I don't have any insights into the genesis of this bill, but I suspect it's not the last one we'll see of this nature. Just as climate policy/energy policy (think things e.g. state regulation of fracking or RGGI or AB32) has been effectuated at the sub-national level, so may climate geoengineering policy. It is possible, however, should climate geoengineering become a serious policy option in the United States, that Congress may seek to upend state regulation of this nature. I think it would have clear authority to do so under the Preemption Clause of the US Constitution (Article VI, Clause 2).
As for the bill itself, a couple of things jump out: 1. Given the potential threats outlined in the Findings of Fact portion of the bill, it's really unclear why it seeks to regulate carbon dioxide removal research at all. I think one could make an argument that there are some areas of concern in this context that might be of concern, but they are not set forth in the bill. In fact, 23-23.8-3(3) notes that geoengineering would merely mask the potential impacts of climate change and not address ocean acidification. That's assuredly not the case in terms of CDR approaches, so the bill's drafters appear to be a bit confused, and perhaps a bit overinclusive, in terms of the scope of potential regulation; 2. I can't see how CDR experiments, or even deployment within state boundaries, could be deemed to be a violation of Chapter 23 of Title 23 of the Air Pollution Episode Control Act of the state, which would also make enforcement problematic; 3. I do applaud the bill's proposal to establish a mechanism for public deliberation on the merits of climate geoengineering, something woefully lacking in both the major NAS reports released a few weeks ago. However, the mechanism to effectuate this, public hearings, doesn't appear to be the optimal approach to accomplish this, in that it's likely that such venues won't be representative of public sentiment, nor is there a reflexive process that would help to engage scientists, citizens and policymakers in a dialogue about the technical, ethical and political implications of geoengineering. The state could become a leader in this context by developing a process, as some states have done in the past in the context of nanotechnology and GMOs (e.g. North Carolina State University’s National Citizens’ Technology Forum), to facilitate this. This could include the development of consensus forums, citizen juries and deliberative mapping exercises. It would behoove our community to reach out to the drafters to discuss some of these issues. On Sunday, March 22, 2015 at 4:37:11 PM UTC-7, Hester, Tracy wrote: > > > We now have possibly the first state proposed legislation in the United > States to control climate engineering efforts. A bill (H-5480) was > recently introduced in the Rhode Island legislature that would require any > climate engineering efforts to undergo an approval process and two (at > least) public hearings. The bill would impose fines and up to 90 days > imprisonment for each day that the unapproved climate engineering > continues. The bill also gives Rhode Island's environmental agency the > ability to enjoin and halt an unapproved project. > > > If you’d like to get more details, you can review the bill itself at > http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText15/HouseText15/H5480.pdf > > > > > These local initiatives might pop up in other state legislatures if > climate engineering research gains momentum (especially after the NAS > reports last month). If so, the prospect of overlapping or conflicting > regulations from multiple states will often spur the federal government to > impose its own consolidated regulatory scheme to preempt the state efforts. > > > > > Professor Tracy Hester > University of Houston Law Center > 100 Law Center > Houston, Texas 77204 > 713-743-1152 > [email protected] <javascript:> > Web bio: www.law.uh.edu/faculty/thester > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
