Last week’s midterm elections resulted in a marked increase in Democratic trifectas, or state governments where the Democratic Party controls both chambers of the state legislature and the governorship. Following the elections, we now have at least 22 Democratic trifectas across the country, including 6 new ones in Minnesota, Wisconsin, […]
Cities & Local Governments
52 posts
Climate advocates often highlight the transformative potential of emergent products, while noting on the margins potential impediments due to technological constraints, higher costs, or fixed consumer preferences. By contrast, a new paper from the Sabin Center, Platform Gatekeeping in the Building-Materials Sector: Competition Law and the Pace of Low-Carbon Construction, […]
Model Local Law: A Framework for Responsible Data Center Development Model State Law for Data Centers – Creating Low Emissions, Accountability, and New Generation Rules for Infrastructure and Data Center (CLEAN GRID) Act. In the past several years, data centers have rapidly proliferated in communities around the country and have […]
The market for artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly growing, spurring the growth of data centers across the U.S. and around the world. That’s happening despite the major social and environmental concerns that data centers pose. What happens if those data centers are no longer used, either because they reach end […]
Two major decisions in recent weeks are giving building electrification advocates good reason to be optimistic about the future of buildings that don’t burn gas. In the first—Association of Contracting Plumbers v. City of New York (“Plumbers”)—the Second Circuit upheld New York State and New York City’s laws restricting the […]
Rapid data center development is challenging local governments’ ability to manage the environmental challenges these facilities raise. Cities, towns, and counties are facing both uncertainty about the scope of those impacts and growing opposition to data centers from residents. In response, many are turning to temporary moratoria to pause data […]
The number of court decisions upholding building decarbonization laws against federal preemption challenges is growing. After the Ninth Circuit’s decision in California Restaurant Association v. City of Berkeley (Berkeley), building decarbonization laws effectively prohibiting fossil-fuel appliances covered by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (EPCA) appeared to be […]
Zoning regulations have lately come under fire for making cities less dense and driving up the cost of new homes. State legislatures are increasingly responding by preempting aspects of local zoning authority. But despite its real problems, both now and historically, local zoning power remains an important tool among cities’ […]