carbon emissions. To achieve emissions reductions consistent with the 2030 goals set by the Joseph Biden Administration and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, annual U.S.
Plastics pollution has been an issue in the United States since discovery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch catapulted it to the forefront of news reporting. Regulatory and academic activity around plastics has had a common feature: it focused almost exclusively on one stage in plastics’ linear model and framed the problem as a waste problem.
Gas stations are America’s largest carbon spigot, a leading source of neighborhood-based pollution, and a sacred cow. This Article takes a comprehensive look at gas stations through the lens of the climate crisis and the rise of electric vehicles, and proposes steps to improve and shrink the country’s gas station network in an environmentally and fiscally prudent manner. It argues that state and local government should regulate gas stations to advance their climate goals, reduce pollution of air, soil, and groundwater, improve public health, and save taxpayers money.