Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) held a briefing on key information and recommendations from the report, Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States. Legal Pathways is based on two reports by the Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project that explain technical and policy approaches to reducing U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050. This 80x50 target and similarly aggressive carbon abatement goals are often referred to as deep decarbonization, as they require systemic changes to the energy economy.

This playbook for deep decarbonization in the United States identifies well over 1,000 options that are achievable in the United States using laws that exist or could be enacted. While both the scale and complexity of deep decarbonization are enormous, these legal tools can be employed with significant economic, social, environmental, and national security benefits.

HIGHLIGHTS

Michael Gerrard, Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia Law School; Faculty Director, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

• Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization was written to explain how U.S. law needs to change to facilitate a pathway to 80 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
• We need to avoid being on a pathway where we can reduce emissions to a certain extent but then the emissions reductions stop. A principal example of that would be a pathway the invests heavily in natural gas. Natural gas emits less carbon than coal, but is still a fossil fuel with emissions.
• The three pillars of Deep Decarbonization are:
  • Energy Efficiency
  • Decarbonization of electricity
  • End-use fuel switching to electric sources
• Legal Pathways concluded that an 80 percent reduction in emissions is possible. It will require a doubling of the electricity supply to accommodate increased electrification (for example, switching from gasoline-powered cars to electric vehicles). The electricity supply must be generated by clean energy.
• Legal Pathways assumes that the economy and population continue to grow, and that the early retirement of appliances does not occur.
• In the scenarios examined by Legal Pathways, the internal combustion engine is all but eliminated by 2050. We move away from liquid fuels and coal is phased out entirely. New energy supply is mostly wind, solar, and hydropower. Storage is also an essential part of decarbonization.

John Dernbach, Commonwealth Professor of Environmental Law and Sustainability, Widener University Commonwealth Law School; Director, Environmental Law and Sustainability Center

• The legal tools exist for deep decarbonization. A lot of these tools have economic, social, environmental, and security co-benefits.
• Many of the actions states are taking to decrease greenhouse gas emissions create jobs and contribute to environmental justice—in fact, states often take these actions primarily because of their economic and social benefits.
• There is an index of recommendations by actor at the end of the book. One can easily comb through the relevant recommendations to see what is applicable to Congress, agencies, states, or local communities.
• One can design an implementation plan for any carbon reduction goal (for example, those of the Green New Deal) by using Legal Pathways as a guide—it provides a menu of options.
• Liquid fuel is a tough issue. Legal Pathways recommends using biofuels for modes of transportation that are harder to electrify. Biofuels also need to be produced more sustainably.
• Legal Pathways takes carbon capture, direct air capture, agriculture, and forestry into account. It also looks at non-carbon dioxide pollutants.
• There are cross-cutting approaches to reducing emissions. For example, you can use behavior to speed up the phase-out of old technologies and the introduction of new ones.
• Law firms all over the country are helping to turn the recommendations in Legal Pathways into draft legislation.

Amy Stein, Professor of Law, Levin College of Law, University of Florida

• The transportation sector is the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Light-duty vehicles are the largest source of emissions within the transportation sector.
• We need to increase fuel economy standards to more than 100 miles per gallon—and deploy 300 million alternative fuel vehicles—to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent.
• Historically, our fuel economy standards have been quite low. If we do not continue to ratchet up our fuel economy standards, we will not meet our emissions goals.
• There is a provision in the Clean Air Act which allows California to obtain a waiver for more stringent fuel economy standards. The current administration has indicated it will revoke California’s waiver, which may interfere with zero-emission vehicle initiatives.
• Four pathways must be pursued to deploy 300 million alternative fuel vehicles:
  • Reducing the cost of alternative fuel vehicles. Currently, the electric version of the 2020 Ford Fusion is about $11,000 more expensive than the traditional fuel version. Tax credits could help reduce the costs for buyers. And, investing in research and development could help advance battery technologies.
  • Facilitating infrastructure development for electric vehicles. Charging stations for electric vehicles need to spread all over the country.
  • Integrating the electricity and transportation sectors. As the transportation fleet becomes more electric, our electricity sources must become clean.
  • Educating drivers about electric vehicles. Allowing consumers to test electric vehicles as rental cars may encourage them to purchase an electric vehicle.
• We should also plan ahead to think about recycling electric vehicle batteries.

Peter Lehner, Managing Attorney, EarthJustice

• Agriculture rarely gets enough attention during climate change discussions.
• Agriculture is harmed by climate change. For example, pests are increasing and floods and droughts are more frequent.
• Agriculture contributes 9 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Much of the greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture consists of methane from cows. Nitrous oxide is emitted from excess fertilizers being added to crops.
• Agroecological practices reduce chemical use, pollution, and climate impacts. These practices also help farmers become more resilient to climate change.
• We need policies to accelerate the adoption of alternative agricultural practices. The barriers to adoption are pretty well known.
• We have systems in place in our laws that disincentivize the adoption of sustainable practices. The Farm Bill, for example, supports farmers but creates a disincentive for alternative practices. Very little money is targeted for climate mitigation.
• We must expand research and development funding to accelerate the shift to climate-friendly agricultural practices.
• Many states have programs that can be tweaked to achieve carbon neutral agriculture.

Monica Lamb, Clean Energy Lawyer

• We need to invest an additional $15 billion a year in large-scale carbon reduction projects to meet our emission reduction goals.
• Large-scale carbon reduction projects take a decade or more to pay off, and there are large upfront investments for these projects. Currently, there is no government-sponsored bank buying up or insuring these long-term loans. The risks of these investments are not well defined and predictable.
• If policies could be enacted to address the high upfront costs, long payback periods, and unpredictable risk of these projects, it would be easier to unlock the necessary investments.
• In the electric power sector, the cost of renewable energy installations is much more front-loaded than the cost of power plants burning fossil fuels.
• The four ways to address high capital costs relative to long payback periods are:
  • Reducing or eliminating import tariffs on necessary equipment, like solar panels.
  • Extending tax incentives for renewable energy equipment and establishing new tax credits for storage. We can also simplify tax credits.
  • Supporting mandates for carbon reduction projects. State-level mandates for renewable energy purchases have driven much of the investment in large-scale solar and wind projects. The federal government can expand its mandates for purchases of renewable energy for its own operations. And, federal policy can provide support for state-level mandates.
  • Reducing integration costs for variable renewable energy resources.
• There are three ways policy can help address the barriers to investment in large-scale carbon reduction projects:
  • Enact stable and predictable policies impacting those markets. When policies are unpredictable, investment is discouraged. Long-term, stable policies could grow the carbon reduction economy quickly.
  • Invest in technologies until they are commercially proven at a large scale to demonstrate their viability.
  • Create a government-sponsored bank that would extend private loans for large-scale carbon reduction projects.
• It is feasible to raise the $15 billion needed annually to achieve our decarbonization goals from the private sector.

Q&A Session

For your area of focus in Legal Pathways, how would you frame the win-win proposition?

• The win-win in financing large-scale decarbonization projects is that they will create more jobs and resilience for the impacts of climate change.
• Many of these climate-friendly agricultural practices will help farms become more resilient to extreme weather and improve or protect water quality. And, many of these practices do not require as much chemical input (fertilizers, pesticides…), which reduces costs.
• The biggest win-win is between the utilities and the electric vehicle sector. Grid operators are struggling to balance the transition to a different type of electric grid. Fortunately, electric vehicles can be used as batteries to help smooth out the grid.
• Environmental protection, economic development, social wellbeing, and national security all work together in the decarbonization process. For example, there is interest in community solar so that the benefits go back to the community. We need to pay a lot of attention to a just transition to clean energy.
• The two fastest-growing occupational categories in the United States are expected to be solar installers and wind service technicians. Construction of wind and solar has the potential to create large numbers of jobs all over the country. Energy efficiency is also a tremendous way to save consumers money.

If we adopted all of your agricultural ideas, what would happen to crop yields?

• In many cases the yield does not go down at all, and in some cases it goes up. Agriculture research is a fraction of what it used to be. If there was a concerted effort to increase research into these practices, yields could go up. Many of these practices have been shown to produce higher-quality crops with fewer inputs, so though yields may decrease, it still ends up being more profitable for the farmer.

Could you talk about decarbonization ideas for the industrial sector?

• Dernbach: The industrial sector is incredibly diverse, and a difficult nut to crack. The author of this section focused on improving energy efficiency within particular sectors, using regulations under the Clean Air Act. It looks like concentrated solar technology may be able to generate temperatures high enough to make cement.

How does Legal Pathways address areas where there is integration across sectors?

• Gerrard: There is a chapter about carbon dioxide removal, and it is apparent that that technology will be necessary. Development of direct air capture technology will create jobs.
• Stein: We are trying to enhance the interdisciplinary approach to these issues. The difficulty is that these different disciplines speak different technical languages.
• Lehner: Using bioenergy for electricity does not make a lot of sense. Bioenergy should probably be used for replacing liquid fuels in the industrial sector because that is a challenging sector to electrify.

What discussions are there about sustainable lithium ion mining for batteries? And, why are we lagging behind in green banking and investment?

• Stein: We do not have a lot of reserves of lithium ion in the United States, so we will be dependent on other nations. This is similar to our past situation with oil. We need to make sure we learn from the past. Hopefully we can start recycling lithium ion batteries in the near future, to reduce the need for imports.
• Lamb: It will probably become profitable to recycle lithium ion so eventually mining will not be needed.
• A recently proposed bill would create a federal green bank.