The Growing Influence of Tort and Property Law on Natural Resources Law: Case Studies of Coal Bed Methane Development and Geologic Carbon Sequestration

19 pages. Alexandra B. Klass, Associate Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law Schoo

The Growing Influence of Tort and Property Law on Natural Resources Law: Case Studies of Coal Bed Methane Development and Geologic Carbon Sequestration

19 pages. Alexandra B. Klass, Associate Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law Schoo

Climate Change and Reassessing the Right Level of Government: A Response to Bronin

Climate change has caused lawmakers, policymakers, and scholars to reassess the traditional role of federal, state, and local governments to regulate a broad range of environmental, energy, and land-use issues. While the problem of climate change would appear to be best addressed at the international, or at least the federal level, it has been local governments and states that have taken the first and most important steps in recognizing the problem and experimenting with different ways to address it. While some of these experiments show how the lower levels of government can have a significant and positive impact on national-level problems, these experiments also reveal limitations of such an approach, calling out for a response by higher levels of government

Climate Change and Reassessing the Right Level of Government: A Response to Bronin

Climate change has caused lawmakers, policymakers, and scholars to reassess the traditional role of federal, state, and local governments to regulate a broad range of environmental, energy, and land-use issues. While the problem of climate change would appear to be best addressed at the international, or at least the federal level, it has been local governments and states that have taken the first and most important steps in recognizing the problem and experimenting with different ways to address it. While some of these experiments show how the lower levels of government can have a significant and positive impact on national-level problems, these experiments also reveal limitations of such an approach, calling out for a response by higher levels of government

Carbon Capture and Sequestration: Identifying and Managing Risks

Carbon capture and geologic sequestration (CCS) technology promises to provide deep emissions cuts, particularly from coal power generation, but deploying CCS creates risks of its own. This article first considers the risks associated with CCS, which involves capturing CO{sub 2} emissions from industrial sources and power plants, transporting the CO{sub 2} by pipeline, and injecting it underground for permanent sequestration. The article then suggests ways in which these risks can be minimized and managed and considers more broadly when or if CCS should be deployed or whether its use should be limited or rejected in favor of other solutions

State Standards for Nationwide Products Revisited: Federalism, Green Building Codes, and Appliance Efficiency Standards

This Article considers the federal preemption of state standards for building appliances and places the issue within the ongoing federalism debate over the role of state standards for “nationwide products” such as automobiles, pharmaceuticals, and other consumer products. Notably, residential, commercial, and industrial buildings make up approximately 40 percent of total U.S. energy demand and the same percentage of U.S. carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, while the appliances within those buildings are responsible for 70 percent of building energy use, making appliance efficiency a central component of any national effort to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. For decades now, states and local governments have been at the forefront of developing “green building codes” to reduce the energy use and GHG emissions associated with buildings. At the same time however, states are extremely limited in their authority to mandate more energy efficient appliances in buildings because of federal law preempting innovative state standards in this area. After providing a detailed discussion of state and local green building efforts and the history of federal preemption of appliance efficiency standards, this Article explores recent scholarly work in the area of “dynamic” or “polyphonic” federalism to argue for a new approach that allows for state innovation without disrupting the national market for appliances. This Article then suggests various options for revising the federal laws governing appliance efficiency standards that recognize and build on the expertise states have gained in reducing energy use and GHG emissions without creating an unworkable “50-state patchwork” of regulation