Given their potential to exacerbate already environmentally-deteriorated conditions, peaker plants have faced substantial criticism from the communities they occupy, with some of these contentions reaching courts. A pair of cases from the early 2000s revolved around the construction of peaker plants in Queens and an area of South Bronx dubbed “Asthma Alley” for its high asthma rates which are eight times higher the national average. However since these cases in 2001, New York State has passed a Green New Deal, and energy storage technologies have become more viable substitutes compared to peakers.
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Because of the ethically-charged trade off between the life-saving potential of human embryonic stem cells and the destruction of the embryo they entail, courts have had to rule on and regulate the research, funding, patenting, and the acquisition of embryonic stem cells – but in a landscape of constant technological advancements, many of the above spheres of legislation still have unanswered questions.
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