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New and Notable Additions

LPDD February Newsletter

New LPDD Model Laws

Last week, the LPDD team published two new model laws: first, on establishing a carbon labeling program, and second, on prioritizing funding for clean transportation alternatives.

Carbon Labeling Act: This model, establishing a carbon labeling program, is adaptable at either the federal or state level. The model law and its accompanying memorandum are available to view here.

Carbon footprint product labels may influence consumers to make more environmentally friendly choices. This model law requires the implementation of a federal/state carbon labeling program, in which a participating manufacturer calculates the carbon footprint of its product by using criteria developed or adopted by a federal/state government agency. Once that calculation has been independently verified by a designated third-party non-government organization, the manufacturer will disclose the relevant portions of that information on a government-sponsored label directed to the public.

This model was drafted by Cynthia J. Cho. Initial review was conducted by Scott W. Badenoch Jr., Visiting Attorney at the Environmental Law Institute, and Richard A. Horsch, and full peer review was provided by Michael Burger, Sabin Center Executive Director and Senior Research Scholar and Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia Law School.

Prioritizing Funding for Clean Transportation: The second LPDD model law published in the last week requires state governments to devote a larger share of transportation funding to providing meaningful alternatives to driving. It is available to view here.

The model lays out a roadmap for a more transparent, objective, and quantifiable funding prioritization process that emphasizes environmental impact factors in the assessment of transportation projects. The model provides two versions of a law, both for states that already have, and have not, adopted a statewide transportation funding process. For states that have not adopted a funding process, the model addresses a wider range of prioritization issues, including potential measures to be used as selection criteria, the uses of a benchmark study assessing different modes of transportation, the adoption of a standardized weighted formula to score and rank different transportation options, and other factors. For states that have already adopted a funding process, the model proposes a more streamlined roadmap, considering how to assess carbon emissions and other environmental metrics.

This model was drafted by lawyers from the Goodwin Procter firm, including Wenqing Zhao, Suzanne Nguyen and Mulon Luo, with oversight by Robert Fitzgerald.  Peer reviewing was contributed by Trip Pollard, LPDD chapter author and Senior Attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center.

New External Resources

modelclimatelaws.org is being continually updated with new, external legal resources. Below is a selection of recently added resources, including a pair of new resources from RMI useful for state governments:

  • ELI and NRDC's Model Pay As You Throw Ordinance: Localities may target household waste reduction as an indirect method of reducing carbon emissions. NRDC's recently published model ordinance would establish a system under which households are charged based on the amount of trash they dispose of, and are charged at a higher rate for trash than for recyclables and compostables. The goals of the ordinance are to decrease landfilling and incineration of municipal solid waste in favor of source reduction, materials recycling, and organics recycling, as well as to establish a residential waste management pricing scheme that promotes transparency, efficiency, and fairness by charging households according to the amount of trash they generate.
  • Zero-Emission Residential Buildings Memorandum of Understanding: In January, nine states signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) establishing the goal that 65 percent of all new residential HVAC and hot water heating systems use electric heat pumps by 2030, and 90 percent of all such systems by 2040. Participating states will collaborate to collect market data, track progress, and develop an action plan for widespread residential building electrification. Signatories include California, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Rhode Island.
  • California Order Eliminating Subsidies for Electric Extensions to Mixed-Fuel Construction: In December, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) followed up on a previous ruling eliminating subsidies for natural gas line extensions for all newly constructed mixed-fuel buildings by further eliminating subsidies for electric line extensions to building projects that use natural gas and/or propane. With the elimination of electric line extension subsidies for mixed-fuel new construction, the state is further disincentivizing the use of natural gas in new construction by removing all subsidies associated with the extension of new gas infrastructure.
  • RMI report, State Energy Policy in a Land of New Federal Opportunity: The Rocky Mountain Institute offers this recently published guide to new and expanded federal funding programs under legislation including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, highlighting opportunities for states to pass and pay for clean energy policies. The report identifies five key state policies that can be supported by federal dollars: clean energy standards, clean vehicle standards, managed energy infrastructure transitions, methane standards, and whole home energy retrofit programs. Each of these topics is broken down to identify several different specific funding streams, which in turn link to a funding database co-created by RMI and the World Resources Institute, where state policymakers can learn more about each funding stream.
  • Electric Transmission Planning: A Primer for State Legislatures:  This recent paper from the National Conference of State Legislatures provides an overview of transmission challenges, planning processes and actors involved, with the goal of enabling state legislators to better understand the current challenges to transmission capacity in the energy transition and the options for progress.
  • RMI's Performance Incentives Mechanism Database: Performance Incentives Mechanisms (PIMs) are an evolving tool in the utility regulator's toolkit, whereby regulators may link utility earnings to achieving certain system or social goals, such as increasing energy efficiency rates, decreasing interconnection delays, achieving equitable participation in the energy transition, and decreasing GHG emissions. This new database from the Rocky Mountain Institute aggregates information on PIMs across the country to support the design and proliferation of effective PIMs. Absent such information, states looking to design PIMs are forced to repeat the same investigations without the benefit of each other’s experience. By compiling information on both PIM design and performance, the database will support stakeholders in understanding not only the scope of potential PIM designs, but also their relative success in influencing utility behavior toward improved outcomes.

Spotlight on Equity: A January 2024 report, Procedural Equity at Public Utility Commissions, from the Institute for Policy Integrity, focuses on the efforts of state Public Utility Commissions to enhance procedural justice -- that is, to ensure that disadvantaged communities are given fair hearing and consideration in the regulatory process. Commission decisions can affect the health, energy, environmental, and affordability burdens faced by minority, low-income, and otherwise disadvantaged communities. The report selects nine states to focus on, and reviews a range of practices and conditions potentially conducive to enhancing procedural justice. “Procedural justice” encompasses fair access to process, the right to equal voice and representation during decision-making processes, respectful treatment, access to adequate information, and the impartiality of the decision-maker. The report identifies six categories of practice that enhance procedural justice, and makes recommendations that other states may wish to follow.

Project Profiles

Every other month, we like to highlight attorneys working on this project, to recognize their service, and call attention to the quality of expertise and scholarship behind LPDD. This month, we're proud to feature Prof. Nadia Ahmad (pictured below), and highlight her reflections on her work with the International Renewable Energy Agency, culminating in her participation at COP28 in December.

Professor Ahmad has been instrumental in supporting the LPDD project as a peer reviewer and expert on biofuels. Most recently, she worked with the team for over a year to support a California state agency that reached out for expertise and guidance on California's requirements for heavy-duty vehicles and limits on biofuels.

In 2021, she became the first hijab-wearing Muslim woman to teach at Yale University with the rank of professor when she was a Visiting Associate Professor at Yale Law School. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Environmental Science at the Yale School of Environment. She is also an Associate Professor at Barry University School of Law, teaching Environmental Law, Energy Law, Property, and Business Organizations. Her pathbreaking research on “climate cages” examines the intersection of climate policy and incarceration.

Professor Ahmad’s global recognition includes her role as an expert advisor to the International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation’s Taskforce on Bamboo for Renewable Energy and the external affairs committee of Solar Cookers International. She also serves on the International Bar Association’s Section of Energy, Environment, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure Law’s Academic Advisory Group.

Professor Ahmad has spent her academic career focusing on frontline communities who are the most vulnerable to energy production. She is a co-author of the casebook, Environmental Justice: Law, Policy & Regulation (Carolina Academic Press, third edition) and has published over 45 scholarly articles and book chapters. Before academia, she served as a Legal Fellow with the Sustainable Development Strategies Group, where she worked on tax policy for natural resources, community development agreements, and mineral leasing rights as a consultant to the World Bank and AusAID.

We're proud of Professor Ahmad's contributions to our project and look forward to more opportunities to work with her in the future. She has been kind enough to offer us some words on her work with IRENA over the last decade in the note below.

IRENA at 15: From Abu Dhabi to the UAE Consensus at COP28By Nadia Ahmad
My engagement with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has been a journey marked by continuous learning and collaboration towards a more sustainable future. Each interaction with IRENA, from attending meetings to contributing research, has deepened my appreciation for these Global South architects driving global energy transformation and building a new page in energy diplomacy.
In 2016, my participation as an Observer at the IRENA Meeting in Abu Dhabi provided me with invaluable insights into the agency's initiatives and partnerships aimed at advancing renewable energy adoption worldwide. The experience underscored the urgency of transitioning towards cleaner energy sources and the collective efforts required to achieve this goal.

Building on this foundation, in 2019 when I spoke at the Lesley K. McAllister Symposium on Climate and Energy Law at the University of San Diego, I highlighted the intersection of IRENA's work with international legal frameworks such as the Energy Charter Treaty, emphasizing the importance of policy coherence in driving renewable energy deployment. From this symposium, I authored the first U.S. law review article dedicated to the International Renewable Energy Agency, where I explored IRENA's role in facilitating post-Paris energy transitions and its potential to shape energy diplomacy beyond traditional frameworks. This article sought to elevate awareness of IRENA's significance among legal scholars and policymakers.

Continuing this engagement, I wrote a book chapter in 2022 focusing on the dynamic interplay of transnational energy law regimes and IRENA's transformative potential as a new wave of energy diplomacy. This comprehensive analysis aimed to elucidate the agency's unique position as a catalyst for global energy governance reform.

In 2023, my journey intersected with IRENA once again at COP 28, where I witnessed the agency's leadership in advancing ambitious climate action through the UAE Consensus. As an Observer, I saw firsthand the collaborative spirit and determination driving IRENA's efforts to accelerate the transition to clean energy on the international stage.

As we celebrate IRENA's 15th anniversary, I am filled with gratitude for the opportunity to contribute to its mission of promoting renewable energy worldwide. Congratulations to IRENA, Director General Francesco La Camera, and all its members on this momentous occasion. Together, we remain steadfast in our commitment to building a more sustainable, equitable future powered by clean energy.

In the News

Sometimes, we come across news stories that highlight the value of the resources we already promote at modelclimatelaws.org. Here are a few:

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.

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