Explainer Episode 57 - Natural Gas Bans, Appliance Efficiency Standards, and Consumer Choice
RTP's Fourth Branch Podcast
RTP's Fourth Branch Podcast
The debate over the electrification agenda and its implications for consumer choice and the environment remains contentious. As federal agencies like the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and The Department of Energy look to regulate natural gas home appliances, many consumers have questions: where does the federal government draw authority to regulate climate? What potential health risks and price impacts loom over natural gas and electric appliances? Should consumers have the choice between natural gas appliances and electric appliances, or should new electric appliances be mandated and subsidized? In this episode, Ben Lieberman and Professor James Coleman discuss these questions and more.
Featuring:
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As always, the Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy issues; all expressions of opinion are those of the speaker.
Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School
Professor James W. Coleman is a scholar of energy law. He specializes in North American energy infrastructure, transport, and trade. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute focused on energy policy.
Professor Coleman has testified before Congress on steps to speed up energy infrastructure permits. He also worked with a team of experts as part of Alberta's Royalty Review to revise the Canadian province's management of its vast oil and gas resources.
Before joining Minnesota, Professor Coleman taught at Southern Methodist University's Dedman School of Law, the University of Calgary’s law and business schools, and Harvard Law School. Earlier, he practiced environmental and appellate law at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and clerked for the Honorable Steven M. Colloton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Professor Coleman received two degrees from Harvard University—a J.D. (cum laude) and B.A. in biology (magna cum laude with highest honors in the field). As a result of his undergraduate thesis on butterfly genetics, which required fieldwork in Central Asia, a species of lycaenid butterfly was named after him—Agrodiaetus ripartii colemani.
Senior Fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Ben Lieberman is a senior fellow who specializes in environmental policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Lieberman has returned to CEI after serving seven years as a senior counsel on the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce. As a congressional staffer, he worked on a number of issues related to fuels and vehicles, including the Renewable Fuel Standard and Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. He also worked on energy infrastructure permitting reform, home appliance energy efficiency standards, and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.
Previously in his career, Lieberman completed a decade-long stint at CEI as well as five years at the Heritage Foundation. He will continue to work on energy and environmental policy issues in his latest position at CEI, with an emphasis on reforming the federal permitting process for projects that are subject to it.
Lieberman has published hundreds of op-eds and articles, including in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Chicago Sun-Times, The Washington Post, Weekly Standard, and National Review. He has appeared on a number of radio and television programs on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Bloomberg, and CNBC. He has also testified before Congress on a number of energy and environmental issues.
Lieberman received his undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland, and his law degree from the George Washington University School of Law.