In February 2021, the state of Texas experienced unprecedented power outages caused by severe winter storms. Conservative politicians and media were quick to blame the use of renewable energy as the culprit of the outages. The facts present a different explanation.
On March 8, 2021, the Biden Administration took a significant step toward finalizing the approval of America’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm. Vineyard Wind 1, located 14 miles off the coast of Massachusetts, has the potential to power 400,000 homes.
COVID-19 has brought a lot of uncertainty to renewable energy projects. Even though the government recently enacted bills to extend renewable energy tax credits, whether this relief will be effective is of a question. As Joe Biden has put great emphasis on funding clean energy projects for his upcoming term, the questions are: what are some effective methods to boost the renewable energy industry? Are these methods viable under COVID-19?
The European Green New Deal is an environmental plan aimed at making Europe carbon-neutral by 2050.[1] In order to achieve this ambitious goal, the European Union (“EU”) initiated the revision of a number of international agreements. Among one of those agreements is the Energy Charter Treaty (“ECT”). In July and September, 2020, the European Commission and EU Member States had two rounds of negotiations at the Energy Charter Conference dedicated to the modernization of the ECT.[2] The call for the ECT’s reform was, among other things, prompted by the ECT’s purported “serious threat to Europe’s climate neutrality target and more broadly to the implementation of the Paris Agreement.”[3]
The ECT’s modernization is important because this is the first targeted attempt to reshape the unique, legally-binding, energy-related multilateral treaty and marks a step towards compliance with the Paris Climate Accord. Additionally, modernization of the ECT provisions is relevant to U.S. companies investing in both the renewable and fossil fuel energy sectors of the ECT Member States. At this point, it is unclear how the two rounds of negotiations went and whether the actual changes are coming in the nearest future. The third round of negotiations is scheduled to take place in December 2020. This post will take a closer look at the ECT’s history, goals, and environmental standards. Furthermore, this post will address novel critiques as to its incompatibility with the Paris Climate Accord.
The coronavirus pandemic provides a unique opportunity to address global climate change.
By Robert Patton, Managing Editor
Community solar is a widespread solution for those who cannot invest in rooftop solar but want renewable energy. How does this innovative energy system fit into the existing legal frameworks?
In this exclusive online article, Roy Jackson, a recent Georgetown Law graduate, explains how photovoltaic-solar (“PV”) project costs have decreased in recent decades and how investments in this industry may grow stagnant under both recently enacted and proposed federal policy changes.
In July 2019, the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that the state’s Public Service Commission has the final say on the siting of solar and wind energy projects, prompting concerns by local governments over how to protect farmland from development.
California has seen a recent surge in local municipalities establishing Community Choice Aggregation programs to choose their electricity portfolios. But how do these programs work and are they effective?
Although net metering has incentivized residential customers to switch from fossil fuel to solar energy, its pricing model confuses customers and shifts costs, making it untenable in the long-term.
