On December 2, 2022, the Renewable Energy Legal Defense Initiative (RELDI), in collaboration with the law firm Sidley Austin LLP, filed an amicus brief on behalf of five New York farmers and three community groups urging a New York appellate court to uphold the State’s new regulations for siting renewable […]
Clean Energy
255 posts
On September 21, 2022, the New York Times published an essay by Gabriel Popkin titled “Are There Better Places to Put Large Solar Farms Than These Forests?” Popkin describes a recently approved 4,500-acre solar project in Virginia that will remove approximately 3,500 acres of forest and asks whether such projects […]
On September 22, 2022, the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and the Columbia Climate School co-hosted a Climate Week NYC webinar on “Siting Renewables in New York: Ambitious Climate Goals, a New Siting Process, and How It Is Going.” This blog post will summarize the highlights of the event, […]
By Romany M. Webb The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has been described as being “all carrot” and “no stick” but that is not entirely correct. It is certainly true that the IRA uses “carrots” – principally in the form of tax credits – to incentivize actions that will reduce greenhouse […]
By Romany M. Webb At Tuesday’s signing ceremony, President Biden described the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as “one of the most significant laws in our history.” Political rhetoric aside, its passage is a major achievement. After decades of inaction on climate change, the U.S. Congress has finally taken a step […]
On June 30, 2022, the State of California joined the State of New York in adopting legislation that allows state authorities to bypass local laws in permitting large-scale renewable energy projects. California’s new law, AB 205, gives the California Energy Commission (the “commission”) authority to issue a certificate for any: […]
By Jacob Elkin On June 30, 2022, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation denied Greenidge Generation LLC’s application to renew a Title V air quality permit for the Greenidge Generating Station. The facility, previously permitted as a natural gas-fired “peaker” plant, has recently ramped up its power generation to […]
To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has found that, by 2030, the world needs to be installing four times more wind and solar energy per year than the record-breaking levels set in 2020. This will require an immense mobilization of resources. Reaching the […]