Law Commons^™

The Case For Corporate Climate Ratings: Nudging Financial Markets, Felix Mormann, Milica Mormann

Faculty Scholarship

Capital markets are cast as both villain and hero in the climate playbill. The trillions of dollars required to combat climate change leave ample room for heroics from the financial sector. For the time being, however, capital continues to flow readily toward fossil fuels and other carbon-intensive industries. Drawing on the results of an empirical study, this Article posits that ratings of corporate climate risk and governance can help overcome pervasive information asymmetries and nudge investors toward more climate-conscious investment choices with welfare-enhancing effects.

In the absence of a meaningful price on carbon, three private ordering initiatives are trying to …

Bahr V. Regan, Aspen B. Ward

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In June 2015, the Lake Fire burned through California’s San Bernardino National Forest. Three hundred miles east of the fire, six air quality monitors exceeded NAAQS in Phoenix, Arizona. Arizona’s Department of Environmental Quality petitioned the EPA to exclude those exceedances to avoid stricter regulatory burdens and the need for contingency measures. Applying the Exceptional Events Rule, the EPA permitted the petition to exclude the data therefore allowing Phoenix to successfully demonstrate attainment of the ozone NAAQS by the July 2018 deadline. Petitioners sought review of the EPA’s final decision and were denied their petition for review by the Ninth …

Does The Criminal Enforcement Of Federal Environmental Law Deter Environmental Crime? The Case Of The U.S. Resource Conservation And Recovery Act, Dr. Joshua Ozymy, Dr. Melissa L. Jarrell

Environmental and Earth Law Journal (EELJ)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice are tasked with the investigation and prosecution of hazardous waste crimes occurring under the U.S. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). For criminal sanctions to be effective, the probability of detection and severity of punishment must be significant enough to raise the cost to benefit ratio to deter environmental crimes. While research examines sanctioning under RCRA, little work examines the plausibility of the deterrent effect of criminal sanctions. Through content analysis of all environmental crime prosecutions resulting from EPA criminal investigations, 1983-2019, we explore the probability of detection and …

Hypocrisy On The High Seas: An Examination Of The Conflicting Policy Goals And Actions Of The International Community Regarding Illegal, Unreported, And Unregulated Fishing, Peter J. Tamburello

Environmental and Earth Law Journal (EELJ)

Fish and the fishing industry are one of the main sources of food protein and commerce in many areas of the world, whether it be from traditional and artisanal fishing practiced in Somalia and other undeveloped countries or large scale international commercial fishing from rich and industrialized nations. The world’s oceans are currently being plagued by overfishing both from legally authorized activities and Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing. The purpose of this paper is to examine the problems plaguing the world’s fisheries with an eye towards the environmental damage and economic harm that stem from it. It is also to …

The Survival Of Animal Care Organizations Impacted By The Covid-19 Pandemic In 2020, Juan Fernando Torrico

Environmental and Earth Law Journal (EELJ)

This note assessed how animal care organizations and the animals in their care were impacted, negatively and positively, by the coronavirus pandemic. Several animal care organizations in the United States–including animal shelters, rescues, sanctuaries, and zoos–were contacted directly, and invited to share their experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. They provided valuable in-depth insight into how government shutdowns and social distancing impacted their facility; if any of the animals in their care tested positive for COVID-19; how the animals in their care were affected indirectly by COVID-19; if they sought and received any government assistance to keep them operational; …

Watery Grave: One Of The Death Care Industry’S Greenest Options Is Still Illegal In Thirty-One States And That Needs To Change, Jacob Steele

Environmental and Earth Law Journal (EELJ)

Alkaline hydrolysis is an eco-friendly cremation alternative that uses water, a gentle chemical solution, and heat to break down bodies instead of fire. It has a carbon footprint that is 75% less than that of standard cremation and eliminates the possibility of soil and groundwater pollution created by traditional burials. The problem is that it is illegal and unavailable to citizens in at least 31 states. This comment examines the history, process, and legality of alkaline hydrolysis while proposing the rapid federal or mass state legalization of the method as a solution to many of the problems the death care …

Held V. State, Alec D. Skuntz

Public Land & Resources Law Review

On March 13, 2020, a group of 16 Montana children and teenagers filed a complaint in the First Judicial District, Lewis and Clark County against the State of Montana and several state agencies. These young Plaintiffs sought injunctive and declaratory relief against Defendants for their complicity in continuing to extract and release harmful amounts of greenhouse gases which contribute to climate change. Plaintiffs premised their argument on the Montana Constitution’s robust environmental rights and protections. The Defendants filed a motion to dismiss which the District Court granted in-part and denied in-part. Held provides a roadmap for future litigation by elucidating …

Solving The Unsolvable? How A Joint Development Zone Could Extinguish The Natural Gas Conflict In The Eastern Mediterranean, Kimberlyn Hughes

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Recently, the Cyprus conflict has manifested itself in the competing claims of Greek Cyprus, Turkish Cyprus, and Turkey over their maritime jurisdictions. During the past decade, the discovery of natural gas exacerbated these preexisting claim disputes. Solutions have been nonexistent due to the unwillingness of the parties to conduct multilateral negotiations or use international courts and are complicated by the fact that not all parties are signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, an instrument most countries defer to in comparable disagreements. While prior publications have proposed mechanisms that could solve maritime disputes in this …

When Fast-Tracking Slows You Down: Reconsidering Nationwide Permit 12 Use For Large-Scale Oil Pipelines, Megan Rulli

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The consumption of oil pervades everyday life in America. The network of pipelines transporting oil from field to consumer is largely invisible. Until a major news event bursts pipelines onto headlines, this indispensable and invisible system fuels the country without fanfare. At the same time, concern over global climate change has made new large-scale projects for fossil fuel extraction and consumption highly controversial. The Keystone XL (“KXL”) pipeline was originally designed to transport crude oil extracted from oil sands in Canada to the Gulf of Mexico for international export. After more than a decade of false starts, the project currently …

Park County Environmental Council V. Montana Department Of Environmental Quality, 477 P.3d 288 (Mont. 2020), Holly Seymour

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The Montana Supreme Court held in 2020 that loopholes in the Montana Environmental Procedure Act ("MEPA") review process violate Montana's constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment. The holding sets a strong precedent requiring statutory protections to prevent harm to the environment before it occurs.

When Engineering Solutions Cause Legal Problems: The Developing Field Of Reservoir Rights And Liabilities, Joseph A. Schremmer

Faculty Scholarship

For well over a decade, the pages of this Quarterly have undoubtedly been filled with discussions of cutting-edge drilling and completion technologies. This article discusses some of the problems that all these engineering solutions have caused for the law of oil and gas. It begins in Part II with a brief outline of how the law slowly develops through the common law process and illustrates how that process responds, also slowly, to rapid technological and social changes, like the unconventional hydrocarbon revolution. Part III then surveys how courts have begun to reform the legal rights and remedies in common reservoirs …

Impact Of National And Municipal Environmental Standards On The Development Of Effective Solid Waste Management Systems In Jeddah, Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia, Raed Bin Sadan

Dissertations & Theses

The following research paper analyzes the impact of national and municipal environmental standards on the development of effective Solid waste management systems in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The research is essential in ensuring that there are notable positive changes in the disposal of solid waste by both the local government and the national government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The following paper follows a strategic plan and procedure in ensuring achievement of the goal and purpose of the research. The approach used in this paper is a comparison of the current local system and a proposed improvement of …

Without A Leggett To Stand On: Arguing For Retroactive Application Of West Virginia's Amended Flat-Rate Well Statute, Adam H. Wilson

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Caperton V. A.T. Massey Coal Co.: A Ten-Year Retrospective On Its Impact On Law And The Judiciary, Amam Mcleod

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Standard Oil, Consolidated Coal, And The Roots Of The Resource Curse In West Virginia, Alison Peck

West Virginia Law Review

Despite its natural resource wealth, West Virginia today ranks last among all states in its residents’ overall sense of well-being, a puzzle that economists call “the resource curse.” Much of West Virginia’s wealth, in the form of coal, oil, and gas, left the state in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries before the state could tax it. This discouraging story was not inevitable. In 1905, a Morgantown lawyer named George C. Baker led an effort to tax coal, oil, and gas leases as personal property that nearly succeeded. Baker and his allies, Governor William M.O. Dawson and Tax Commissioner …

The Role Of Expropriation Clauses In Protection And Promotion Of Foreign Investments In Renewable Energy: An Essential But Overlooked Legal Consideration, Moosa Akefi Ghaziani, Mohammad Akefi Ghaziani

Indonesia Law Review

Today the world is tackling climate change. The global threat of energy poverty along with the growing need for energy has escalated this crisis. The promotion of renewable energy sources is widely known as the main solution to this challenge. Many International and regional agreements address various aspects of renewable energy development such as trade, transit, security, and investment. Foreign investment is recognised as a crucial prerequisite for the global deployment of renewable energy, since not all States have the financial and technological potentials to develop this sector. Various investment agreements are signed to facilitate and promote investments. These instruments …

Vecinos Para El Bienestar De La Comunidad Costera V. Ferc, Malcolm M. Gilbert

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The D.C. Circuit Court remanded three Brownsville, TX LNG approval orders to FERC for failing to adequately explain conclusions around environmental justice and climate concerns. The Court ordered FERC to reevaluate whether the projects are in the public interest. The LNG terminals and pipeline will disproportionately impact low-income, minority communities, and substantial greenhouse gas emissions from production and export will contribute to anthropogenic climate change. This case note explores the role that environmental justice and climate change play in federal agency decision-making processes, analyzes the legal framework for the Court's decision, and discusses how the outcome of this litigation could …

Carbon Accounting By Public And Private Financial Institutions: Can We Be Sure Climate Finance Is Leading To Emissions Reductions?, Martin Dietrich Brauch, Emily Spittle

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

To further and fully understand how to plan for the decarbonization of mining value chains, we need better data on carbon and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, neither consumers, corporates, or financial institutions know the embodied emissions in the products they produce or sell. While methods like life-cycle analysis and environmental product declarations exist, none use a verifiable, comparable, or widely adopted emissions reporting framework capable of sending supply chain signals.

To truly reform material supply chains, new solutions for markets, capital, and policy are required. COMET (the Coalition on Materials Emissions Transparency) – an alliance launched at Davos …

New Tech, New Deal: Mining Policy Options In The Face Of New Technology, Isabelle Ramdoo, Aaron Cosbey, Jeff Geipel, Perrine Toledano

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Throughout the history of mining, technological innovation has played a vital role across all cycles of mining projects. The new wave of technological adoption is a combination of evolutionary and revolutionary technologies, with an increasing focus on the latter. An acceleration in investments in disruptive technologies in recent years has seen the large-scale mining sector finally catching up with a dynamic that has already advanced in many other sectors. The reasons for this shift include more difficult geology, declining ore deposits, the need to reverse a secular decline in productivity, the need to improve safety for mine workers, a need …

The State Of The Oil And Natural Gas Industry In Oklahoma: The Oil And Gas Industry Moving Forward Post Mcgirt/Murphy, Kallen Burton Snodgrass

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Purpa: Bastion, Bridge, Or Bygone? Constitutional And Consumer-Generator Considerations, Lauren Watson

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Stop Pushing People Into The Pool: How Oklahoma’S Forced Pooling Laws Can Better Resemble An Open Market, Kale Hajek

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Finding Our New Normal: Reevaluating Force Majeure Within Oil And Gas Contracts In The Wake Of Covid-19, Piper Hampton

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

The Birds, The Bees, And Equitable Relief: Limitations And Restrictions On Judicial Relief Under Nepa, Through The Lens Of Lakes And Parks All. Of Minneapolis V. Fed. Transit Admin., 928 F.3d 759 (8th Cir. 2019), Wesley B. Hazen

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

That T-Rex Is Mine! A Note On The Montana Supreme Court Decision Murray V. Bej Minerals, Llc, Bryce Hayden

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Are You In Or Are You Out? An International Comparison Of Nuclear Integration Or Discontinuation, Tyler Self

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Case Note On Citgo Asphalt Refining Co. V. Frescati Shipping Co., 140 S. Ct. 1081 (2020), Yuanyuan Zhang

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Rcra And Mcgirt On Tribal Solid Waste Regulations, Jonathan W. Reiswig

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Editor's Introduction & Front Pages, Piper Hampton

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Brief For The National Stripper Well Association As Amicus Curiae, L. Ruth Fawcett Tr. V. Oil Producers, Inc. Of Kansas, Joseph A. Schremmer, Charles C. Steincamp

Faculty Scholarship

In its briefings, the Class in this appeal, in spite of the evidence, evokes the myth of a great conspiracy between operators and marketers, and it advances a theory that threatens impermissible economic and underground waste of natural gas resources. The language of the parties' oil and gas leases, on the other hand, sets up bargained-for arrangement that enables the parties to share in the benefits of stripper gas production and promotes conservation of the state's natural gas reserves.