Hannah Wiseman

Professor of Law
Professor, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
Institutes of Energy and the Environment Co-funded Faculty

Email hqw5351@psu.edu
Curriculum Vitae Download/View CV
SSRN SSRN Profile

Expertise

Education

J.D., Yale Law School
A.B., Dartmouth College, summa cum laude

Biography

Professor Hannah Wiseman is a Professor of Law, Professor and Wilson Faculty Fellow in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, and Institutes of Energy and the Environment Co-funded Faculty Member. Professor Wiseman teaches and writes in the areas of Energy Law, Oil & Gas Law, Land Use Regulation, Environmental Law, and Administrative Law. Her work focuses on the mechanics and design of regulation and governance in these areas, including the challenges of determining appropriate governance levels, fostering effective experimentation, and addressing expansions in the scale of regulated activities. She has published articles or has articles forthcoming in the Stanford Law Review (co-authored), NYU Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Duke Law Journal (co-authored), and Boston University Law Review, among others, and she is a co-author of the textbook Energy, Economics, and the Environment (Foundation Press) with Professors Joel Eisen, Emily Hammond, Jim Rossi, and David Spence. She is also a co-author of the book Energy Law (Foundation Press) with Professor Alexandra Klass and Hydraulic Fracturing: A Guide to Environmental and Real Property Issues (American Bar Association press) with Keith Hall.

: Hannah received her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College, summa cum laude, and her law degree from Yale Law School, and she clerked for Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Before joining the faculty at Penn State, Professor Wiseman was the Attorneys’ Title Professor at Florida State University College of Law, an Assistant Professor at the University of Tulsa School of Law, and an Emerging Fellow (Visiting Assistant Professor) at the University of Texas School of Law.

Energy Law and Policy
Land Use Regulation
Property
Renewable Energy Law & Energy Justice

Grid Reliability in the Electric Era, Yale Journal on Regulation, Vol. 41, Issue 1 (with Joshua C. Macey and Shelley Welton)

Zoning the Subsurface, 72 UCLA L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2024) (with Anne Menefee, Mike Helbing, and Seth Blumsack)

Hydraulic Fracturing and Legal Frameworks, Oxford Handbooks Online (Apr. 2017)

Energy, Economics, and the Environment: Cases and Materials, Fifth Edition (Foundation Press, 2020) (with Joel B. Eisen, Emily Hammond, Jim Rossi, & David B. Spence)

Energy Law Concepts & Insights, Second Edition (Foundation Press, 2020) (with Alexandra B. Klass)

Hydraulic Fracturing: A Guide to Environmental and Real Property Legal Issues (American Bar Association, 2016) (with Keith Hall)

Grid Reliability Through Clean Energy, 74 Stan. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2022) (with Alexandra Klass, Joshua Macey, & Shelley Welton)

Regional Cooperative Federalism and the U.S. Electric Grid, 90 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2021)

Disaggregating Preemption in Energy Law, 40 Harv. Envt’l L. Rev. 293 (2016)

Regional Energy Governance and U.S. Carbon Emissions, 43 Ecology L.Q. 143 (2016) (with Hari M. Osofsky)

Clean Energy Incentives: Risk, Capture, and Federalism, 67 Fla. L. Rev. Forum 161 (2016)

Regulatory Triage in a Volatile Political Era, 117 Colum. L. Rev. Online 240 (2017)

The Shale Gas Revolution—The U.S. Perspective, in Research Handbook of Oil and Gas Law (Tina Hunter, ed., forthcoming 2022)

Shale Gas Development, Economic Impacts, and Regulation, in The Routledge Handbook of Energy Law (Tina Hunter et al., eds.) (2020)

Stationary Sources, Movable Rules: Intransigence and Innovation under the Clean Air Act, in Lessons from the Clean Air Act: Building Durability and Flexibility into Long-Term Energy Policy (Dallas Burtraw & Ann Carlson, eds., 2019)

Localizing the Green Energy Revolution, 70 Emory L.J. Online 59 (2021)

Federalism, Democracy, and the 2020 Election, 99 Tex. L. Rev. Online 96 (2021) (with David Landau & Samuel Wiseman)

Taxing Local Energy Externalities, __ Notre Dame L. Rev. (forthcoming 2021)

Coequal Federalism and Federal-State Agencies, 55 Ga. L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2021) (with Dave Owen)

The New Oil and Gas Governance, 129 Yale L.J. Forum 51 (2020) (with Tara Righetti and James Coleman)

Federalism for the Worst Case, 105 Iowa L. Rev. 101 (2020) (with David Landau and Samuel R. Wiseman)

Rethinking Municipal Corporate Rights, 61 B.C. L. Rev. 591 (2020)

Fracking as a Test of the Demsetz Property Rights Thesis, 71 Hastings L.J. 845 (2020) (with David Dana)

Food Labeling and the Environment, 34 J. Envtl. L. & Litigation 1 (2019) (with Samuel R. Wiseman)

Federal Laboratories of Democracy, 52 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1119 (2018) (with Dave Owen)

Constrained Regulatory Exit in Energy Law, 67 Duke L.J. 1687 (2018, symposium contribution) (with Jim Rossi)

Delegation and Dysfunction, 35 Yale J. on Reg. 233 (2018)

Expanding the Boundaries of Administrative Constitutionalism: Understanding and Assessing Agencies’ Experimentation with Procedures, 32 J. Land Use & Envtl. L. 543 (2017, invited symposium contribution)

Negotiated Rulemaking and New Risks: A Rail Safety Case Study, 7 Wake Forest J. L. & Pol. 207 (2017, invited symposium contribution)

Webinar: Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, University of Pennsylvania, Combating Climate Change Through Regulatory Relief, April 2020

Policy digest: Balancing Renewable Energy Goals with Community Interests, Kleinman Center for Energy Policy (May 2020)

Podcast: Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, University of Pennsylvania, The Struggle for Local Control over Energy Development, Apr. 3, 2020

Podcast: Capital Center for Law & Policy at McGeorge School of Law, Fracking Laws and Oil and Gas Regulations, July 2, 2020

August 2025

Professor Hannah Wiseman quoted in The Economist

December 2024

Prof. Wisemans scholarship identified as one of best relating to environmental law by Jotwell

July 2024

Prof. Hannah Wiseman quoted in article about climate change lawsuits

July 2024