In 2014, the central government of China announced a plan to create by 2020 a corporate environmental credit system (ECS), an incentive mechanism to deter companies’ environmental violations and promote a culture of environmental law compliance. The ECS was to be implemented at the provincial level, and by the end of 2020, all 31 provinces, provincial-level municipalities, and provincial-level autonomous regions (collectively “provinces”) of mainland China, with the exception of Beijing, had either published their own corporate environmental credit regulations or adopted in practice or

When establishing regulations under the Kigali Amendment and the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act, and to achieve environmentally and economically effective hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) phasedown strategies, this Comment asserts that the United States must consider what climate strategies have worked well in the past. Specifically, it looks at the history of U.S. climate action and presents market-based opportunities to phase down HFCs by providing examples of allowance-and-trading program successes.

This Comment responds to a July Comment from Paul Weiland and Dennis Murphy that responded to a September 2020 Comment addressing the challenges of managing small and declining populations of California Delta smelt under the Endangered Species Act and focusing on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's treatment of the species in a recent biological opinion.

Visible impacts of climate change, like the unprecedented winter storm in Texas, underscore the need to integrate climate adaptation as a principal factor in energy security. With appropriate weatherization and increased battery storage, many believe that renewables can help assure an energy-secure future that is more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

This abstract is adapted from Rory Van Loo, The New Gatekeepers: Private Firms as Public Enforcers, 106 Va. L. Rev. 467 (2020), which examines the rise of the enforcer-firm through case studies of the industries that are home to the most valuable companies in technology, banking, oil, and pharmaceuticals.

This abstract is adapted from Alexandra B. Klass, Eminent Domain Law as Climate Policy, 2020 Wis. L. Rev. 49 (2020), which contends that states should consider limiting eminent domain rights for fossil fuel projects and extending eminent domain rights for certain clean energy projects as part of their state climate policies.

This Comment is written from the perspective of a practicing attorney who represents clients on the issues addressed in Prof. Joshua C. Macey’s Zombie Energy Laws, and focuses on the filed rate doctrine, which is one of the zombie energy laws Professor Macey identifies—a doctrine that is alive and kicking and still particularly relevant today.

With the dawn of the Joseph Biden Administration, there is renewed optimism that the United States will take steps to fulfill its responsibilities under the Paris Agreement and curb greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Electrification is a big step on this path, and the nation needs a cleaner, more resilient grid to support this reduced emissions future. But as University of Chicago Law Prof. Joshua C. Macey details in his article, Zombie Energy Laws, efforts to support mass electrification and decarbonization face a major stumbling block: zombies.

This Article traces the development of three legal rules—cost recovery for vertically integrated utilities, the requirement that regulators assess the financial viability of energy projects before issuing a certificate of public convenience and necessity, and the filed rate doctrine—that emerged out of the view that electric power companies should be shielded from market forces.

Because environmental justice is inherently a conversation about geography (i.e., where in our states, cities, and towns are environmental burdens most concentrated), maps represent a natural tool for articulating and addressing environmental justice issues.