New External Resources
LPDD.org is being continually updated with new, external legal resources. Below is a selection of recently added resources of special interest:
- PG&E, GM pilot using EVs to power homes: In March, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and General Motors (GM) announced a pilot project aimed at using electric vehicles as on-demand home power sources in the Northern California service area. The two companies plan to test bidirectional charging technology — which would allow customers to send power from their vehicles to a home — thereby enabling EVs to power essential home needs, while also contributing to electric reliability in PG&E’s territory. The pilots build off the policy framework announced in the California Public Utility Commission’s Vehicle-Grid Integration Report.
- Report on integrated renewable credit and capacity markets in PJM: PJM, the regional transmission organization (RTO) covering 13 states and the District of Columbia, is considering changes to its market rules, including the introduction of a Forward Clean Energy Market (FCEM), and an Integrated Clean Capacity Market (ICCM). According to a March report from RMI, the FCEM would help harmonize the requirements of many different Renewable Portfolio Standards across different states, with their accompanying targets and definitions of RECs, thereby reducing costs for participants across multiple states. The ICCM would integrate clean energy resources into the capacity market (which, generally speaking, pays generators to “be on call” to deliver a specific wattage of energy when the grid operator needs them). RMI finds that many clean energy projects currently receive no compensation from capacity markets. By integrating these projects’ capacity value into a centralized bid for their renewable attributes, RMI projects that the ICCM would lower system costs while substantially reducing emissions. Though written specifically for PJM, these findings may be edifying for other Independent System Operators and RTOs considering the role that renewable energy can play in future energy markets.
- Proposed legislation on EV charging in common interest developments: Connecticut is considering legislation that would grant condo owners and renters the right to install their own car chargers. The so-called right-to-charge legislation would prevent condominium and homeowners’ associations, as well as landlords, from prohibiting or “unreasonably” restricting residents who have a designated parking space from installing charging equipment. And in Washington, both houses of the legislature recently passed legislation prohibiting homeowner and unit owners’ associations from unreasonably restricting the installation or use of electric vehicle charging stations. That legislation is awaiting the governor’s signature at the time of this writing. Both pieces of legislation have similar aims as LPDD’s Model Law on Charging Infrastructure in Common-Interest Developments.
- Massachusetts geo-grid pilots: In Massachusetts, three natural gas utilities are pursuing geo-grid pilot projects, providing geothermal energy to a small district. Throughout 2022, utilities Eversource, National Grid and Columbia Gas plan to break ground on separate pilot projects testing the viability of replacing neighborhood gas pipeline networks with pipes that capture and share thermal energy underground. Connecting many customers on the same pipe network could allow utilities to share and balance the thermal energy being exchanged among them, making the entire system more efficient than a stand-alone ground-source system, thereby producing both environmental and economic benefits.
- Florida proposed floating solar arrays legislation: Both houses of the Florida legislature have passed versions of a bill triggering work on plans to open many water bodies throughout the state to floating solar energy arrays. The legislation would direct the state Office of Energy to develop and submit to the Legislature recommendations for a regulatory framework for the development and operation of floating solar-power facilities. Those plans — which would cover both private- and public-sector entities — would be due December 31. Sometimes referred to using the portmanteau “floatovoltaic,” the floating photovoltaic facilities only would be permitted atop man-made water storage reservoirs, including wastewater treatment ponds, abandoned lime rock quarries, stormwater treatment ponds and reclaimed water ponds.
- California approves biomethane procurement targets: In February, the California Public Utilities Commission approved biomethane procurement targets for utilities. The move follows a mandate to study such a program from the Legislature via SB 1440 (2019). The agency’s decision included both short-term and medium-term goals, including a total annual procurement target of 72.8 billion cubic feet of biomethane by 2030, equating to approximately 12% of the gas used by residences and small businesses in 2020. Biomethane is produced through the process of anaerobic decomposition of organic matter, such as from landfills and wastewater treatment facilities, which is then purified to the point where it can be injected into a gas pipeline as a replacement for natural gas. This process prevents the waste methane from otherwise being simply released into the atmosphere. Despite its goals, some climate groups have criticized the ruling for short-circuiting the cost-benefit stage of analysis, given that the actual amount of true waste methane available from the sources described above — that which cannot be reduced in another way — may be very small.
- West Virginia ends nuclear ban: In February, West Virginia’s governor signed legislation ending a ban on nuclear power in the state, which had been in place since 1996. In comments surrounding the signing of the bill, West Virginia looks forward to the development and commercialization of small modular nuclear reactors in the future.
- Indiana on cusp of requiring new next-gen nuclear rules: As of March, Indiana’s Senate and House have each passed a bill incentivizing the siting of next-generation nuclear plants at existing fossil plant sites. The bill amends the statute governing certificates of public convenience and necessity to require the drafting of new rules for the construction, purchase, or lease of small modular nuclear reactors (a technology that still has not been commercially proven, but which many analysts expect to develop in the years to come). Rules must be adopted by July 1, 2023. The bill requires that these rules specifically anticipate small modular nuclear reactors being installed to offset the retirement of existing coal or natural gas electric generating facilities, and leverage the existing land and workforces associated with those retiring projects to bring about community benefits.
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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, LPDD.org, contains over 50 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 by at least 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. 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.