On Sept. 25, the student-run Virginia Environmental Law Forum held its fourth annual Environmental Law Roundup, an event highlighting recent regulatory, legislative and judicial developments in environmental law. Professors Alison Gocke, Leon Szeptycki and Cale Jaffe from PLACE shared insights on pressing issues shaping the field at both the state and national level.

An Energy Emergency?

Professor and PLACE Co-Director Alison Gocke opened the event with a discussion of the Department of Energy’s recent use of emergency orders to extend the life of fossil fuel power plants. She outlined the DOE’s authority under the Federal Power Act and examined two recent orders to keep open two plants in Michigan and Pennsylvania, which were scheduled to close because they were no longer economically viable. The measures were justified by the declarations that an “energy emergency” exists, in which grid reliability is threatened by insufficient energy supply.

Gocke examined the central question: Is the United States currently in an “energy emergency”? Her answer was yes — but not in the way the DOE is asserting in these orders. Gocke noted that artificial intelligence, extreme weather events and the reconfiguration of resources that supply our electricity system are all posing significant threats to the reliability and affordability of energy in the United States. She argued that such challenges require a “holistic and thoughtful response.” Yet the federal government’s response to these threats, both with respect to these DOE orders and more broadly, has been inconsistent and incoherent.

“We are facing what some might call an energy emergency, or multiple energy emergencies,” Gocke noted. “The question ought to be: What is the best way to address them?”

Shifts in Federal Land Management

Professor Leon Szeptycki, associate director of UVA’s Environmental Institute, guided students through the complex statutory and regulatory framework governing federal lands. He then turned to several current debates, including the proposed recissions of the Forest Service’s “Roadless Rule,” which has restricted road construction and timber harvesting on national forest lands, and the Bureau of Land Management’s “Public Lands Rule,” which established restoration and mitigation leasing on BLM lands. Szeptycki reflected on the “inertia” needed to translate proposed regulatory changes into developments on the ground due to administrative procedures. Moving from plans to projects “depends on how successfully the administration jumps through these hoops,” Szeptycki said, while also noting the practical and economic forces that shape development on federal lands. Szeptycki pointed to auctions for oil development on Arctic National Wildlife Refuge lands during the first Trump Administration, which ultimately did not result in bids from major oil companies, as an example of the complex factors that contribute to whether on the ground development occurs.

Continue reading on the School of Law website.