Introduction, Symposium LSU J. Energy L. & Resources

The intersection of property rights and energy resource development is an increasingly important, and contentious, area of the law. From local fracking ordinances to federal overrides of state sovereignty in permitting multistate infrastructure projects, the law is in flux. In this symposium, a group of lawyers, law professors, and economists were gathered to look at some of these issues

Introduction, Symposium LSU J. Energy L. & Resources

The intersection of property rights and energy resource development is an increasingly important, and contentious, area of the law. From local fracking ordinances to federal overrides of state sovereignty in permitting multistate infrastructure projects, the law is in flux. In this symposium, a group of lawyers, law professors, and economists were gathered to look at some of these issues

Externality: Origins and Classifications

Evaluating the pervasive role of externalities in the academic literature requires that we understand what it means. In this article, we give an idea of the extent of the use of externalities. We consider the development of the concept during the past century, focusing on its leading architect A.C. Pigou and how his theories affected the concept\u27s development. The core of this article will then argue that the term has become nearly meaningless due to its ubiquity, so we develop a classification for the major categories of externalities based on economic and legal logic. We contend that the instances in which policy actions are justified to deal with what are purported to be externalities are very small

Borders and the Environment

Despite regular acknowledgement of the interconnectedness of global ecosystems, government policies at the national level focus on environmental problems within their borders. As a result, the level of public and private resources expended on environmental protection in rich and poor countries is dramatically different on both a per capita and an absolute basis. While this outcome is readily explained by the politics of environmental issues, in which voters reward governments for domestic expenditures but are skeptical of expenditures outside the jurisdiction, these differences mean that the total amount of environmental quality purchased across nations is lower than it could be. It means that some nations are purchasing small, expensive increments in environmental quality while large, low-cost increments in other jurisdictions are not purchased. By applying the principles of marginal analysis from economics, this Article demonstrates that this produces less total environmental quality and treats residents of rich and poor countries differently in a morally unacceptable way. The authors propose that governments provide more transparent cost and benefit information to allow public discussion of such differential treatment and to encourage environmental gains wherever most efficiently achievable

Treating Higher Education as an Investment

College is one of the costliest investments many people make; yet, prospective students are often not provided accurate information about the cost of college, nor are they provided information about the likely outcomes upon completion of a degree. Rather than address the problem by focusing on ballooning college debt, we propose that the rules that apply to sellers of other services and investments should apply to colleges. Colleges behave much like competitive firms. They engage in costly efforts to lure students. They sometimes produce false or misleading information that gives students the impression of higher payoffs from a degree than are likely to occur. For-profit firms would face litigation under consumer protection laws for similar behavior. Applying the same truth-in-advertising rules that apply to most firms would help address this problem. Students would better understand the cost and likely return on their investments if they were provided financial information similar to that required to be given to prospective investors in other investments. Finally, colleges act in concert via accrediting agencies to cartelize higher education, often making the costs of college higher than they need to be

The Destructive Role of Land Use Planning

Is land use planning fundamentally different from other forms of central planning? If so, does that difference suggest that land use planning will succeed where other forms of central planning failed? We conclude that land use planning is not fundamentally different from other forms of economic central planning. Further, the working of the market economy, and the long-term success of America\u27s economy, is intertwined in the clear and certain rights and responsibilities generated by the common law of property. The complexity of the modem world does not diminish the need for private property; indeed, it strengthens its imperative. Returning to a feudal conception of property is bad for personal freedom, bad for civil society, and bad for the environment. The last part of the foregoing bears particular emphasis. Too often, defense of property rights is linked to a rejection of socially laudatory goals. Protecting property rights does not mean acquiescing in the destruction of the environment, the blighting of urban landscapes, or callous disregard for the suffering of others. Property rights, along with markets and the common law, make up an institution that is quite successful at not only allowing but facilitating such goals and has long been recognized as such. For example, historian Richard Pipes notes that early [Christian] church theoreticians saw property as \u27another disciplinary institution intended to check and counteract the vicious disposition of men. Our argument here is not that rights should be protected to privilege the few, but that the failure to protect property rights will not only impoverish the many but harm the environment as well. Note also that our argument is not simply that planning has been a tool of brutal totalitarian regimes, but that even a pure democratic system run by benevolent wise persons has deep flaws that prevent it from achieving its stated aims. In Part I we briefly describe the nature of common law property rights rules. In Part II we examine the corrupted form of property rights, which we label administrative property, developing today through application of the planning model to land use. In Part III we explore how common law property rights work better than the corrupted modern version for resolving the contemporary problems planning attempts to address

Ethical and Strategic Issues in Decarbonization Policy

Policies that force non-fossil fuel energy result in increased reliance on the rapid development and deployment of batteries and other technologies to meet decarbonization goals set by the United States and other industrialized economies. This Article focuses on batteries, noting that key minerals come from corrupt or hostile countries. Many key finished products come from China, thereby making the U.S. and the European Union reliant on an autocratic regime. Using cobalt as an example, the Article considers its production and the U.S.’s unwillingness to shoulder its share of the environmental burden of mineral extraction or refining. Further, the U.S. is increasingly reliant on China for inputs with no good substitutes, raising questions about the desirability of such economic integration. Efforts to spur decarbonization more effectively are warranted and may be nudged along by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022