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Full-Text Articles in Law

Can't You Smell That Smell? Clean Air Act Fixes For Factory Farm Air Pollution, J. Nicholas Hoover Jan 2013

Can't You Smell That Smell? Clean Air Act Fixes For Factory Farm Air Pollution, J. Nicholas Hoover

Student Articles and Papers

Massive facilities that keep large numbers of livestock have overtaken small, independent farms as the primary source of meat, eggs, and dairy in the United States. These concentrated animal feeding operations ("CAFOs) compare more to industrial manufacturing operations than to traditional farms, and emit huge quantities of air pollutants that are harmful to public health, sickening people and damaging the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") possesses statutorily provided tools under the Clean Air Act that it uses to regular other polluting industries. However, this article - after reviewing the rise of CAFOs, examining the threats they pose, and surveying …


Writing A Check That The State Can't Cash: Water Pollution From Coal Mining And The Imminent And Inevitable Failure Of The West Virginia Special Reclamation Fund, Sarah J. Surber Jan 2013

Writing A Check That The State Can't Cash: Water Pollution From Coal Mining And The Imminent And Inevitable Failure Of The West Virginia Special Reclamation Fund, Sarah J. Surber

Applied Safety & Technology Faculty Research

After decades of financial decadence and total dominance over political processes, coal companies have hit desperate times. Cheap, abundant natural gas recently emerged, driving demand for coal for energy production and coal prices down. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally moved to more stringent emissions limitations for coal-fired power plants under the Clean Air Act. Concurrently, the public demanded improvements in safety technology after several tragic mining accidents resulted from lax safety measures and a corporate culture of recklessness. During this time, environmental citizen groups worked to ensure that mining companies no longer violated the Clean Water Act …


Administrative Proxies For Judicial Review: Building Legitimacy From The Inside-Out, David L. Markell, Emily Hammond Jan 2013

Administrative Proxies For Judicial Review: Building Legitimacy From The Inside-Out, David L. Markell, Emily Hammond

Scholarly Publications

Judicial review is considered an indispensable legitimizer of the administrative state. Not only is it a hallmark feature of the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”), but the various standards of review reinforce democratic norms, promote accountability, and act as a check against arbitrariness. Unreviewable agency actions, therefore, must find their legitimacy elsewhere. This article evaluates the promise of “inside-out” legitimacy as an alternative or complement to judicial review. We theorize, based on insights from the administrative law and procedural justice literatures, that administrative process design can do much to advance legitimacy without the need to rely on judicial review to check …


A "Blunt Withdrawal"? Bars On Citizen Suits For Toxic Site Cleanup, Margot J. Pollans Jan 2013

A "Blunt Withdrawal"? Bars On Citizen Suits For Toxic Site Cleanup, Margot J. Pollans

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Throughout the history of federal statutory environmental law, citizen suits have played a key role in enforcement. Through statutory interpretation, however, courts have narrowed the circumstances under which citizens can sue. This Article explores one such restraint: Courts have severely limited citizen suits under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (“RCRA”) by reading very broadly a jurisdiction-stripping provision of RCRA's companion statute, the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (“CERCLA”). This Article argues that courts have read that provision too broadly, not only violating traditional principles for resolving inter-statutory conflict but also undermining the purposes of both statutes by …