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Publications

Viewing all publications in Academic Articles/Working Papers
  • Animals in Cost-Benefit Analysis Cover

    Animals in Cost-Benefit Analysis

    Forthcoming in the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

    Federal agencies’ cost-benefit analyses do not capture nonhuman animals’ interests. This omission matters. Cost-benefit analysis drives many regulatory decisions that substantially affect many billions of animals. That omission creates a regulatory blind spot that is untenable as a matter of morality and of policy. Valuing animals could have mattered for many cost-benefit analyses, including those for pet-food safety regulations and a rear backup camera mandate. As a sort of “proof of concept,” this Article shows that even a simple breakeven analysis from affected animals’ perspective paints even the thoroughly investigated policy decision at issue in Entergy Corp. v. Riverkeeper, Inc. in an informative new light.

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  • Major Questions in Lower Courts Cover

    Major Questions in Lower Courts

    Published in the Administrative Law Review

    In June 2022, the Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which marked the first time the Court named and expressly relied on the major questions doctrine. This Article surveys how lower federal courts have interpreted West Virginia and applied the major questions doctrine. There is no one major questions doctrine in the lower courts. Judges have taken vastly different approaches to defining and applying the doctrine both within and across circuits. These differences illustrate that many judges may view the doctrine as a little more than a grab bag of factors, which they seem to be choosing from at their discretion. Lower court judges do not appear to be constrained in how they apply the doctrine. In a majority of cases concerning Biden Administration agency actions and executive orders, judges applied the doctrine to reach outcomes that aligned with the political party of their appointing President.

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  • Regional Planning for Just and Reasonable Rates: Reforming Gas Pipeline Review Cover

    Regional Planning for Just and Reasonable Rates: Reforming Gas Pipeline Review

    Published in the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law

    Natural gas plays an outsized role in the U.S. economy. Under the Natural Gas Act, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or the Commission) is responsible for overseeing the orderly development of interstate natural gas pipelines, which facilitate the transmission of natural gas throughout the country. FERC can approve the pipeline only if it finds that it is required by the “public convenience and necessity.” Although FERC should consider a range of factors to determine whether a pipeline will serve the public interest, in practice, it looks primarily to the contracts between a developer and its customers for the purchase of pipeline capacity. If a developer can demonstrate that there is a party willing to pay to use its pipeline, FERC rarely asks questions and almost always finds “public” need. This pipeline-by-pipeline approach to natural gas transmission build-out leads to the construction of unnecessary, underused pipelines, which in turn increases ratepayer costs and decreases consumer welfare. Climate change further increases the risk that pipelines will become obsolete as cities and states move toward electrification. Relying on economic theory, legal history, and policy analysis, we make the case in this paper—pulished in the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law— for FERC’s adoption of regional gas transmission planning. 

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  • The Narrow Reinterpretation Cover

    The Narrow Reinterpretation

    The Oil and Gas Industry’s Retreat from the Broad Federal Permitting Authority It Long Embraced

    What's the function of oil and gas permitting agencies? Despite broad statutory grants to federal agencies, oil and gas companies increasingly argue that the role of those agencies is to promote development regardless of whether it is socially desirable. But this “Narrow Reinterpretation,” in addition to lacking textual support, is at odds with longstanding practice. What changed? Not the governing statutes, at least not in pertinent part. But the energy sector has: renewable sources have replaced coal as the primary competitors to oil and gas. 

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  • Wildfire, Power Shutoff, and Residential Energy Storage Adoption Cover

    Wildfire, Power Shutoff, and Residential Energy Storage Adoption

    Extreme weather poses a growing threat to electrical grid stability. On-site battery storage connected to solar power —known as a solar-plus-storage system—can buffer the impact. Despite its crucial benefits, the widespread adoption of this technology is hindered by its high costs. This study examines the impact of recent salient events—namely, preemptive power shutoffs to prevent wildfires, or Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPSs)—on residential solar-plus-storage adoption. I demonstrate that while communities at risk of wildfires lacked proactive investments before wildfire seasons, prolonged PSPSs increased solar-plus-storage adoption during the subsequent two months. This increased storage uptake can be attributed to heightened awareness of the need for backup power. Additionally, households’ choices between purchasing and leasing options were influenced by latent wildfire hazards and education levels. These findings highlight the role of risk awareness in promoting storage adoption and underscore the potential for using public information to enhance wildfire preparedness.

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