Regulatory Policy
You Have the Right to Generate Your Own Electricity
Preserving an implicit right in the face of electric utility resistance
Do people have the right to generate electricity for their own use and still remain connected to the grid? Of course they do. You see it every day. Without prior registration or a background check, anyone can go into a hardware store and buy a diesel generator. Homeowners and businesses can install rooftop solar photovoltaics …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat Economists Don’t Get About Our Relationship With Nature
No, climate change isn’t less of a problem if people get used to a devastated world.
People often adjust to problems that seem terrible upfront. Some studies show, for instance, that people who who lose limbs are very unhappy for awhile but then start to adjust to their positions. Some economists argue that something similar may happen with climate change — we might find that we don’t miss extinct animals or …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Mexican Energy Revolution
After decades of state control, Mexico opens its energy sector
November 20th is Revolution Day in Mexico – a national holiday celebrating the end of its ten year uprising against the dictator Porfirio Diaz. Also this month, Mexico will begin accepting bids on up to 6 million certificates for renewable energy, hoping to add up to 2,500 megawatts of clean electricity to its energy mix. …
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CONTINUE READINGDueling California Drought Relief Bills Debated on Capitol Hill
Stark Differences Emerge Between Competing House and Senate Bills
What can and should the federal government do to assist the State of California in weathering the worst drought in recorded state history? While the U.S. House of Representatives is embroiled in a chaotic political debate over selection of a new House Speaker, the more deliberate consideration of new legislation continues apace in the Senate. …
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CONTINUE READINGDuPont Found Liable In First of 3,500 Lawsuits
Chemical Used in Teflon Linked to Numerous Health Problems, but its Use is Still Legal Under TSCA
Yesterday, a jury in the Southern District of Ohio found DuPont liable for a woman’s kidney cancer in the first of 3,500 suits the company faces. The cases all stem from DuPont’s use and disposal of perflourooctanoic acid (PFOA) or C8. The chemical is used to make Teflon, among other things, and the most recent …
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CONTINUE READINGLost in the Ozone Again
The Ozone Standard, Regulatory Pragmatism, and the Rule of Law
EPA issued a new regulation last week that mandates a reduction in ozone levels to 70 ppm from the current 75 ppm (originally set by the Bush Administration). The new regulation was immediately attacked by industry and environmentalists. According to industry, the regulation will be a job-killing burden on the economy. According to environmentalists, …
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CONTINUE READINGIs CCS the “best” system of emission reduction for coal-fired power plants?
Exploring Potential Challenges to EPA’s New Source Performance Standard: PART II
This post is the second in a mini-series (see first post) exploring likely legal challenges to the New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) for power-plant greenhouse gas emissions under Clean Air Act § 111(b), and how those challenges might affect the Clean Power Plan. In my first post on EPA’s New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) for …
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CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Law as a Three-Legged Stool
Ad. Law provides the process and institutions, while Torts and Property concepts underly the substance.
Environmental law is a formidable tangle of long, complicated statutes and sometimes arcane judicial doctrines. But underneath all that, I’d like to suggest, there’s a very simple structure, rooted in legal basics. The procedural and structural framework for environmental law is provided by administrative law, supplemented in a few areas like Superfund by ordinary civil …
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CONTINUE READINGIs Carbon Capture & Sequestration (CCS) the Biggest Threat to the Clean Power Plan?
Exploring potential challenges to EPA’s New Source Performance Standard: PART I
This post is the first in a mini-series exploring likely legal challenges to EPA’s New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) for power-plant greenhouse gas emissions under Clean Air Act § 111(b), and how those challenges might affect the Clean Power Plan. I will leave detailed exploration of the Clean Power Plan for later posts, but suffice …
CONTINUE READINGWhat’s New in Environmental Economics?
Some interesting recent publications.
It sometimes takes awhile for journals to reach my desk as they circulate among faculty, so this isn’t hot off the presses. But I’ve been looking at some recent issues of JEEM (the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management), and I found a number of very interesting articles. Fully grasping the articles would require a …
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