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Full-Text Articles in Law

U.S. Forest Service V. Cowpasture River Preservation Ass'n., Taylor A. Simpson Sep 2020

U.S. Forest Service V. Cowpasture River Preservation Ass'n., Taylor A. Simpson

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of the United States Forest Service and Atlantic Coast Pipeline, LLC, a company who planned to construct a natural gas pipeline under a section of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail within the George Washington National Forest. The legal battle sought to clarify whether the United States Forest Service had the authority to grant the pipeline builder a right-of-way across the Appalachian Trail. The Court ruled that the National Park Service holds an easement for administering the Appalachian Trail, but the land over which the trail crosses remains under the jurisdiction of the …


This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is Mined Land: Expanding Governmental Ownership Liability Under Cercla, Kiersten E. Holms Jun 2019

This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is Mined Land: Expanding Governmental Ownership Liability Under Cercla, Kiersten E. Holms

Washington and Lee Law Review

Part II of this Note begins by providing a brief overview of the background and goals of CERCLA. Part II also provides an examination of the issue of ownership liability under CERCLA and recounts the federal courts’ difficulty in applying ownership liability. Part II then describes how the federal government’s “bare legal title” argument arose out of the confusion surrounding ownership liability in CERCLA litigation. Part III moves on to examine the recent trend in CERCLA litigation rejecting the federal government’s bare legal title argument, thus holding the federal government liable as an owner based on its possession of legal …


Highway Culverts, Salmon Runs, And The Stevens Treaties: A Century Of Litigating Pacific Northwest Tribal Fishing Rights, Ryan Hickey Oct 2018

Highway Culverts, Salmon Runs, And The Stevens Treaties: A Century Of Litigating Pacific Northwest Tribal Fishing Rights, Ryan Hickey

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Isaac Stevens, then Superintendent of Indian Affairs and Governor of Washington Territory, negotiated a series of treaties with Indian tribes in the Pacific Northwest during 1854 and 1855. A century and a half later in 2001, the United States joined 21 Indian tribes in filing a Request for Determination in the United States District Court for the District of Washington. Plaintiffs alleged the State of Washington had violated those 150-year-old treaties, which remained in effect, by building and maintaining culverts under roads that prevented salmon passage. This litigation eventually reached the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which held in favor …


Collaboration Through Nepa: Achieving A Social License To Operate On Federal Public Lands, Temple Stoellinger, L. Steven Smutko, Jessica M. Western Oct 2018

Collaboration Through Nepa: Achieving A Social License To Operate On Federal Public Lands, Temple Stoellinger, L. Steven Smutko, Jessica M. Western

Public Land & Resources Law Review

As demand and consumption of natural gas increases, so will drilling operations to extract the natural gas on federal public lands. Fueled by the shale gas revolution, natural gas drilling operations are now frequently taking place, not only in the highly documented urban settings, but also on federal public lands with high conservation value. The phenomenon of increased drilling in sensitive locations, both urban and remote, has sparked increased public opposition, requiring oil and gas producers to reconsider how they engage the public. Oil and gas producers have increasingly deployed the concept of a social license to operate to gain …


Public-Private Conservation Agreements And The Greater Sage-Grouse, Justin R. Pidot Oct 2018

Public-Private Conservation Agreements And The Greater Sage-Grouse, Justin R. Pidot

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In 2015, the Obama Administration announced its conservation plans for the greater sage-grouse, an iconic bird of the intermountain west.Political leadership at the time described those plans as the “largest landscape-level conservation effort in U.S. history,”and they served as the foundation for a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWS”) that a listing of the bird was not warranted under the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”). The Trump Administration appears poised to substantially amend the plans, although an array of interested parties have urged that the plans be left intact. Regardless of the outcome of this debate, conservation of …


Streamlining The Production Of Clean Energy: Proposals To Reform The Hydroelectricity Licensing Process, Travis Kavulla, Laura Farkas Oct 2018

Streamlining The Production Of Clean Energy: Proposals To Reform The Hydroelectricity Licensing Process, Travis Kavulla, Laura Farkas

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Hydroelectric power is an efficient and clean source of power. In an era when air emissions dominate public concern about the environmental effects of the energy sector, it is a paradox that among the most highly regulated energy projects are hydroelectric dams, which do not combust fuel. This is partly due to a failure of successive statutory enactments,which have transformed hydroelectric licensing from a regulatory “one-stop shop” with a single regulator, to a process chained to a bewilderingnumber of often conflicting regulatory agencies, often riven with delay. Hydroelectric licensing has also failed because its capacious standard of review encourages special-interest …


Where Do We Go From Here: The Federal Coal Leasing Amendments Act--Past, Present, And Future, Sam Kalen Jun 1996

Where Do We Go From Here: The Federal Coal Leasing Amendments Act--Past, Present, And Future, Sam Kalen

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.


Current Issues Relating To Emergency Federal Coal Leasing, David B. Pariser Apr 1987

Current Issues Relating To Emergency Federal Coal Leasing, David B. Pariser

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.


Coal Policy--Need It Be The West Against The Rest?, C. Peter Goplerud Iii, Duffy Ruimerman Oct 1981

Coal Policy--Need It Be The West Against The Rest?, C. Peter Goplerud Iii, Duffy Ruimerman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article will analyze the legal issues involved in this "West against the rest" conflict. While numerous areas of disagreement exist within the larger picture of Western-federal relations, the Article will focus on two specific issues of present concern. First, the Article will explore the role of the states under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. This section includes an analysis of recent litigation involving regulations promulgated by the Secretary of the Interior relating to the establishment of state mining programs. Second, the Article will address the imposition of state severance taxes on coal, with particular emphasis …


A New Program For The Management Of Federal Coal Reserves, Guy R. Martin Jun 1980

A New Program For The Management Of Federal Coal Reserves, Guy R. Martin

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Federal Coal Leasing Waltz, Brian E. Mcgee, Gerald E. Dahl Jun 1978

The Federal Coal Leasing Waltz, Brian E. Mcgee, Gerald E. Dahl

West Virginia Law Review

Few Americans will deny that if we are not already immersed in an energy crisis, we are at least on the brink of a very serious energy crunch. Consequently, it is critical that we reassess our present and future energy resources, our escalating consumption of finite reserves, and. our commitment to energy conservation. Pivotal to such an assessment is the development of our nation's vast western coal deposits and the vital part that federal coal can play in this tableau. Just one short year ago, the nation was primed to embark upon a new era of federal coal leasing as …


Mining Claims: The Nemesis Of Federal Land Management, Raymond W. Haman Mar 1956

Mining Claims: The Nemesis Of Federal Land Management, Raymond W. Haman

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Pooling And Unitization Of Oil And Gas Leases, A. Allen King Jan 1948

Pooling And Unitization Of Oil And Gas Leases, A. Allen King

Michigan Law Review

Not so many years ago the oil industry faced utter collapse and ruin, a situation brought on by operations under legal rules developed in the early days of the industry when knowledge of the physical characteristics of oil and gas and their underground reservoirs was limited as compared with present day knowledge. In the late 1920's and early 1930's discoveries of great new oil fields that were developed and operated under the Rule of Capture and the Offset Drilling Rule caused a flood of oil on a market unable to absorb it. This not only had an adverse effect upon …


Taxation-Exemption Of Sovereign Instrumentality-Effect Of Imposing Tax Nov 1930

Taxation-Exemption Of Sovereign Instrumentality-Effect Of Imposing Tax

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff corporation brought suit against the collector of internal revenue for federal income taxes paid under protest. The taxes were assessed upon the net income derived from the sale of oil and gas produced on lands which the plaintiff held under lease from the state of Texas. A legislative act provided for the leasing of the lands to further the development of their natural resources, the lessees paying a royalty on oil and gas. The statutory leases had been previously held to constitute a sale of the minerals. Theisen v. Robison, 117 Tex. 489, 8 S.W. (2d) 646. The statute …