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New and Notable Additions

LPDD March Newsletter

New External Resources

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

  • Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonisation in Australia: Following the publication of Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States, the groundbreaking text on which the LPDD project was founded, our team has encouraged legal experts from other countries to prepare parallel volumes for their jurisdictions. A new text, Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonisation in Australia, aims to offer a useful resource to government officials, energy industry (both fossil and renewable) executives, and environmental and climate advocates seeking a legal roadmap for reducing Australian GHG emissions. It is edited by Gerry Natzgaam (BA, LLB, M Env Sci, PhD), Katie O'Brien (LLB, M Env Law, Phd), and Mark Beaufoy (BA (Hons), LLB, M Env Law), all three of whom teach at Monash University. The text identifies legal impediments to GHG-reducing technologies like energy efficiency, fuel switching, and decarbonized electricity, and analyzes ways to surmount them. The text varies in structure from its American predecessor, including chapters on subjects such as Human Rights, First Nations Perspectives, and Active Transport. This effort follows after another successful companion text, published in 2021 for the Brazilian market.
  • Finalized SEC Climate Risk Disclosure Rules: In March, the Securities and Exchange Commission finalized new rules requiring publicly traded companies to disclose financial risks caused by climate change and efforts to address the crisis. The finalized rules abandoned previously proposed requirements to disclose Scope 3 emissions, or those released by supply chains and customers. These revisions to the rule were made by the SEC in an effort to preempt or survive congressional repeal efforts and legal challenges. However, the revised rules therefore fall short of comparable rules adopted in California and the EU. The final rules will require companies to disclose, among other things: climate-related risks and related material impacts, as well as the processes for identifying and managing these risks; adaptation and mitigation plans and expenditures incurred, if applicable; the company’s climate-related targets or goals, if any; information about material Scope 1 emissions and/or Scope 2 emissions; the costs of purchasing carbon offsets and renewable energy credits, as well as impacts from severe weather events and other natural conditions; and more. The final rule, originally proposed rule, and related analysis are catalogued at our website.
  • Massachusetts Net Metering Revisions: In February, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities issued an order revising the state’s Net Metering Program regulations to allow for municipal and state-owned facilities to take advantage of net metering, offer exemptions from program caps for solar facilities generating between 60 kW and 2,000 kW (for private facilities) or 10,000 kW (for public facilities), and restructure cost recovery to save ratepayers an estimated $10 million. Under the order, net metering credits are also now able to be transferred between utilities, which could serve as a model for other states. The revisions are expected to expand distributed energy generation across the state.
  • Colorado Bans State Agencies from Using Gas-Powered Lawn Equipment: State agencies in Colorado will be banned from using gas-powered lawn equipment with engines of 25 horsepower or less during the summer, according to a rule adopted by the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission in February. The new regulation also prohibits the use of gas-powered push lawn mowers and other lawn equipment under 10 horsepower on other public property within the Denver Metro and the nine-county North Front Range ozone nonattainment area. The rule applies from June to August and is designed to reduce pollution. The rule does not impact homeowners on their own property.
  • North Carolina Executive Order on Conservation and Reforestation: In February, North Carolina's governor signed an Executive Order that sets statewide targets for governments and private land-protection groups to both “permanently conserve” 1 million acres of forests and wetlands and to restore 1 million new acres of similar lands by 2040. The governor also wants 1 million new trees planted in urban areas by 2040.
  • Prohibiting Ratepayer Funds for Utility Lobbying Legislation Tracker: Following a rush of introduced or successfully passed legislation on the subject over the last year, the Energy and Policy Institute has launched a tracker covering legislation aiming to prohibit ratepayer funds from being used to support utility lobbying efforts. At the time of this writing, the tracker has entries for four pieces of successfully-enacted state legislation, and ten other introduced bills from across the country.
  • AFFORD Tool: The AFFORD tool (America's Federal Funding Opportunities and Resources for Decarbonization) helps state, local, non-profit, and community organizations identify eligible funding, tax credits, and other incentives relevant to decarbonization projects, including electricity, transportation, buildings, and resilient energy systems. It is a valuable resource for state and local governments to identify what types of projects they may be eligible for under recently passed federal climate and infrastructure legislation. The tool was developed by the Rocky Mountain Institute, the World Resources Institute, and the America is All In coalition.

Spotlight on Equity: In February, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy of Environmental Affairs (EEA) unveiled the state’s first-ever Environmental Justice (EJ) Strategy. The document provides guidelines to embed environmental justice and equity into the work of EEA and its agencies when planning and implementing programs and policies under its purview. The EJ Strategy addresses themes including meaningful community engagement, analysis of project benefits and burdens, language access plans, staff training, and metrics and tracking. EEA will revisit and update the EJ Strategy every three years. Starting in December 2024, the EJ Office will also release an annual progress report.

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!

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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