Category: Issue 2
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Federal vs. State Jurisdiction Over Net Metering Rates
Introduction Net energy metering (“NEM”) is an important tool used by states to promote residential solar energy and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy. In simple terms, NEM is an electricity billing method that credits commercial or residential photovoltaic (“PV”) system owners for the electricity they provide to the grid.[2] The net metering rate…
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Community Choice Aggregators, Biomass Energy, and California’s Just Transition: A Case Study of AB 843 and Responsible Biomass Procurement Principles
Introduction On September 23, 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed twenty-four historic bills focused on climate and clean energy efforts, drought, and wildfire preparedness.[3] Included within that slate of bills was Assembly Bill (“AB”) 843, which allows Community Choice Aggregators (“CCAs”) to submit eligible bioenergy projects to the California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”) for cost…
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The (Un)just Use of Transition Minerals: How Efforts to Achieve a Low-Carbon Economy Continue to Violate Indigenous Rights
Introduction For the last two decades, policy makers from around the globe have foreseen the need to derive and implement solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change. And the impetus for these solutions is confronting the world in real time. Recently the United Nations Secretary General referred to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change…
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Securitization of Coal Plant Retirements: Implications for Just Energy Transitions
Abstract Climate change and its destabilizing effects are already here. Yet there is a chance to prevent even worse scenarios if carbon emissions can be quickly and drastically reduced, especially in the carbon-intensive energy sector. While the need to transition to low-carbon, renewable sources of energy is urgent, many legal, political, and economic barriers stand…
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The Rise of Critical Infrastructure Protest Legislation and Its Implications for Radical Climate Activism
Introduction The global crisis of climate change looms large over every aspect of our society today. It presents an increasingly potent existential danger to humanity, as the widespread consequences of rising global temperatures include increasing ocean temperatures, rising sea levels, more frequent heatwaves and droughts, and extreme and unseasonal natural disasters and weather events.[2] The…
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The Clean Energy Dilemma: How the Push for Clean Energy Could Threaten Indigenous Communities and an Exploration of Potential Alternatives
Introduction The Biden Administration’s efforts to combat climate change by moving toward clean energy are poised to have an outsized impact on Indigenous communities if critical minerals slated for clean energy projects are obtained through new mining. This is because much of the untapped supply of these minerals is located near tribal land. The nation’s…