New LPDD Model Laws
Since the last newsletter update, the LPDD team has published two new model laws, targeting food waste and the powers of state regulatory bodies to prioritize decarbonization in the energy sector. They are listed below.
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- LPDD Model State Law on the Sustainable Management of Food Waste: This model law targets individuals producing food “residuals” (or waste), and establishes state policies for the reduction of food residuals, residuals’ diversion for consumption, and composting. It also empowers state officers to enact appropriate composting rules, and provide other relevant supports to achieve the state’s policy goals. The model law is accompanied by an expansive memorandum reviewing the potential of food waste management to reduce greenhouse gases, both existing and proposed state and federal policy on food waste (highlighting different pathways for legislation, including expanding the Emerson Act’s liability provisions, banning or restricting organic waste, and tax incentives for food donations), local and international policies, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food waste. The model law itself incorporates language from Vermont, California, and New Hampshire state legislation on expanding the Emerson Act’s liability provisions, as well as language from California on redirecting food residuals that can be consumed into compost.
- LPDD Model Provisions on Regulatory Realignment of Public Utility Policies with Energy and Environmental Goals. One of the obstacles to achieving decarbonization in the electric power sector is that many of the laws and statutes that govern Public Utility Commissions (PUCs) are antiquated. The absence of statutory requirements to consider climate effects in making electric power decisions can hamstring the transition to decarbonization. This set of model legal provisions, which can be incorporated into larger legislative packages, aims to solve these problems and empower state regulators to pursue decarbonization objectives in the energy sector. The three main objectives of this set of model provisions are to: (1) amend existing PUC rate-making authority to include consideration of the public interest and other environmental externalities related to climate effects; (2) ensure PUCs have sufficient staff, resources, and technical expertise to advance state energy policies through its regulatory decision-making or the ability to utilize other agency resources and expertise; and (3) create a state energy office or, if such an office already exists, amend its existing statutory framework to ensure that office has the authority to coordinate state energy goals, including carbon reduction objectives, with its PUC, coordinate state energy goals with other states and the federal government, and participate in regional discussions, including interstate compact initiatives.
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:
- EPA’s Proposed Methane Regulation at Oil and Gas Sites: In November, EPA published a proposed rule that would sharply reduce methane and other harmful air pollution from both new and existing sources in the oil and natural gas industry. The proposal would expand and strengthen emissions reduction requirements that are currently on the books for new, modified and reconstructed oil and natural gas sources, and would require states to reduce methane emissions from hundreds of thousands of existing sources nationwide for the first time. The proposed rule will require routine methane leak monitoring at 300,000 well sites nationwide; leak monitoring at all new and existing compressor stations at least once every three months; zero methane and VOC emissions at all new and existing pneumatic controllers at production, processing, and transmission and storage facilities; the elimination of venting of associated gas from oil wells; and more.
- Ithaca’s 2030 Building Decarbonization Plan: In November, the city of Ithaca, New York, voted to decarbonize and electrify buildings in the city by the end of the decade. Ithaca is the first U.S. city to establish such a plan, which the city says will cut Ithaca’s 400,000 tons per year of carbon dioxide emissions by 40%. The city’s Energy Efficiency Retrofit and Thermal Load Electrification Program seeks to gradually improve the overall energy performance of the city’s building stock by assessing each individual building and determining potential energy efficiency improvements, through energy retrofitting and the substitution of non-electric thermal loads and air conditioning systems, with air-source and ground-source heat pumps, and the installation of efficient lighting, photovoltaic and solar thermal systems, onsite storage, smart thermostats and smart meters. The plan is to turn the massive undertaking of decarbonizing Ithaca’s 6,000 buildings into a low-risk investment opportunity. Money from private investors is slated to back low-interest opt-in loan and lease programs that city residents will be able to tap into in order to install heat pumps, convert to electric induction stoves, and improve their building’s energy efficiency, among other things.
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- California Phasing Out Gas Powered Landscaping Equipment: California’s AB 1346, signed into law in October, will phase out the sale of new gas-powered small off-road engines in the state. Small off-road engines, primarily found in outdoor power equipment, emit smog-forming pollutants, including high levels of oxides of nitrogen (NOx), reactive organic gases (ROG), and particulate matter (PM), which adversely affect air quality and human health. AB 1346 requires the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to set emissions requirements for small off-road engines to zero. It then requires the state board, by July 1, 2022, to adopt cost-effective and technologically feasible regulations to prohibit engine exhaust and evaporative emissions from new small off-road engines, which would go into effect by 2024 or whenever CARB determines is feasible.
- New York’s Expanded Local Building and Planning Requirements: In October, New York State adopted legislation amending the existing town and village law sections that require localities to consider solar PV systems in their building and planning regulations to also accommodate solar thermal, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal electric, geothermal ground source heat, tidal energy, wave energy, ocean thermal, farm waste electric generating equipment, and fuel cells. These changes should spur more localities to broaden the scope of clean distributed energy resources that have clear permitting pathways at the local level.
Upcoming Events
On November 17th, at 6 PM PDT on Zoom, members of the LPDD team, among other panelists, will meet with the Climate Reality Bay Area’s Policy Action Team to discuss use of the resources at LPDD.org and highlight the many resources related to decarbonizing existing buildings. Registration is available here.
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