Alice Kaswan | University of San Francisco (original) (raw)

Papers by Alice Kaswan

Social Science Research Network, Jul 1, 2019

Columbia journal of environmental law, 2014

Founded in 2002, the Center for Progressive Reform (CPR) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research and ed... more Founded in 2002, the Center for Progressive Reform (CPR) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research and educational organization comprising a network of scholars across the nation dedicated to protecting health, safety, and the environment through analysis and commentary. CPR believes sensible safeguards in these areas serve important shared values, including doing the best we can to prevent harm to people and the environment, distributing environmental harms and benefits fairly, and protecting the earth for future generations. CPR rejects the view that the economic efficiency of private markets should be the only value used to guide government action. Rather, CPR supports thoughtful government action and reform to advance the wellbeing of human life and the environment. Additionally, CPR believes people play a crucial role in ensuring both private and public sector decisions that result in improved protection of consumers, public health and safety, and the environment. Accordingly, CPR supports ready public access to the courts, enhanced public participation, and improved public access to information. The Center for Progressive Reform is grateful to the Bauman Foundation, the Deer Creek Foundation, and the Public Welfare Foundation for their generous support of CPR's work in general.

Social Science Research Network, Sep 6, 2007

University of Miami law review, 2018

and democratic accountability than atomized decision-making in the energy marketplace. In this vi... more and democratic accountability than atomized decision-making in the energy marketplace. In this view, a carbon pricing mechanism could play an important role-but one that complements governance rather than the other way around.

Social Science Research Network, 2010

Cap-and-trade programs for greenhouse gases (GHGs) present central political questions with signi... more Cap-and-trade programs for greenhouse gases (GHGs) present central political questions with significant economic and environmental ramifications. This paper addresses a critical structural issue: To what extent should states retain the capacity to develop stricter parameters within a federal cap-and-trade program? This Article argues that, within the confines of a federal trading program, states should retain substantial autonomy to establish their own direct regulatory requirements, impose their own offset policies, and adopt differing trading parameters to maximize a GHG trading program’s co-pollutant and other benefits. State autonomy is justified by benefits to the nation as a whole, since states can provide a safety net for federal failure and provide on-going laboratories of invention for future federal and state policies. State autonomy is also justified by the importance of state democratic prerogatives over the multiple political, economic, and environmental implications of cap-and-trade design.

Climate Law, 2011

Founded in 2002, the Center for Progressive Reform is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research and educatio... more Founded in 2002, the Center for Progressive Reform is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research and educational organization comprising a network of scholars across the nation dedicated to protecting health, safety, and the environment through analysis and commentary. CPR believes sensible safeguards in these areas serve important shared values, including doing the best we can to prevent harm to people and the environment, distributing environmental harms and benefits fairly, and protecting the earth for future generations. CPR rejects the view that the economic efficiency of private markets should be the only value used to guide government action. Rather, CPR supports thoughtful government action and reform to advance the well-being of human life and the environment. Additionally, CPR believes people play a crucial role in ensuring both private and public sector decisions that result in improved protection of consumers, public health and safety, and the environment. Accordingly, CPR supports ready public access to the courts, enhanced public participation, and improved public access to information.

UCLA Journal of Environmental law and Policy, 2012

?terms=Jean+ chemnick+rider (last visited Feb. 10, 2012) (describing most recent appropriations r... more ?terms=Jean+ chemnick+rider (last visited Feb. 10, 2012) (describing most recent appropriations rider to prevent EPA from regulating stationary source GHG emissions under the CAA);

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Mar 31, 2011

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Jun 24, 2016

Social Science Research Network, 2001

In an effort to address the well-documented and serious problem of environmental justice in the U... more In an effort to address the well-documented and serious problem of environmental justice in the United States, President William J. Clinton issued Executive Order (EO) No. 12898 1 on February 11, 1994. The EO represented the culmination of a century of rapid changes in society's attitudes toward the placement of hazardous facilities in poor, disadvantaged, and minority communities, as well as the denial of services to these communities. This survey examines the impact of the EO on federal agencies. 2 Environmental justice is not a problem unique to the late 20th century. Majoritarian societies have historically discriminated against minority groups. 3 For example, the post-World War II exodus to the suburbs in the United States partially reflected an effort by affluent members of society to insulate themselves from the more unpleasant realities of modern-day living. Through zoning and other land use planning tools, economically deprived persons and sundry undesirable facilities were excluded from the affluent suburbs. Zoning was often an effective tool of exclusion. As a result, locally undesirable land uses (LULUs) became concentrated in economically poor, politically impotent neighborhoods, often those with a minority population. Common examples were the placing of industrial and waste facilities in minority communities, and the subsequent imposition of "urban renewal" programs on those communities. The glaring disparity resulted in considerable legal debate and litigation, which, through the 1980s, focused on exclusionary zoning 4 and the denial of services. 5 A seemingly isolated incident in 1967 changed the terms of the discourse: a demonstration by 500 primarily African-American students at Texas Southern University protesting the drowning of an eight-year-old girl at a landfill in an African-American neighborhood in Houston, Texas. This incident and others ultimately led Prof.

Social Science Research Network, 2013

The existing and expected impacts of climate change are increasingly well-documented and pose pro... more The existing and expected impacts of climate change are increasingly well-documented and pose profound challenges to existing governance norms. This article addresses one of those norms: the norm of local control over land use. The article first sketches the important role of land use in climate adaptation and the insufficiency of current initiatives. The article then assesses the federalism values that guide jurisdictional choices: pragmatic efficacy, democratic legitimacy, and the prevention of tyranny. Based on each of these values, it argues that continued reliance on local initiative is insufficient. Instead, a multilevel governance approach that supplements local control with federal resources and parameters is necessary to adequately prepare for climate change and meet the wide range of local, state, and federal interests at stake.

Virginia Environmental Law Journal, 2014

Existing power plants are the nation’s largest single source of carbon emissions. In the absence ... more Existing power plants are the nation’s largest single source of carbon emissions. In the absence of comprehensive federal climate change legislation, EPA is forging ahead with power plant controls through § 111(d) of the Clean Air Act. This article focuses on one critical consideration: the ancillary impacts of carbon controls on associated co-pollutants, like sulfur oxides, particulates, nitrogen oxides, and mercury. The article analyzes an array of regulatory options, including options that include both “inside-the-fence” reductions at power plants and “outside-the-fence” measures to reduce power sector emissions, like renewable energy and consumer energy efficiency. The article then evaluates the co-pollutant consequences of these options in terms of several factors: (1) distributional impacts, (2) stringency, (3) transformative potential, (4) capacity to generate real (rather than “paper”) results, and (5) capacity to generate actual reductions from the power sector. Lastly, the framework is used to analyze two specific § 111(d) proposals: a narrow proposal from several states and EPA’s proposed § 111(d) rule, released June 2, 2014.Although environmental justice concerns have focused on the potential adverse distributional consequences of cap-and-trade programs, the article reveals that distributional outcomes under all of the likely regulatory options are highly uncertain, and that other factors, like stringency, and taking a system-wide approach that fosters stringency, are likely to be the most important factors for maximizing co-pollutant benefits. By adopting a system-wide approach, EPA’s proposed § 111(d) rule takes an essential step toward transformative power sector changes. Still unclear, however, is whether the specific state targets EPA established in its proposal will trigger the degree of change needed to maximize both GHG and co-pollutant reductions.

Hastings Law Journal, 2020

The Trump Administration has been rolling back environmental and other regulations at a rapid rat... more The Trump Administration has been rolling back environmental and other regulations at a rapid rate. Each time, they are called upon to interpret their authorizing statutes. As they reverse previous administrations' regulations, how do their new interpretations address the statutes' fundamental objectives? In this Essay, I assess one part of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)'s and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s rollback of clean car standards: a regulation stating that the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) preempts California's trailblazing controls on vehicles' greenhouse gas emissions. I argue that the agency preemption analysis gave insufficient attention to Congress's explicit statutory purposes, largely ignoring EPCA's energy-conservation goals and the Clean Air Act (CAA)'s and California's environmental goals. This lack of fidelity to the statutes' fundamental purposes and values has significant consequences. From a systemic perspective, unmoored from the statutes' core purposes, the agency is freely pursuing an antiregulatory agenda that runs contrary to congressional intent. From an environmental standpoint, the rule compromises the nation's capacity to curb greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from and promote essential technological innovation in the transportation sector, the nation's largest GHG emissions source.

for helpful insights about environmental justice in California climate policy. This Article is de... more for helpful insights about environmental justice in California climate policy. This Article is dedicated to the memory of Lesley McAllister, who had the vision to launch USD's annual symposia, which never fail to bring together government officials, practicing lawyers, interdisciplinary scholars, and the community around some of the most pressing issues of the day.

Social Science Research Network, Nov 1, 2015

In this essay, prepared in connection with an international symposium on philosophy, law, and env... more In this essay, prepared in connection with an international symposium on philosophy, law, and environmental crisis, I argue that theories of justice can facilitate the impassioned and critically important national and international debates about what constitutes climate adaptation injustice and, where such injustice is identified, clarify debates about who is responsible for providing adaptation assistance. I identify the ways in which domestic and international climate vulnerability is a reflection of underlying socioeconomic vulnerability and provide a brief sketch of the types of adaptation policies at issue. I then analyze variants of corrective and distributive justice and their implications for adaptation policy, both internationally and domestically, and note the importance of participatory engagement. I conclude by arguing that distributive injustice – the facts on the ground – should be the starting point for determining entitlement to assistance, and that theories of corrective justice (through the polluter pays principle) and distributive justice (through the ability to pay principle) shape responsibility for providing that assistance.

Social Science Research Network, Sep 8, 2007

Social Science Research Network, May 1, 2013

Her scholarship focuses on climate justice, climate federalism, and environmental justice. In add... more Her scholarship focuses on climate justice, climate federalism, and environmental justice. In addition to writing about climate adaptation, she has written extensively on climate mitigation, including articles on the Clean Air Act's approach to greenhouse gas regulation and its implications for traditional pollutants, the environmental justice implications of cap-and-trade programs for greenhouse gases, and the federalism challenges posed by proposed national greenhouse gas programs. She is a member scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform and the Chair-Elect of the AALS Environmental Law Committee. The author would like to thank Randy Rabidoux USF '13 for his research assistance, and Robin