Turning Point: Green Industrial Policy and the Future of U.S. Climate Action

Abstract

In the first two years of the Biden presidency, Congress passed three massive funding bills, which poured hundreds of billions of dollars into clean energy infrastructure, research and development, and deployment of clean energy. Although these bills are not what lawyers are accustomed to thinking of as “environmental law,” they have the potential to launch a transformation of the energy sector. This development could not have come at a better time, given the Supreme Court’s increasingly skeptical attitude toward federal regulation. Although the direct effect of these laws will be dramatic, this Article focuses on positive feedback loops that will amplify those direct effects. These feedback loops operate via impacts on innovation, regulation, and politics, all of which lead to expanded use of clean energy at the expense of fossil fuels. In turn, these impacts expand the production and use of clean energy, closing the feedback loops. Taking full advantage of these dynamics will require a more coordinated government effort, and this Article discusses a coordination method pioneered by some states.