Law Commons^™

Municipal Law—A Wedge In Climate Initiatives: How State Legislatures’ Preemption Of Local Government’S Role In Climate Change Policy And Arkansas’ Act 308 Of 2021 Are Misplaced., Travis Golliher

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

When Uncle Sam Spills: A State Regulator’S Guide To Enforcement Actions Against The Federal Government Under The Clean Water Act, Ian M. Staeheli

Washington Law Review

The U.S. government is one of the largest polluters on the planet. With over 700 domestic military bases and countless more federal facilities and vessels operating within state borders, there exists an enormous potential for spills and discharges of pollutants into state waters. The regulatory burden for enforcing environmental laws against the federal government falls on the Environmental Protection Agency and state regulators. But enforcing laws and regulations against the federal government and its progeny is a daunting regulatory task.

Other scholarship addresses some of the vexing peculiarities involved when regulating Uncle Sam. Those works discuss the “confusing mess” that …

The Environmental, Social, Governance (Esg) Debate Emerges From The Soil Of Climate Denial, Lawrence J. Trautman, Neal Newman

Faculty Scholarship

It has been almost six decades since Rachel Carson’s ominous warning of pending environmental disaster. During 2019 the United Nations requested urgent action from world leaders, given that “just over a decade is all that remains to stop irreversible damage from climate change.” With every passing year, damage resulting from destructive climate change causes increased pain, suffering, death and massive property loss. During 2020 and 2021 alone, severe weather events have included: destructive fires in California; record breaking freeze, power outage, and threat to the electrical grid in Texas; continuation of disruptive drought in U.S. Western states; and record-breaking high …

Resurfacing Sovereignty: Who Regulates Surface Mining In Indian Country After Mcgirt?, Robin M. Rotman, Sam J. Carter

Faculty Publications

This article examines disputes over surface mining jurisdiction on the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Reservation post-McGirt and the larger implications for sovereignty and environmental justice in Indian Country that follow. Part II summarizes the history of federal, state, and tribal relations and provides an analysis of the McGirt decision and its potential impacts on natural resource issues. Part III offers an examination of jurisdictional uncertainties post-McGirt through an in-depth discussion of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act and the State of Oklahoma v. United States Department of the Interior case. Drawing from the examination of surface mining regulation, Part IV …

Regulation Weakness And Lack Of Public Awareness Has Impeded The Implementation Of Environmental Policies In Saudi Arabia, Nada Gurmalla Algamdy

Dissertations & Theses

This research aimed to substantially illustrate that the weakness of environmental regulations and lack of public participation in urban planning alongside poor public awareness in Saudi Arabia has inhibited the implementation of environmental policies across this region. To study these issues, this research compared the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (“KSA”) to the United States (“US”) building on numerous studies to illustrate how the identified weaknesses correlate with weak or ineffective environmental policies. It is well known that it would be better to use a European country “because it's known that the EU has tough environmental measures" as a model for …

Informational Regulation, The Environment, And The Public, Katrina Fischer Kuh

Marquette Law Review

Informational Regulation, the Environment, and the Public generates a typology to analyze how public disclosure functions in informational regulation. In the environmental context, informational regulation compels the public disclosure of environmental information without mandating substantive environmental outcomes in the expectation that disclosure itself will prompt beneficial change in the environmental context. Application of the Article’s typology reveals that the emperor has no clothes: Communication of environmental information to the public is considered central to policies employing informational regulation, but the information produced pursuant to these measures largely fails to reach or be understood by lay individuals. For example, empirical data …

Risk Regulation And Management Against Illegal Wildlife Trade: Europe And America, Olonyi Bosire

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

Introduction

The source or initial crime in the illegal wildlife trade chain is mostly committed beyond the shores of North America and Europe. However, the two regions continue to be massive destination markets and key transit hubs for illegal wildlife products. Illegal trade networks are shadowy and therefore problematic to study. This helps explain the wide valuation of illegal wildlife trade currently estimated by the Global Environment Facility (“GEF”) as ranging between 7 and 23 billion dollars per annum.

Policies and strategies to pre-empt or respond to illegal wildlife trade keep evolving as appreciation grows for the previously underestimated complexities, …

Underserved Communities Trashed By Plastic: Slowing The Proliferation Of Petroleum Based Products Through Stewardship Laws And Enhanced Back-End Regulatory Solutions, Joan F. Chu

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

Introduction

Plastic pollution has attracted a tremendous amount of attention and press coverage in early 2021 as evidenced in news stories; an episode of John Oliver’s show, “Last Week Tonight”; and a viral tweet from Greta Thunberg highlighting a study linking plastic pollution to human penises shrinking. These eye-catching pieces stemmed from Dr. Shanna H. Swan’s work that culminated in her book, Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race. Other articles have highlighted plastic pollution’s impact on polar bears, which causes their penis …

Rate Base The Charge Space: The Law Of Utility Ev Infrastructure Investment, Adam D. Orford

Scholarly Works

To fight climate change and support the transition to a zero-emissions transportation sector, the U.S. is setting out to build a huge fleet of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. But EV charging equipment is expensive, and how to pay for it is not straightforward. This Article explores the emerging law and policy of using the bill payments of millions of electric utility customers to solve the problem. State utility regulators, in obscure technical proceedings, have begun directing billions of ratepayer dollars toward EV chargers. Is this an unfair and risky social spending experiment, as its opponents argue? Or is it …