LPDD August Newsletter
LPDD at State Legislator Conferences
Last week, members of the LPDD team attended annual conferences for both the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators and the National Conference of State Legislators, which were held in Louisville, Kentucky.
Our team had conversations with dozens of lawmakers from around the country to learn about what climate-related issues are vexing them, tout the resources available at modelclimatelaws.org, and take requests for additional resources or support. In total, legislators from eighteen different states requested some type of resource from our team, which we'll be trying to provide in the days ahead. As policymakers brace for the results of the 2024 election, the role of states in setting the climate agenda couldn't be clearer.
Project Profiles
Periodically, we like to highlight contributors to the LPDD project, in order to call attention to the depth of expertise and scholarship behind this work.
This month we highlight Jim Geocaris, a recently retired partner in the national law firm Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard & Smith. Jim has helped LPDD with outreach in California since 2022. He has over 45 years’ experience in environmental law, most recently as a partner in Lewis, Brisbois’ Orange County, California office. Jim’s outreach in the state to date includes supporting LPDD’s work for a major California public utility district on proposed regulations relating to heavy duty trucks and service vehicles. This work led to the revision of some requirements and continued negotiations on the measure.
Jim began his career in the late 1970s as a fellow at a Ford Foundation-funded public interest law firm in Los Angeles followed by service in the Office of General Counsel for the Secretary of Defense and in the Department of Energy. Jim then worked at a major Chicago law firm, helping to expand the firm’s new environmental law practice. Since 1990, Jim has worked in California representing clients ranging from local manufacturers to Fortune 500 corporations in environmental law matters.
During his career, Jim has worked on environmental and energy issues for several large infrastructure projects. These have included expansion plans and projects at LAX and O’Hare Airports, nuclear power plants, a major metropolitan wastewater system, highway projects, and regional groundwater extraction systems.
From his work over the past 34 years in California Jim has become familiar with the state’s multitude of state and regional agencies that have jurisdiction over environmental and energy matters. These agencies include the State Water Resources Control Board and its regional water boards, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Department of Toxic Substances Control, the Public Utilities Commission, the California Energy Commission, and the California Air Resources Board and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
Jim is a graduate of Stanford Law School and has served on the school’s Board of Visitors. He also holds a Master’s in Political Science from Stanford.
New External Resources
modelclimatelaws.org is being continually updated with new, external legal resources. Below is a selection of recently added resources:
- Pennsylvania's Solar for Schools Program: In July, Pennsylvania passed HB 1032, establishing the Solar for Schools Program. This program will cover the costs of the purchase and installation of solar equipment, permit fees, energy storage, utility interconnection, and other costs approved by the state. In administering the program, the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development will leverage available federal Inflation Reduction Act funds.
- Northeast States Collaborative on Interregional Transmission: In July, ten Northeast states announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to improve interregional transmission planning and development. Under the MOU, states agreed to share technical data, solicitation guidance, regulatory updates, project status reports, and more related to transmission infrastructure. The Collaborative will also produce a strategic action plan for promoting the development of transmission projects for offshore wind. The MOU was signed by Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
- Massachusetts' Office of Energy Transformation and Advisory Board: In March, Massachusetts established the nation's first office responsible for managing the state’s gas-to-electric transition and readying the electric grid to meet the state’s climate and clean energy mandates. The Office of Energy Transformation is housed within the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and is charged with the hands-on execution of the clean energy transition, including ensuring the availability and readiness of electrical infrastructure, electric and gas transition coordination, and a just transition for impacted workers and businesses. In July, Massachusetts announced a new advisory board to guide the Office's work. The Energy Transformation Advisory Board will include utilities, fossil fuel workers, business groups, technology providers and innovators, and environmental justice advocates, among others.
- Rhode Island's EV Charger Rebate Program: Rhode Island's Office of Energy Resources recently launched a new rebate program to encourage the installation of EV charging infrastructure on residential properties. The PowerUpRI initiative will provide the lesser of $700 or 50 percent to buy and install Level 2 residential EV chargers for properties requiring electrical upgrades, and up to $350 or 50 percent of the infrastructure’s purchase and installation for properties already capable of supporting a charger. Forty percent of funding is earmarked for low- and moderate-income residents.
- Illinois' SAFE CCS Act: Passed in July, Illinois' Safety and Aid for the Environment in Carbon Capture and Sequestration Act establishes regulations on carbon capture and storage, and places a two year moratorium on carbon pipelines, while federal safety guidelines are established. Beyond that moratorium, the law prohibits projects that will increase pollution, and bans the use of carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery. Substantively, the SAFE CCS Act sets forth requirements and procedures to obtain “pore space” for sequestration. The Act requires sequestration facility operators to obtain a permit from the Illinois EPA prior to constructing any portion of the sequestration project, which will require an evaluation of the impact on water resources used by the sequestration facility. Finally, the SAFE CCS Act specifies that the operator of the sequestration facility, not the state, is responsible for any personal or property damage caused by the sequestration.
Spotlight on Equity: In July, Lawyers for Good Government launched their Clean Energy Tax Navigator, a tool to help under-resourced communities access funding from the Inflation Reduction Act. The tool has an interactive form that walks applicants through determining eligibility, offers technical resources, and even directs to pro bono legal and tax services.
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.