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New and Notable Additions

LPDD June Newsletter

New External Resources

modelclimatelaws.org is being continually updated with new, external legal resources. Below is a selection of recently added resources, including several pieces of legislation recently passed in Colorado:

  • Southern California Boiler and Water Heater Regulation: In Southern California, a new rule targets industrial boilers and water heaters fueled by fossil gas, driving a major shift toward electric boilers and heaters. Regulators in the South Coast Air Quality Management District voted to approve a first-in-the-nation measure that aims to sharply reduce emissions of smog-forming NOx from more than 1 million large water heaters, small boilers, and process heaters in the area. Starting in 2026, smaller units in new buildings must meet zero-emission limits. The last required to make the switch are existing facilities with high-temperature units, which have until 2033.
  • **Colorado Law on Housing Density Near Transit:**Colorado's HB 1313, passed in May, encourages the development of more housing near "transit-oriented communities," requiring these urban communities to set housing density targets and develop affordability and displacement mitigation strategies. The law also establishes a grant program to help local governments upgrade infrastructure to facilitate increased density near transit.
  • Colorado's Grid Modernization Legislation: In May, Colorado passed grid modernization legislation that will require Xcel Energy to upgrade its distribution system to support the state's beneficial and transportation electrification and decarbonization goals, as well as other federal, state, regional, and local air quality and decarbonization targets, standards, plans, and regulations. Utilities must commence a data collection process, adopt certain cost caps, and propose flexible interconnection or energization tariffs to the public utilities commission. To support distributed resources, the utility is required to create and file with the commission an application to implement a virtual power plant program. From an equity perspective, the utility is required to identify interconnection and load hosting capacity for distributed energy resources for disproportionately impacted communities within its service territory, and consult with these communities.
  • Colorado's Gas Planning Pilot Communities Law: Passed in May, Colorado's HB 24-1370 requires the Colorado Energy Office to identify five gas planning pilot communities. These communities will target neighborhood-scale alternatives projects, which will seek to decommission a portion of the gas distribution system or avoid expanding the gas distribution system in order to serve new construction projects and provide substitute alternative energy service to buildings. The bill requires the utility to submit at least one neighborhood-scale alternatives project in each community to the commission for approval.
  • Maryland's Geothermal Pilots Law: On a similar theme, Maryland's HB0397, enacted in May, requires gas utilities serving more than 75,000 customers to develop proposals for network geothermal pilot projects by July 1, 2025. The proposals must ensure that at least 80 percent of the pilot projects’ customers are from low- or moderate-income households.
  • FERC Order 1920 on Transmission Planning: In May, FERC issued Order 1920 on long-term transmission planning and cost allocation. The rule will require transmission operators to conduct and update long-term regional transmission planning over a 20-year time period to anticipate future needs. This planning process will consider various factors (including utility resource plans, state climate and energy goals, and interconnection queues) that will impact transmission needs, energy demand, and the grid’s mix of energy resources.
  • National Energy Codes Collaborative: ACEEE's National Energy Codes Collaborative launched in May with the goal of empowering states and jurisdictions to effectively and sustainably implement updated building energy codes. States and jurisdictions who are members of the Codes Collaborative will find resources to advance their building codes, reduce environmental impacts, promote equity and ensure high quality careers. The Codes Collaborative aspires to provide toolkits, code modules and/or model code amendments, state specific roadmaps, and technical assistance groups.
  • Maryland's Bi-Directional Charging Law: In May, Maryland's Distributed Renewable Integration and Vehicle Electrification Act (“DRIVE Act”) was signed, creating a bidirectional EV charging program. The law requires the Public Service Commission to put forward new regulations aimed at allowing EVs to both draw power from and supply power to the electric grid. The DRIVE Act also allows for the creation of virtual power plants, which aggregate distributed energy resources, such as solar arrays and electric vehicles, to support the grid and act as traditional power plants during peak demand. As bidirectional-capable EVs and solar-plus-storage resources become more common across Maryland, the DRIVE Act could help reduce the need for new transmission and distribution infrastructure in the state and throughout the congested PJM Interconnection region.
  • Massachusetts Climate Careers Fund: In May, Massachusetts announced its Climate Careers Fund, which will provide no-interest loans to cover costs for tuition and living expenses for people enrolled in training and workforce programs for climate-related jobs. The initial Climate Careers Fund pilot, which aims to reach $10 million, will add philanthropic resources to public funding for education and workforce programs to help participants access training programs that prepare them for skilled climate jobs such as Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration technicians, electricians, energy auditors, and electric vehicle mechanics, among others.

Spotlight on Equity: In May, Colorado passed HB 24-1338, creating the Office of Environmental Justice to coordinate environmental justice (EJ) work across government agencies, increase state engagement with disproportionately impacted communities (DICs), and develop EJ goals. The law also requires the creation of at least two Environmental Equity and Cumulative Impact Analyses to analyze the cumulative air, water, soil, and demographic impacts in specific DICs.

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 from the last month:

Get Involved!

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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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