Reliable energy is a commodity that every American has grown accustomed to. Whether plugging in our toasters in the morning to make the perfect bagel sandwich, maintaining comfortable temperatures in our living spaces during the winter, or being held on a ventilator at the hospital, having a reliable energy grid is essential to our society. Additionally, as we combat the current climate crisis, America has expanded its green energy infrastructure to where renewable energy generates over 20% of our electricity. [1] While this may sound like a promising step toward a sustainable future, our aging energy grid and infrastructure are running into a higher risk of failure with every green advancement, particularly with solar energy. This dilemma has been described as the Duck Curve Problem.
The top line of this graph represents the grid’s energy demand from nonrenewable sources over 24 hours, while the bottom line shows the demand when solar renewable energy is factored in. The significant drop in midday energy demand provided by solar energy, contrasted with the sharp rise in the evening, creates the famous ‘duck’ shape seen in the graph. This steep and quick rise in energy demand puts huge strains on nonrenewable power plants which risk overgeneration to compensate for the energy use differential. This imposes higher prices on consumers, causes infrastructure damage, and threatens our national security.
To curtail this problem, the Biden Administration, under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), has launched a joint grid modernization initiative with twenty-one states toupgrade approximately 100,000 miles of existing transmission lines. [2] This will allow for advancements in battery technology, which will help store midday solar energy and allow for a gradual release of energy when the sun goes down, which will reduce the strain on power plants. Recently, the California Energy Commission has used IIJA funding to expand 100 miles to their power grid to allow multiple sources of renewable energy input such as wind and hydroelectric, to reduce the effects of the duck curve. [3] This is an effective solution because hydroelectric and wind energy input will buffer the drastic evening energy demand.
While the IIJA is a critical step toward enhancing the reliability of the U.S. power grid, further state-level legislative action is needed to meet renewable energy goals without posing a threat to our energy grid infastructure. California’s Energy Storage Mandate serves as a key example. This innovative mandate requires the state’s three major utility companies: Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric to procure a combined 1,325 megawatts (MW) of energy storage over ten years. [4] This initiative has proven highly successful, as all three utilities have nearly met their procurement targets. [5] By expanding energy storage capacity, this legislation ensures more efficient use of renewable energy, reducing strain on the grid and helping to stabilize electricity prices during periods of high demand.
As we continue to expand renewable energy and modernize our grid, innovative green legislation in energy storage will be essential to overcoming the challenges of the Duck Curve and ensuring a reliable, sustainable future for America’s energy infrastructure.
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[1] Renewable Energy, U.S. Dep’t of Energy, https://www.energy.gov/eere/renewable-energy (last visited Oct. 5, 2024).
The emergence of social media has impacted our mental health in a way more complex than we may understand for hundreds of years. U.S. Surgeon General Murthy has called for warning labels on social media to remind users that this has not been proven safe.[1] Further, adolescents who spend a significant amount of time online are at risk for anxiety and depression.[2] So, what about the companies behind these platforms? What liability do they have, if any, to the effects of social media on the general public?
Currently, there is an ongoing lawsuit by more than 40 states who are suing Meta, one of the largest operators of several social media platforms.[3] The claims under this lawsuit are that Meta is responsible for harmful features such as “recommendation algorithms, social comparison features, infinite scroll, notifications and alerts, and photo filters” which all have negative links to addictive behavior and mental health conditions, like body dysmorphia.[4] This lawsuit requests remedies such as fines, penalties, and orders to stop using some problematic features.[5]
Additionally, there is litigation in one California court assessing the liability social media companies have about the potential effects on mental health.[6] The plaintiffs argue that failure-to-warn claims should be applied without a physical product at issue, and this would just be the law evolving to keep up with the times.[7] Opposing counsel argues this type of product liability is not applicable, since it tailors the experience to each user.[8] Similar lawsuits have been filed by parents, school districts, and attorneys general (AGs), claiming similar injuries.[9]
What About the Kids:
This question is being challenged specifically on behalf of children, and the impact it has on their development. New York, California, and Utah have passed similar laws allowing parents to have greater control over their children’s algorithms and social media uses.[10] California’s law defines an “addictive feed as a website or app in which multiple pieces of media generated or shared by users are … selected or prioritized for display to a user based … on information provided by the user.”[11]
TikTok’s defense to claims that it is misleading and threatening to adolescents is that they have already provided the safeguards necessary.[12] These protections include removing suspected underage users, “default screen time limits, family pairing, and privacy by default for minors under sixteen.”[13] The response from the New Jersey AG is that the safety features are misleading for parents, and the time restraints can be easily bypassed through passwords or eliminating the limit.[14]
The ongoing litigation for liability in the social media space will set up future standards for how seriously we take threats to our mental health. The resolution of these legal challenges could set important precedents for accountability in the tech industry while balancing a First Amendment right to free speech on these platforms.
Looking for a restaurant? What do you do? Most people would say – “Google it.” Search engines are a part of everyday life. We look up where to eat, what store we should shop at, what events are happening near us, and more. People seeking abortions or access to information regarding reproductive healthcare are no different. They frequent search engines to find access to critical reproductive healthcare. But what happens when those search engines are manipulated by those that have an ulterior motive?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is “the process of improving your website to increase its visibility in Google, Microsoft Bing, and other search engines.”[1] Because “organic search[es]” are responsible for 53% of all website traffic, SEO is a critical part of modern marketing strategies.[2] Notably, the global SEO industry is estimated to reach $122.11 billion by 2028.[3]
Companies or websites can use SEO to their advantage by using “the right keywords and phrases to improve their appearance in search results.”[4] In this way, SEO can be used to attract specific audiences to a webpage, including vulnerable individuals seeking access to reproductive healthcare information. Anti-abortion pregnancy centers in the United Sates have “spent an estimated $10.2 million on Google Search ads” and “those ads were clicked on an estimated 13 million times” in a two-year period.[5]
Human Coalition is credited with starting the trend for pro-life organizations use of SEO to their advantage.[6] Human Coalition is a “pro-life nonprofit organization committed to an audacious mission: to transform our culture of death into a culture of life – to end abortion in America.”[7] Human Coalition has “applied corporate digital marketing techniques” like SEO, to “manipulate pregnant peoples’ online search results, driving those researching abortion away from comprehensive pregnancy care or abortion clinics”.[8]
Users who search ‘pregnancy test’, ‘pregnancy’ or ‘abortion’ are frequently redirected to websites for Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPC’s).[9] CPC’s are “nonprofit organizations that present themselves as healthcare clinics while providing counseling explicitly intended to discourage and limit access to abortion.”[10] These centers, “are rarely licensed to provide health care and do not offer accurate information or refer patients for abortion care, emergency contraception, or comprehensive prenatal care, and they do not make referrals to abortion providers.”[11]
Heartbeat International is a “pro-life pregnancy resource center” with over 3,600 “affiliated pregnancy help locations.”[12] Heartbeat International has also manipulated SEO to their advantage.[13] They have gone as far as to boast that an individual “who makes a Google search such as ‘pregnant and scared’ finds a local Heartbeat International affiliate.”[14]
Human Coalition and Heartbeat International are not the exception. Manipulation of SEO to support a pro-life agenda is so commonplace that entire companies exist to support CPCs in this messaging. Choose Life Marketing is a marketing company, seeking to help clients (pro-life groups) use SEO to their advantage.[15] Their website states that “an SEO strategy can help more people who want to learn about or support the pro-life mission find your organization. Our team will do the necessary research to learn what keywords your target audience is searching for, and then we will optimize your site to help you reach that audience.”[16]
SEO is deliberately manipulated to redirect pregnant people to CPC’s and mislead them into misinformation surrounding abortion and to dissuade individuals from having abortions.[17] The CPC’s “often present themselves as medical facilities and mirror abortion clinics’ logos, using names like Your Choice and Women’s Health Clinic.”[18] CPC’s have also used “sophisticated digital tactics like ‘geo-fencing’ to intercept people in the waiting rooms of physician’s offices and vulnerable populations like high school students.”[19]
These tactics are deceptive and can have serious implications. For years, those in favor of reproductive rights have urged Google to prevent CPCs from running “misleading abortion-related ads” on their platform. However, because CPCs are not “selling anything, they do not fall under the purview of the Federal Trade Commission Act, which prohibits unfair or deceptive advertising.”[20] A group of Democrats in Congress urged Google to protect users from “misleading abortion-related search results” in June 2022, weeks before the groundbreaking decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning Roe v. Wade and erasing Constitutional protection for abortions.[21]
Two years later, not much has changed. In 2024, women are still googling “abortion near me” and being directed to CPC’s.[22] Sudden abortion bans and restrictions in the aftermath of Dobbs only increases the dangers these centers cause. These centers “aim to delay medical procedures until it is too late to legally terminate a pregnancy, which these centers never present as an option.”[23] As State Senator from Pennsylvania Katie Muth has stated – Action is needed to ensure “consumers are protected from sham centers that spend millions of dollars on deceptive marketing to advertise themselves as health care centers, when in fact they don’t actually provide such service… These deceptive practices can lead to human harm and even the death of an expecting mother because of a delay in care caused by these centers wasting precious time with sham guidance.”[24]
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[1] What Is SEO – Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Land, https://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo (last visited Sep. 22, 2024).
[2]Organic Search Responsible For 53% of all site traffic, paid 15% [Study], Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/organic-search-responsible-for-53-of-all-site-traffic-paid-15-study-322298 (last visited Sep. 22, 2024).
[3] What Is SEO, supra note 1.
[4] Jack Dobkin, In The Grand Scheme: Six Sinister Tactics Employed by Anti-Abortion Centers, Equity Forward (last visited Sep. 22, 2024) https://equityfwd.org/research/grand-scheme-six-sinister-tactics-employed-anti-abortion-centers.
[5] Laurel Wamsley, Google Shows You Ads for Anti-Abortion Centers When Yoy Search For Clinics Near You, Npr (Jun 22, 2023) https://www.npr.org/2023/06/22/1182865322/google-abortion-clinic-search-results-anti-abortion.
[6] Dobkin, supra note 1.
[7] Human Coalition, https://www.humancoalition.org/ (last visited Sep. 22, 2024).
[8] Dobkin, supra note 1.
[9]What Reproductive Rights Advocates Need to Know About Anti-Abortion Crisis Pregnancy Centers, Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts, Inc. https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/planned-parenthood-advocacy-fund-massachusetts-inc/issues/what-reproductive-rights-advocates-need-to-know-about-anti-abort#:~:text=They%20also%20utilize%20search%20engine,people%20away%20from%20real%20reproductive (last visited Sep. 22, 2024).
[10]Melissa N Montoya, Colleen Judge-Golden, Jonas J. Swartz, The Problems With Crisis Pregnancy Centers: Reviewing the Literature and Identifying New Directions for Future Research, (May 24, 2022) https://doi.org/10.2147/IJWH.S288861
[11] Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts, Inc., supra note 9.
[12] About Us,Heartbeat International, https://www.heartbeatinternational.org/about-us (last visited Sep. 22, 2024).
[17] Abigail Abrams and Vera Bergengruen, Anti-Abortion Pregnancy Centers Are Collecting Troves of Data That Could Be Weaponized Against Women, (Jun. 22, 2022 12:02 PM EDT) https://time.com/6189528/anti-abortion-pregnancy-centers-collect-data-investigation
[18] Id.
[19] Rep. Bridget Kosierowski and Rep. Melissa Shusterman, A Post-Roe PA: deceptive Practices of Anti-Abortion Centers, PA House Democratic Policy Comm. and PA Senate Democrats Policy Comm. (Sep. 6, 2022 1:00 pm) https://www.pahouse.com/files/Documents/Testimony/2022-09-06_034351__Sept6HearingDocs.pdf
[20] Emma Cott, Nilo Tabrizy, Aliza Aufrichtig, Rebecca Liberman and Nailah Morgan, They Serached Online for Abortion Clinics. They Found Anti-Abortion Centers., The New York Times (Jun. 23, 2022) https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/us/texas-abortion-human-coalition.html
[21] Id.
[22] Ashley Adams, Exposed: This PA Woman’s Story Reveals How Crisis Pregnancy Centers Deceive Women, The Keystone (Feb. 28, 2024) https://keystonenewsroom.com/2024/02/28/exposed-this-pa-womans-story-reveals-how-crisis-pregnancy-centers-deceive-women/
