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Energy, Consumption, and the Amorality of Energy Law

Part of: The Pope’s Encyclical and Climate Change Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Lincoln L. Davies
Lincoln L. Davies*
Affiliation:
University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law
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As the world turns its attention to Paris this December, all eyes will be on international decisionmakers, including those from the United States, to see if meaningful progress on climate change can finally be made. Climate change, of course, is the great environmental challenge of our time, a challenge that is irrevocably bound up with energy production and consumption. This “super wicked” problem long has been seen as a political, economic, ecological, and social one. However, as Pope Francis’ encyclical makes clear, it is a moral problem as well.

Type
Symposium: The Pope’s Encyclical and Climate Change Policy
Information
AJIL Unbound , Volume 109 , 2015 , pp. 147 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2015

References

1 See, e.g., Lazarus, Richard J., Super Wicked Problems and Climate Change: Restraining the Present to Liberate the Future, 94 Cornell L. Rev. 1153 (2009)Google Scholar.

2 Tomain, Joseph P., The Dominant Model of United States Energy Policy, 61 U. Colo. L. Rev. 355 (1990)Google Scholar. On the use of fossil fuels to do so, see, for example, Outka, Uma, Environmental Law and Fossil Fuels: Barriers to Renewable Energy, 65 Vand. L. Rev. 1679 (2012)Google Scholar.

3 Pope Francis, Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ of the Holy Father Francis on Care For Our Common Home, para. 106 (2015).

4 Id. at para. 161.

5 Id. at para. 53.

6 See Lincoln L. Davies et al., Energy Law and Policy 609 (2014) (noting that in the first decade of this century, tankers moved 46 trillion barrels of oil).

7 See generally Daniel Yergin, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power (2008).

8 Pope Francis, supra note 3, at paras. 22, 162, 204, 222.

9 Id. at paras. 52-53.

10 Id. at paras. 55-56.

11 See, e.g., Sekhona, Vijay, Enforcement of Material Non-Disclosure Under the Federal Securities Laws, 16 Stan. J.L. Bus. & Fin. 273 (2011)Google Scholar.

12 See, e.g., Montana-Dakota Utils. Co. v. Northwestern Pub. Serv. Co., 341 U.S. 246 (1951); United Gas Pipe Line Co. v. Mobile Gas Serv. Corp., 350 U.S. 332 (1956); Fpc v. Sierra Pac. Power Co., 350 U.S. 348 (1956).

13 42 U.S.C. §§ 2001 et seq.

14 42 U.S.C. §§ 2210 et seq.

15 For more on the disaster at Fukushima, see, for example, Davies, Lincoln L., Beyond Fukushima: Disasters, Nuclear Energy, and Energy Law, 2011 B.Y.U. L. Rev. 1937 Google Scholar; The National Diet of Japan, The Official Report of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission (2012); Osnos, Evan, The Fallout: Letter from Fukushima: Seven Months Later: Japan’s Nuclear Predicament, New Yorker, Oct. 17, 2011, at 46 Google Scholar.

16 Davies et al., supra note 6, at 165-96.

17 42 U.S.C. §§ 7401 et seq.

18 42 U.S.C. §§ 6901 et seq.

19 42 U.S.C. §§ 9601 et seq.

20 33 U.S.C. §§ 1251 et seq.

21 16 U.S.C. § 703-12.

22 Wildermuth, Amy J., The Next Step: The Integration of Energy Law and Environmental Law, 31 Utah Envtl. L. Rev. 369 (2011)Google Scholar.

23 Davies, Lincoln L., Alternative Energy and the Energy-Environment Disconnect, 46 Idaho L. Rev. 473 (2010)Google Scholar; Wildermuth, Amy J., Is Environmental Law A Barrier to Emerging Alternative Energy Sources?, 46 Idaho L. Rev. 509 (2010)Google Scholar.

24 See, e.g., FPC v. Hope Natural Gas Co., 320 U.S. 591 (1944).

25 Kramer, Bruce M. & Anderson, Owen L., The Rule of Capture—An Oil and Gas Perspective, 35 Envtl. L. 899, 899 (2005)Google Scholar.

26 Pacala, Stephen & Socolow, Robert, Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies, Science, Aug. 13, 2004, at 968 Google Scholar; see also Pope Francis, supra note 3, at para. 23 (“The problem is aggravated by a model of development based on the intensive use of fossil fuels, which is at the heart of the worldwide energy system.”).

27 See generally Joseph P. Tomain, Ending Dirty Energy Policy: Prelude to Climate Change (2011).

28 See, e.g., Davies, Lincoln L., Power Forward: The Argument for A National Rps, 42 Conn. L. Rev. 1339 (2010)Google Scholar; see also Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency, Renewable Portfolio Standard Policies (Sept. 2014).

29 Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units, 80 Fed. Reg. 64,662 (Oct. 23, 2015).

30 40 C.F.R. Parts 85, 86, 600, 1033, 1036, 1037, 1039, 1065, 1066, and 1068 (2015); 49 C.F.R. Parts 523, 534, and 535 (2015).

31 For more on the smart grid, see, for example, Eisen, Joel B., Smart Regulation and Federalism for the Smart Grid, 37 Harv. Envtl. L. Rev. 1 (2013)Google Scholar.

32 Pope Francis, supra note 3, at para. 159.