LPDD May Newsletter

New External Resources

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

• EPA's New Proposed Tailpipe Regulations: In April, EPA proposed new rules to dramatically reduce pollution from vehicles ranging from passenger cars to semi trucks. The new light-duty vehicle limits would require carmakers to cut pollution emitted from cars and pickups in 2032 to less than half of what they produce in 2026. Though the rules do not include any electric vehicle sales requirements, they are expected to effectively mean that 67% of all light duty vehicle sales in 2032 will be all-electric. Additionally, 46% of sales of new medium-duty trucks are projected to be all-electric by the same year. EPA also proposed a companion rule governing heavy-duty vehicles, designed so that half of new buses and a quarter of new heavy trucks sold, including eighteen-wheeler big rigs, would be all-electric by 2032. The new proposed rules are open for comment through July 5, with a first round of hearings scheduled this week.
• California's Advanced Clean Fleets Rule Passes: In May, the California Air Resources Board approved the Advanced Clean Fleets Rule. The rule applies to fleet operators, and complements the previously approved Advanced Clean Trucks Regulation, which is targeted at vehicle manufacturers. The new proposed rule consists of three different purchase requirements for fleet operators: 1) for private fleets with 50 or more trucks (including federal fleets and businesses with revenue over $50 million); 2) for drayage trucks operating from seaports or railyards and; 3) for state and local government public fleets. In effect, the Advanced Clean Fleets Rule will ban the sale of new big rigs and buses that run on diesel by 2036. By 2045, the rule would fully eliminate the sale of new trucks that emit carbon dioxide across the state.
• **Maryland and Colorado Adopt Advanced Clean Trucks Rules:**In April, Maryland passed the Clean Trucks Act of 2023. The Act requires the Maryland Department of the Environment to adopt regulations by December that establish sales targets for manufacturers through 2035. The law is geared toward adopting California’s Advanced Clean Trucks rule (linked above), which serves as a model for states making the transition to emissions-free vehicles .... Also in April, Colorado adopted Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) and Low-Nitrogen Oxides (Low-NOx) rules, adding their name to the list of states following California's model. Under the ACT rules, beginning in 2027, manufacturers must make more zero-emission trucks available in Colorado, based on a percentage of sales that increases through model year 2035. The Low-NOx rule sets more stringent air pollution emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles, and will reduce nitrogen oxide emissions for new vehicles by 90 percent compared to the current standard.
• New Construction Gas Ban in NYS: In the state budget passed last week, New York State adopted a first-in-nation law to ban gas stoves and fossil fuels in new buildings starting in 2026. The gas ban requires all-electric heating and cooking in new buildings shorter than seven stories by 2026, and by 2029 for taller buildings. It will not affect gas stoves in existing homes and includes exceptions for manufacturing, emergency generators and hospitals, among others.
• NYPA Renewables Mandates: The NYS budget also gives the New York Power Authority broad new authorization to build renewables and compete for renewables contracts subsidized by ratepayers. The legislation moves up the date by which NYPA must retire its fossil fuel plants to 2030, from a previous deadline of 2035. The budget briefly mentions agrivoltaics in granting the New York Power Authority an exemption to a larger prohibition against developing renewable energy on farmland.
• Portland's Zero Emissions Delivery Zone: The US DOT recently awarded the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) a SMART Grant to pilot a Zero-Emission Delivery Zone downtown. With this project, Portland will become the first U.S. city to pilot a mandated Zero-Emission Delivery Zone (following Santa Monica's incentive-based pilot). This funding will allow PBOT to change three truck loading zones into “zero-emission vehicles only” loading zones. Those who violate the rules will be subject to a parking citation.
• California's In-Use Locomotive Regulation: In April, California's Air Resources Board also approved a first-in-the-nation rule limiting rail pollution. The rule will ban locomotive engines more than 23 years old by 2030 and increase the use of zero-emissions technology to transport freight from ports and throughout railyards. It will also ban locomotives in the state from idling longer than 30 minutes if they are equipped with an automatic shutoff. Other states may adopt the California rule if it is approved by the Biden administration.
• Wisconsin Orders Green Bank Exploration: In April, Wisconsin's Governor signed EO 195, creating the Green Ribbon Commission on Clean Energy and Environmental Innovation to advise on establishing the Green Innovation Fund, which would be the state’s first green bank. This approach models a useful first step for states and localities without a green bank.
• Connecticut Adopts Performance-Based Regulation: In April, the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority issued a Final Decision as part of its investigation into a Performance-Based Regulation framework for the state’s electric utilities. This framework sets the stage for the state to move away from traditional, cost-of-service based utility ratemaking, and towards incentivizing utilities for hitting certain performance targets. Targets that regulators will seek to financially incentivize include GHG reduction and social equity. By changing their business model, regulators hope to make utilities structurally more responsive to social goals.
• EU Votes Up Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism: In April, the European Parliament approved a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). The CBAM will start applying in its transitional phase as of 1 October 2023. It will initially apply to imports of certain goods whose production is carbon intensive and at most significant risk of carbon leakage, including cement, iron and steel, aluminium, fertilisers, electricity and hydrogen. Once the permanent system enters into force on 1 January 2026, importers will need to declare each year the quantity of goods imported into the EU in the preceding year and their embedded GHG. They will then surrender the corresponding number of CBAM certificates.

Spotlight on Equity: In April, President Biden signed an executive order creating a new Office of Environmental Justice within the White House Council on Environmental Quality, which will coordinate initiatives across the federal government. That office will fill research gaps and data, in addition to developing and implementing strategic plans for review. Under the order, agencies will consider the cumulative impacts of pollution and other burdens like climate change as projects are assessed. Federal officials will also ramp up tribal consultation along with outreach to other vulnerable communities, while making more information publicly accessible.

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:

• In Politico Pro ($), PJM says that permitting hurdles are jeopardizing future grid reliability, as coal plants retire and renewables are not being built fast enough. On this topic, we highlight our state renewables permitting law to help streamline permits between state and local governments, as well as a suite of model laws we've published on expediting federal permitting.
• A recent MIT study on minimizing the impact of EV charging on the electric grid emphasized the importance of vehicle charging at the workplace, allowing EV batteries to draw power slowly over the workday and offset peak production from distributed solar. Municipalities can help support this capacity via our model law mandating EV charging in public garages, where many employees park.
• ACEEE recently highlighted several funding opportunities provided under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for states and localities to reorient transportation planning processes to minimize GHGs. Further to these efforts, we've published a model federal law showing how Congress could actually require Metropolitan Planning Organizations to consider the GHG reduction potential of major projects.
• As Massachusetts prepares to launch new EV rebates this summer, states looking to follow suit can use LPDD's model state EV rebate law.
• Google is developing a massive investment in distributed solar that would function on a new breed of Renewable Energy Credit -- an ImpactREC, which would seek to synthetically mimic the benefits of community solar to localities to low-income communities. Google's approach highlights the need for states that have not done so to make the benefits of community solar widely available, for which they can rely on our model community solar model legislation.

Project Profiles

Every 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 highlighting project founder John C. Dernbach. Professor Dernbach is the Commonwealth Professor of Environmental Law and Sustainability at Widener University Commonwealth Law School. In 2019, he co-edited the text, Legal Pathways for Deep Decarbonization in the United States, on which this project was founded. Along with Michael Gerrard at Columbia University's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, he pushed for the LPDD text to become a living resource, with pro-bono attorneys drafting model laws to implement its more than 1,000 legal recommendations.

Professor Dernbach's career and substantive background is extraordinary. He served in a variety of positions at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, and has taught at Widener for three decades.  He has written more than 60 articles for law reviews and peer-reviewed journals, and has authored, coauthored, or edited more than 40 books or book chapters. He has contributed to three landmark judicial decisions. Professor Dernbach’s scholarship and advocacy helped persuade the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in two major decisions (Robinson Township v. Commonwealth (2013); Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation v. Commonwealth (2017)) to reinvigorate the Environmental Rights Amendment to the state constitution. Professor Dernbach was also one of four lawyers to co-author an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of 18 prominent climate scientists in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency (2007). The Supreme Court’s decision in that case provides the foundation for much federal regulation of greenhouse gases.

Recently, Professor Dernbach was honored by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) with its Curtin Winsor Award for Lifetime Achievement. As part of the event, the PEC produced an impressive video highlighting John's career. Professor Dernbach also recently coauthored a chapter entitled Evolution of U.S. Climate Law and Policy for the 2023 text, Global Climate Change and U.S. Law, Third Edition (Michael B Gerrard, Jody Freeman, and Michael Burger eds).  In addition, he is the primary coauthor (with Matthew Bogoshian and Irma Russell) of Sustainability Essentials: A Leadership Guide for Lawyers (American Bar Association 2022) and co-editor (with Scott Schang) of Governing for Sustainability (Environmental Law Institute, 2023).  He is retiring from full-time teaching to spend more time working on climate change and sustainability.

As the LPDD project moves forward, Professor Dernbach remains invaluable as a founder and contributor to our organization.

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 70 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.