In 2015, EPA proposed a rule requiring states to develop plans to cut CO2 emissions from the power sector—the Clean Power Plan (“CPP”). EPA explained the rule would result in “significant emission reductions” for that sector,…
more
/ Administrative Law, Energy & Utilities, Environmental Law, Zoning, Planning & Land Use
The industrial wood pellet industry in the U.S. manufactures and exports wood pellets to burn in power plants to produce electricity, and this has been praised as a climate solution, a source of renewable energy. The truth is…
more
/ Commercial Law & Contracts, Energy & Utilities, Environmental Law, Government Contracting, Zoning, Planning & Land Use
Today in the United States, there is no federal comprehensive statute addressing climate change. With the Trump Administration now in power, it is doubtful that any such statute will be forthcoming anytime soon. Unfortunately,…
more
/ Business Organizations, Energy & Utilities, Environmental Law, Zoning, Planning & Land Use
On the evening of the second inauguration of President Trump, the White House released a flurry of executive orders on a wide range of subjects. Several of them specifically concerned energy and the environment. The general…
more
/ Administrative Law, Energy & Utilities, Environmental Law, Zoning, Planning & Land Use
Happy new year, ACOEL colleagues and friends! Following (nearly) four years in the Biden Administration serving as Associate Administrator for Policy at EPA, I am happy to be back in my teaching role at Georgetown University…
more
/ Administrative Law, Energy & Utilities, Environmental Law, Zoning, Planning & Land Use
Let me state this at the outset. I am a lifelong ACLU Liberal Democrat who has never voted for a Republican. Thus, the results of the election on November 5th put me in a deep funk. Nothing that has happened since that time,…
more
/ Constitutional Law, Elections & Politics, Environmental Law, Zoning, Planning & Land Use
Back in 2003, Michael Herz and I wrote an article calling for the creation of an online, word searchable database of environmental impact statements that had been prepared under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and…
more
/ Commercial Law & Contracts, Environmental Law, Government Contracting, Science, Computers, & Technology, Zoning, Planning & Land Use
In the last week of August, the Biden administration finalized protection of 28 million acres of federal land and water in Alaska that is critical for birds, fish, caribou, and the communities that rely on them. That’s an area…
more
/ Environmental Law, Indigenous Peoples, Zoning, Planning & Land Use
On July 18, 2024, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided that environmental groups were entitled to intervene in a case challenging the lawfulness of a greenhouse gas regulation because the state’s attorneys failed to raise the…
more
/ Constitutional Law, Energy & Utilities, Environmental Law
In the 1967 movie “The Graduate,” a family friend famously tells the title character “I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Plastics. There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it.” Well, those of us engaged in…
more
/ Consumer Protection, Environmental Law, Health, Science, Computers, & Technology
It is becoming increasingly difficult to practice law without some knowledge of climate change as well as the law related to climate change. Irma Russell, Matt Bogoshian, and I recently published an article making the case that…
more
/ Environmental Law, Law Practice Products & Services
This blog posting is derived from an article I recently published in the University of Missouri, Kansas City Law Review at the invitation of our Fellow and friend Irma Russell, to whom I am indebted for much guidance and counsel…
more
/ Civil Rights, Environmental Law
Our national climate goals of net zero emissions, renewable energy transition, electrified vehicle fleets, clean steel, green hydrogen, and the rest of the package focus on the ramp-up of clean energy sources and end uses. As…
more
/ Energy & Utilities, Environmental Law, Transportation
The ACOEL webpage “About Us” states that we are to be “Advocates for environmental law and process for a better environmental future.” Allow me to throw down this gauntlet to Members: What “better environmental future” is the…
more
/ Constitutional Law, Energy & Utilities, Environmental Law
The annual release of projections for how long the Social Security trust funds will be able to pay the amounts earned by beneficiaries shows that the gap has grown between what retirees are scheduled to receive and what current…
more
/ Environmental Law
