Browsing by Subject "energy law"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    The Australian Carbon Pricing Mechanism: Promise and Pitfalls on the Pathway to a Clean Energy Future
    (Minnesota Journal of Law, Science and Technology, 2014-02-20) Peel, Jacqueline
    A major issue facing efforts to transition from high carbon to low carbon (“clean energy”) sources in the United States is the lack of well-developed legal and policy “infrastructure” to facilitate this transition. This Article considers the lessons for developing such infrastructure from Australia’s recent experience in introducing and implementing a national carbon pricing mechanism. This mechanism was intended to be the keystone of broader national policy arrangements to secure a “clean energy future” for the nation. Although there are significant differences between the legal arrangements governing energy generation and distribution in the United States and Australia (for example, the latter has a national electricity market supported by cooperative federal-state laws), there are yet many similarities between the two countries that enhance the potential for cross-jurisdictional learning. In particular, both countries are leading per capita emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs), with significant emissions sourced from their respective energy sectors, which remain heavily dependent on fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and petroleum) for energy supply. In addition, both countries have legal systems based upon common law foundations, embedded within a federal matrix of national and state laws relevant to issues of energy production, environmental protection, and climate change.
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    The Fifth Dimension: Legal Infrastructure, Cracks, and Governance
    (Minnesota Journal of Law, Science and Technology, 2014-02-20) Ferrey, Steven
    There is a substantial need for sustainable electric power development. It is the key infrastructure that will determine the future carbon footprint. And the current sustainable energy policy is largely implemented at the state, rather than federal, level of government. Many of these state policies are confronting Supremacy and dormant Commerce Clause constitutional challenges. It is not that we lack energy infrastructure; rather, we lack legally smart implementation of energy infrastructure. It is enough to note that the challenges are several, raise significant legal issues, and are ongoing. This Article explores the Five Dimensions of U.S. federal and state sustainable energy policy and through the legal cracks in its infrastructure and governance. States have sculpted sustainable energy policy around five dimensions of legal and policy initiatives: Net metering: In 86% of states; Renewable portfolio standards: In 58% of states; Renewable system benefit charges: In 30% of states; Carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) regulation: In 24% of states; Feed-in tariffs: In 14% of states.
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    Introduction: Envisioning Legal and Policy Pathways for Energy Innovation
    (Minnesota Journal of Law, Science and Technology, 2014-02-20) Osofky, Hari M.
    Introduction to special symposium edition (Issue 15.1) of the Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology, which emerged from the conference Legal and Policy Pathways for Energy Innovation organized by the Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences at the University of Minnesota on April 24–25, 2013. The conference brought together leading scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and business people to discuss how to make critical progress on energy law and policy. The issue contains contributions from several conference participants, who highlight the complexity of energy transition and possibilities for creative, practical solutions.
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    Mitigating the Impacts of the Renewable Energy Gold Rush
    (Minnesota Journal of Law, Science and Technology, 2014-02-20) Morris, Amy Wilson; Owley, Jessica
    This Article questions where the push for utility-scale solar energy development in the California desert leaves endangered species preservation. We begin in Part I by providing some general context for the boom in renewable energy projects and outlining the main mechanisms for expediting endangered species permitting. Part II details offsite mitigation requirements for recently approved projects. Finally, in Part III, we draw some conclusions about the challenges posed by the current strategies for balancing renewable energy development and endangered species protection, and we make recommendations for strengthening mitigation outcomes. Our research highlights general concerns with perpetual off-site mitigation and the lack of oversight and information about mitigation projects. Through examining the development of two specific solar power facilities in the California desert (Ivanpah and Genesis), we demonstrate the mitigation choices, the time lag between project approval and developed mitigation plans, and the roles scientific uncertainty plays in making project decisions. Overall, the picture we paint is a disturbing one where decisions regarding desert development are made without full consideration or understanding of the mitigation measures. The urge to approve projects and get them operational quickly increases this problem. In such an uncertain realm, infusing concepts of reevaluation and adaptive management can provide routes to incorporate new information and alter mitigation or development plans as necessary. Current efforts at consolidated landscape-level planning may help ameliorate some of these concerns, but a better solution may be to slow down the pace of project approval to enable better understanding of the desert ecosystem and full evaluation of mitigation prior to plant construction.
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    Responsible, Renewable, and Redesigned: How the Renewable Energy Movement Can Make Peace with the Endangered Species Act
    (Minnesota Journal of Law, Science and Technology, 2014-02-20) Robbins, Kalyani
    One of the most promising routes to a sustainable energy future, as well as climate change mitigation, is the development of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar energy, and hydropower. Indeed, scientists have proposed plans to move completely (100 percent!) to these energy sources within a couple of decades. Mark Z. Jacobson and M.A. Delucchi, scientists from Stanford and U.C. Davis, have outlined a plan to achieve this goal, thereby “eliminating all fossil fuels.” Hydroelectric power already provides almost one-fifth of the world’s electricity, and wind and solar development is rapidly picking up as well. However, before we leave our worries behind and celebrate, we must resolve one potentially difficult issue for renewable energy, especially these three favored brands. They conflict with another important goal, that of protecting biodiversity. Wind, solar, and hydro energy all have one thing in common: they destroy habitat as well as directly kill wildlife, including listed endangered species and their habitat. Can these problems be reconciled with the movement toward renewable energy, allowing us to partake of its many benefits? At least for now, we regularly see renewable energy progress impeded by the need for Endangered Species Act compliance. The ESA has presented itself as a potentially catastrophic obstacle to renewable energy development. The time has come to think about how we might maximize our access to renewable energy while minimizing its impacts on vulnerable species. This Essay will first review the existing conflicts between endangered species and these three sources of renewable energy. This will be followed by analysis of the potential for harmonizing each energy source with the dictates of the Endangered Species Act, concluding with specific proposals for redesigning our methods of harvesting these forms of renewable energy. As one example, innovators have designed impressive new wind-harvesting technologies that are less dangerous to birds and bats without sacrificing efficiency. I propose that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service incorporate a preference for wildlife-protective technologies into the regional incidental take permitting requirements, at least for certain higher-risk landscapes. The ultimate goal of the piece is to analyze the extent to which it is possible to use each form of renewable energy without significant ecosystem impacts, to generate somewhat of a ranking of preferred modes of development, and to seek the best path (in relation to wildlife) to a renewable energy future. Such a future is itself essential to biodiversity, so the interests must be harmonized.
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    Solar Skyspace B
    (Minnesota Journal of Law, Science and Technology, 2014-02-20) DuVivier, K.K.
    The cleanest source of electricity is that generated from photovoltaic solar panels (PV). Unlike fossil fuels, PV does not require extraction and does not burn, so it emits no carbon. Unlike hydropower, it does not require the damming of natural rivers and the destruction of upstream areas through flooding. Unlike industrial-scale concentrating solar thermo-electric power, it does not consume water to generate electricity. Finally, when placed on existing rooftops in developed areas, distributed solar PV does not require long-term dedication of public lands to an industrial use, does not disrupt native habitat (a potential problem with all of other energy generation resources), and provides power right where it is needed without requiring the construction of new transmission lines. Because of PV’s advantages, one might think that state legislators or courts would give fledgling solar PV some of the many property law benefits that older energy sources have enjoyed. In fact, the current legal system does just the opposite—creating hurdles to the deployment of solar PV by placing all burdens on the solar-energy host side of the scale. This Article will first explain the technological need for solar access. Next it will review the rise and fall of U.S. laws addressing the problem from the late 1970s until today. Finally, it will examine property law regimes that could strengthen protections for this valuable right. While the common law could provide some remedies, the most efficient remedies appear to be through legislative action—either through federal or state statutes, or local government regulations or ordinances. Because grid-connected solar provides broad social benefits beyond those just to the property upon which solar collectors are installed, throughout this Article, I will use the neutral terminology of “Solar Host” for the property on which a grid-connected solar PV array is directly sited and “Southern Property” for a neighboring property to the south of the Solar Host which is within the solar skyspace of an array.
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    Sustainable Communities and Wind Energy Project Acceptance in Massachusetts
    (Minnesota Journal of Law, Science and Technology, 2014-02-20) Petrova, Maria A.
    o The State of Massachusetts is one of the most progressive U.S. states in advancing sustainability through energy conservation and renewable energy. The Green Communities Act, signed into law by Governor Deval Patrick in 2008, has awarded 110 communities with the title “Green Communities” in the last five years. The title is earned after communities achieve “five clean energy benchmarks,” two of which are the provision of “as-of-right” siting for renewable/alternative energy generation and the adoption of an expedited application and permitting process for “as-of-right” energy facilities. The expedited “as-of-right” siting is one of the policy tools designed to encourage communities to speed up the siting of renewable energy projects—particularly wind and solar—as the State has a goal of obtaining 20% of its electricity capacity from renewable energy projects by 2020. Despite the fact that high-ranking energy officials in the State are of the opinion that Massachusetts is able to continue on the path of a “‘clean energy revolution . . . in large part because of leadership at the local level,’” the State has had many difficulties implementing renewable energy projects locally, and many projects have met with strong public resistance. This paper examines the relationship between the “Green Community” designation and the level of acceptance of wind energy projects in the State. Results from surveys conducted in Spring 2012 in three Massachusetts towns—one of which is a designated “Green Community”—are used to show how residents’ perceptions of the siting process, project familiarity, and opportunities to participate in the siting decision affect project support. The paper also discusses the policy implications for renewable energy facilities.
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    Transitioning a Community Away from Fossil-Fuel Generation to a Green Economy: An Approach Using State Utility Commission Authority
    (Minnesota Journal of Law, Science and Technology, 2014-02-20) Ramo, Alan; Behles, Deborah
    A transition is starting throughout the nation as renewable energy resources are developed and older fossil-fuel facilities retire. The communities that bear the brunt of fossil-fuel pollution will also likely bear this transition’s economic impacts. Yet, there is no guarantee that these communities will share in the transition’s economic benefits—in particular, the building, operation, and ownership of new renewable energy resources. Renewable energy laws generally do not consider these types of impacts when determining where to site new resources. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), in a case involving Native Americans in Arizona affected by the operations and closure of a recently retired coal-fired power plant, developed a novel plan to generate a revenue stream from a closed power plant to assist an impacted community with a transition to renewable energy. The CPUC’s decision provides an important roadmap for other states to consider communities impacted by the operation and closure of fossil-fuel facilities as the energy grid transitions into green resources. The CPUC’s creative approach provides a framework for considering how to transition a community away from fossil fuel generation. Other state utility commissions have similar authority as the CPUC, and creative disbursements like this can provide the necessary incentive to spur critical green development in impacted areas. Consideration of the equities, as the CPUC has illustrated, can be done consistent with an agency’s jurisdictional authorities in a way that does not undercut ratepayer or other potential interests.