Source: http://editions.lib.umn.edu/mjlst/2015/01/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 18:52:17+00:00

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On Monday, January 26, the trail resumes and BP begins calling its witnesses. It is likely that BP will continue to argue, “that the court should consider BP XP and its resources, rather than those of the larger parent group [BP], when determining a penalty. The smaller drilling subsidiary [BP XP] is the named defendant in the case.” Anadarko, a co-owner of the failed oil well, argues “it had no role in the operation of the well and should not have to pay anything.” The briefs are expected to be filed in April with a ruling from U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier to follow.
As the trial progresses and Deepwater Horizon spill nears its five year anniversary, readers should look at The BP Blowout and the Social and Environmental Erosion of the Louisiana Coast, which discusses the troubles the Gulf and its communities faced before the spill as well as how the spill exacerbated these issues. Daniel A. Farber believes that the situation of the Gulf is a preview of future problems that the United States and world will face in years to come. Farber writes “there are many small initiatives that can cumulatively begin to make inroads on the Gulf’s problems, including, most obviously, efforts to ensure that the BP oil spill is not followed by similar disasters.” Though MJLST published this article in 2012, Farber’s analysis and proposal are pertinent in today’s environmental and economic discussions, particularly those related to the legislature’s actions regarding the Keystone XL Pipeline.
If a person requires emergency medical treatment and shows up at any hospital that accepts payments from Medicare, that person will receive emergency health care treatment without regard to ability to pay, citizenship, or legal status. This happens because the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), enacted in 1986, requires such treatment as a method of preventing the practice of “patient dumping,” where hospitals would refuse to treat people because of inability to pay, among other reasons. A recent circuit court decision and subsequent petition for writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States has challenged this part of the EMTALA as constituting a taking in violation of the Fifth Amendment.
In February 2014, E. H. Morreim published an article discussing the EMTALA in volume 15, issue 1 of the Minnesota Journal of Law, Science and Technology. In that article, Morreim argued that EMTALA violates the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause. According to Morreim, the EMTALA satisfies the three elements of a taking – property, taking, and public use. The article argues that the property taken is both personal property (pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and paid staff time) and the physical invasion of spaces in the hospital, for the public use of ensuring immediate emergency care without regard to the ability to pay. Furthermore, Morreim suggests that the EMTALA may resemble what Justice Scalia has termed a “Robin Hood Taking” where the government takes wealth from those who have it and transfers it to indigent defendants. See Brown v. Legal Found. Of Wash., 538 U.S. 216, 252 (2003) (Scalia, J., dissenting).
At the time of the article’s publication, neither the Supreme Court nor any of the circuit courts had addressed the constitutionality of the EMTALA. That is no longer the case. The Eleventh Circuit addressed the issue and upheld the EMTALA as constitutional in Baker County Medical Services, Inc. v. U.S. Attorney General, 763 F.3d 1274 (11th Cir. 2014). There, the Appellant hospital appealed the lower court’s grant of a motion to dismiss a claim seeking a declaratory judgment that EMTALA was an unconstitutional taking. The Eleventh Circuit upheld the law on the basis that voluntary participation in a regulated program defeats a takings clause challenge. The decision concluded by saying that the Hospital should turn to Congress for a remedy, instead of the courts.
Morreim’s article addresses this so-called “voluntariness” of participation in EMTALA, arguing that the steep financial losses that would occur – the loss of all Medicare funding – render acceptance of the EMTALA obligations far from voluntary. In Baker County Medical Services, the court responded to these concerns, as raised by the Appellant hospital, by stating that economic hardship is not the same as compulsion.
As 2015 begins, many worry that the Republican majority in both the House and Senate will adversely effect energy policy over the next few years. With a scheduled Senate committee hearing and vote this week on the Keystone XL pipeline and pledges to “delay or derail the Obama administration’s clean air proposals,” these worries are justified. However, hydropower, the United States’ largest renewable energy resource provides hope for U.S. energy policy through bipartisan legislature and industry aimed at harnessing small-scale hydropower on existing infrastructure.
While proponents of hydropower are pleased with the Act, many, especially small-scale producers, are looking for more from the Republican-controlled legislature. The bills and their legislative history focus heavily on the number of unutilized dams in the U.S. as well as the potential for micro hydropower production. While the bills are helpful in increasing the development of small-scale hydropower, further legislature is needed to ease the regulatory process. In a recent NPR story on hydropower legislation, Kurt Johnson, head of the Colorado Small Hydropower Association, described the bills as “a kitchen knife gently cutting the government’s red tape, when what is really needed is a machete.” However, even with a Republican controlled House and Senate, taking a “machete” to FERC’s regulatory process is unlikely. This February, FERC’s amended regulations conforming to the bills become effective, easing the regulatory process for qualifying small-scale hydropower facilities.
Despite recent reform to the hydropower regulatory regime and bipartisan recognition that hydropower is an underdeveloped resource, 2014 showed a shift in hydropower and energy policy. Traditionally, hydropower has been the United States’ largest renewable energy source, but in 2014, annual non-hydropower renewable generation usurped hydropower generation for the first time. In a recent report, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected decrease of 4.4% in conventional hydropower generation, but a 5.1% increase in non-hydropower renewables, including wind, solar, and geothermal. The 2014 removal of the Elwha Dam on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State highlighted another shift in hydropower, as large-scale hydropower projects and their externalities are under scrutiny. As a result of this heightened scrutiny and the potential for unutilized infrastructure on America’s waterways, the hydropower industry and legislature is looking to implement smaller, noncontroversial projects.
Though hydropower generation decreased in 2014, the legislature recognizes that there is tremendous growth potential for hydropower in America’s future. In fact, the new Chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Senator Lisa Murkowski, is on the record for calling hydropower an “undeveloped resource.” Senator Murkowski’s statement is supported by many recent studies, which indicate the potential for increased hydropower generation and job growth in the United States. In addition to its potential for the development of new, clean energy generation and jobs, small-scale hydropower legislation provides renewed hope for energy policy in a Republican-controlled legislature.
Commercial Drones: What’s a Business to do?
Since the March 2014 decision by administrative law judge Patrick Geraghty, the legality of using a drone for commercial purposes has been up for debate. Geraghty held that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) could not regulate the use of drones for commercial purposes under the current regulatory regime because a drone could not be considered an “aircraft” under 14 C.F.R. § 91.13(a) therefore could not be in violation of the Federal Aviation Regulations.
The FAA’s ability to regulate commercial drones came to the forefront when Raphael Pirker, a professional photographer, was paid by the University of Virginia to provide aerial photographs and video, which was accomplish by using a small drone. The FAA claimed the drone was operated in “a careless or reckless manner so as to endanger the life or property of another” in violation of 14 C.F.R. § 91.13(a) and assessed a $10,000 penalty. Pirker promptly challenged this penalty arguing his drone was not an “aircraft” and could not be in violation of the Federal Aviation Regulations. Geraghty agreed, finding that the definition of “aircraft” as defined in 49 U.S.C. § 40102(a) (6) (“any contrivance invented, used or designed to navigate or fly in, the air”) and 14 C.F.R. § 1.1 (“a device that is used or intended to be used for flight in the air”) did not include model aircraft or drones.
This decision left a gaping hole in the FAA’s enforcement power and was welcomed by businesses using commercial drones due to their ability to now fly without fear of penalties. Understandably, the decision was immediately appealed by the FAA. On appeal the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reversed the decision by finding that drones did meet the definition of “aircraft” as defined in 49 U.S.C. § 40102(a)(6) and 14 C.F.R. § 1.1, thus Pirker could be subject to penalties for violation of 14 C.F.R. § 91.13(a). The NTSB remanded the case in order to determine if Pirker’s operation was in a careless or reckless manner warranting the $10,000 penalty.
In an effort to legally integrate drones into the National Airspace System (NAS), the FAA has since allowed businesses to file for exemptions under Section 333 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012. These exemptions are acting as a gap filler until the FAA releases their proposed regulations for small drones, which are expected later this year. To date, thirteen Section 333 exemptions have been granted by the FAA. The most prevalent industry to be granted an exemption is the film industry, totaling seven of the thirteen. Other industries include construction, real estate, agriculture, and surveying. The number of exemptions is expected to grow, as the FAA has received over 200 applications for exemptions. However, the number of drones in the sky is not expected to skyrocket anytime soon due to the length of time and expense needed in order to obtain a Section 333 exemption which limits the number of companies that can apply and be granted an exemption.
Although not ideal, the exemption process is a major step in the right direction for the FAA as it finally begins to work with, not against, businesses to fully integrate drones into the NAS. Full integration into the NAS, however, will not occur until final regulations are released later this year. Even after regulations are released it could take a few years to work out all of the logistics of using drones for commercial purposes. In any event, don’t expect your Amazon package to be delivered by drones anytime soon. Stay tuned!
Recently, an FDA-commissioned panel recommended the Administration approve a cancer fighting drug developed by Novartis called EP2006. The recommendation is significant because if the FDA follows the panel’s advice and approves the drug, it will be the first time the FDA has approved a “biosimilar” drug under the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCI Act). A biosimilar drug is a drug that is “interchangeable” with or “highly-similar” to a biological drug already licensed by the FDA. In the words of the FDA, “[a] biological product may be demonstrated to be ‘biosimilar’ if data show that the product is ‘highly similar’ to the reference product notwithstanding minor differences in clinically inactive components and there are no clinically meaningful differences between the biological product and the reference product in terms of safety, purity and potency.” Interestingly, a biosimilar drug is not considered to be a generic version of its already-approved counterpart– only bioequivalent drugs could be generics. Nonetheless, biosimilar drugs are still desirable for consumers because they are subject to an expedited approval process compared to their already-approved counterpart. Such drugs would be readily substitutable by a pharmacist without requiring the prescriber’s permission.
In this case, the panel advised the FDA that EP2006 is biosimilar to Amgen’s medication, Nuopogen (filgrastim), which is used to boost white-blood cell production in the body. Unfortunately, Neupogen is predictably expensive. But, introduction of EP2006 into the market would make cancer-fighting medication more price-accessible for many patients. Such a decrease in price would necessarily follow from increased competition for a white blood cell-producing drug and the reduced development costs of EP2006 attributable to the expedited approval process under the BPCI Act. Ideally, a groundbreaking approval of EP2006 under the BPCI Act would also pave the way for other price-accessible medication meant to treat all sorts of ailments.
As a second-year law student, I met an energy law attorney who told me that sometimes his job felt like mediating between two parents. Two parents butting heads.
The more recent legal developments in the cellulosic ethanol industry since the publication of my student note in the Volume 15, Issue 2 of the Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology echo the words of the attorney I met. In the note–published in Spring 2014 and entitled A Spoonful of Sugarcane Ethanol–I argue that the U.S. should enact tax benefits to spur cellulosic ethanol based on existing Brazilian tax benefits for sugarcane ethanol. Ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, is a fuel fermented from renewable resources. In the case of cellulosic ethanol, the resource is vegetative and yard waste; in the case of sugarcane ethanol, the resource is sugarcane juice.
Unlike the note, which focuses on tax benefits, the recent developments in the cellulosic ethanol industry center on blending mandates, both in the U.S. and Brazil. Under these mandates, motor fuel–which contains mostly gasoline–must be blended with a certain amount of ethanol. The U.S. motor fuel mandate is the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). RFS, which generally requires the petroleum industry to blend in motor fuel specific amounts for cellulosic ethanol, was already subject to litigation in American Petroleum Institute v. EPA, 706 F.3d 474 (D.C. Cir. 2013). However, the concerned industries of that case, primarily the petroleum industry and the cellulosic ethanol industry, continue to disagree. Broadly speaking, as further elaborated in this Bloomberg BNA blog entry, the petroleum industry takes the position that the RFS is unworkable. To much the vexation of the cellulosic ethanol industry. What makes the recent development more interesting is that, since early 2014, the cellulosic ethanol production seemed to have increased. Extending the metaphor of fighting parents, it is as if the ethanol parent continues to grasp the motor fuel teen, a teen that has grown bulkier in size, when the petroleum parent is ready to send the teen off to college.
In Brazil, a similar “family tale” ensues. In late 2014, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff signed the legislation to increase Brazil’s blending percentage of ethanol from 25% to 27.5%. Still, the semi-public petroleum producer Petrobras expressed concern that, before the change in the mandate can be put in effect, more study is needed. These articles further explain these events (1)(2). As such, in this “family,” the parents are at a deadlock.
On a more serious tone, as I reread my student note, I would like to make two corrections. I apologize for the misspelling of Ms. Ruilin Li’s name on page 1117, and for the missing infra notations on page 11141 (notes 218 to 221).

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