December LPDD Newsletter

We're Hiring!

The LPDD project is looking for a new Director! If you'd like to join our team delivering high-quality model laws and a library of best practices to policymakers and practitioners around the country, check out our posting here!

Environmental Law in Trump's Second Term

As our team continues to analyze the impacts of last month's election on environmental law in the United States, our founder, Michael Gerrard, has published his thoughts in the New York Law Journal. Professor Gerrard's article surveys both climate-related and non-climate-related environmental law, from PFAs to California's Clean Cars rules to plastic pollution treaties, and notes hopefully that "rapid advances in the technology and economics of clean energy have created a momentum that can be slowed but not stopped."

New External Resources

modelclimatelaws.org is being continually updated with new, external legal resources. Below is a selection of recently added resources of special interest:

• 2024 Annual Decarbonization Perspective: This report from Evolved Energy Research provides an energy modeling analysis and evidence-based strategies for the United States to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. It offers Scenarios that highlight key decision points, trade-offs, and opportunities on the road ahead. The report is updated annually. The 2024 iteration includes first-of-a-kind analyses of surging electricity demand from data centers, the technical potential of geologic hydrogen, next-generation geothermal, and low-carbon cement, as well as the cost breakthroughs needed to scale clean tech without policy support.
• Massachusetts' Omnibus Clean Energy Grid Legislation: In November, Massachusetts passed omnibus climate legislation reforming the siting and permitting of clean energy facilities, as well as the gas distribution system; expanding the EV charging network; incentivizing innovative technologies such as battery storage, fusion energy, and advanced metering; and equipping state agencies to invest in technological development. Major components of the legislation include: consolidating reviews of clean energy siting and permitting; requiring the Energy Facilities Siting Board to consider maximizing the efficiency of current infrastructure through advanced transmission or grid-enhancing technologies; directing the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) to consider greenhouse gas impacts when it weighs a petition by a gas company to expand its territory; centralizing statewide coordination of charger installation via the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Coordinating Council; becoming the first state in the nation to add fusion energy to the list of Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS) Class I renewable energy generating sources; and more.
• Massachusetts Climate Tech Legislation: Separately, Massachusetts enacted an economic development bill  that includes a $400 million investment in climate tech initiatives and creates a new tax incentive program to support climate tech companies in Massachusetts.
• Pennsylvania's Permit Fast Track Executive Order:  Pennsylvania's Executive Order 2024-04 launched the Pennsylvania Permit Fast Track Program, which aims to offer a more unified permitting process across state agencies for complex energy, infrastructure, and other economic development projects. It empowers the state's Office of Transformation and Opportunity (OTO) to issue program guidance, determine eligible projects, offer coordination services to critical infrastructure, maintain a public-facing dashboard to display progress against established permitting timelines, and more.
• California Updates Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS): California's LCFS reduces air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions by setting a declining carbon intensity target for transportation fuels used in California. Producers that don’t meet established benchmarks buy credits from those that do. This system has generated $4 billion in annual private sector investment toward a cleaner transportation sector. In November, 2024, CARB approved updates to the LCFS that set targets to reduce the carbon intensity of California’s transportation fuel pool by 30% by 2030 and by 90% by 2045. The amendments also increase support for zero-emissions infrastructure, including for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, and make more transit agencies eligible to generate credits.
• Michigan Orders Electrification Goals into Gas Delivery Plans: In November, the Michigan Public Service Commission ordered the gas utility DTE Gas to incorporate the state’s emissions and electrification goals into its future “gas delivery plans."

In The News

Sometimes, we come across stories that remind us of the value of resources already hosted at modelclimatelaws.org. Here are a few from the last month:

• The Washington Post covers anticipated rollbacks of environmental justice funding and agency operations under the incoming Trump Administration, including the Justice40 initiative. In collaboration with WE ACT for Environmental Justice, our project has published a suite of five model state laws protecting frontline communities, which will remain urgent whether the federal government backslides on environmental justice or not.
• RMI reports on international efforts to reduce methane from organic waste. Our project has published multiple models on diverting food waste from landfills, addressing one of the largest sources of methane in the waste stream.
• The NY Times reports that California is prepared to fill the potential void that would be created by rescinding the existing $7,500 federal EV tax credit. Our model state-level EV tax credit and rebate laws would be a good place to start for states looking to follow suit.

Get Involved!

Not sure how to support our work? Check out our Get Involved page to see the many avenues by which lawyers can join us, and get in contact!

This update highlights and summarizes recent additions to the Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization (LPDD) website, which houses actual and model laws addressing the causes of climate change in the United States.

The Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization Model Law Project (LPDD-MLP) is a pro bono effort to draft model laws for use by legislators at the federal, state and local levels to support their efforts to achieve deep reductions in fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions. The project is based on recommendations from the groundbreaking book Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States (Michael Gerrard and John C. Dernbach, eds., 2019). The work is supported by Columbia University's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and Widener University Commonwealth Law School’s Environmental Law and Sustainability Center. Dozens of law firms and individual lawyers are contributing to this pro-bono effort as drafters, peer reviewers or in reaching out to policymakers.

Our website, modelclimatelaws.org, contains over 80 model laws that are a starting place for discussion and collaboration among elected officials, non-profit groups, and the private sector for enabling the U.S. to address climate change by reducing U.S. GHG emissions to zero by 2050 or earlier. The site includes several Top 10 lists for some of the key categories, like electric vehicles, PUC’s, buildings and other topics as a short-hand introduction. In addition, the site references hundreds of other actions that states and other governmental bodies have taken to move towards decarbonization more rapidly. By providing policymakers the tools to achieve deep decarbonization, the Project will help achieve a restructuring of the energy economy, thus alleviating the worst effects of climate change, which are disproportionately suffered by marginalized communities, while providing such positive benefits as economic security, social equity, and environmental justice (EJ).

Please contact us to talk about getting involved in drafting and peer reviewing legislation, to provide suggestions and feedback on the drafts and to talk about how we can help you support your climate change efforts.