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Full-Text Articles in Law
Considering Environmental Justice In The Decision To Unbundle Renewable Energy Certificates, Ida Martinac
Considering Environmental Justice In The Decision To Unbundle Renewable Energy Certificates, Ida Martinac
Golden Gate University Law Review
This comment discusses the current debate over whether or not to unbundle Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) and concludes that no regulatory or legislative decision can be made without careful consideration of the potential adverse environmental impacts of unbundling upon disadvantaged communities. Part I explains the concept of Distributed Generation, its history and its importance for the electrical utility industry, paying particular attention to renewable Distributed Generation. Next, it describes the role of the CPUC in the argument regarding REC bundling. This part also examines legislative efforts undertaken to deal with the evolving relationship between renewable energy generators, Distributed Generators and …
A New Story Of David And Goliath: The Alien Tort Claims Act Gives Victims Of Environmental Injustice In The Developing World A Viable Claim Against Multinational Corporations, Pauline Abadie
Golden Gate University Law Review
Part I of this Comment provides a general background highlighting the tentacular role that multinational corporations play in our "globalized" world. Part I also stresses the link between extractive industries, environmental destruction and human rights violations, and uses three cases recently brought in U.S. federal courts against multinational corporations to illustrate such linkages. Part II provides general background information regarding the ATCA, its application and circumstances of its passage. Most important, Part II discusses the general opacity surrounding the birth of the ATCA and concludes that such nebulous origins contributed to the confusion practitioners meet today in its application. Part …
Implementing Environmental Justice: The New Agenda For California State Agencies, Ellen M. Peter
Implementing Environmental Justice: The New Agenda For California State Agencies, Ellen M. Peter
Golden Gate University Law Review
The purpose of this article is to give an account of the commencement of the regulatory process to achieve environmental justice and to highlight some of the issues presented to the Davis administration. Preliminarily, some background is required for context. The achievement of environmental justice does not start on a fresh slate. Federal statutes and federal executive initiatives impose separate legal requirements. These federal mandates both require actions by California state agencies and provide guidance on how to interpret the new California statutes. Thus, this article begins with an account of the legal and historical development of the concept of …
Environmental Justice Enforcement Requires Reassessment Under The Equal Protection Clause, Title Vi Of The Civil Rights Act, And Environmental Statutes, Kenneth Owen
Golden Gate University Law Review
This article will suggest what is required to prevail under the purposeful discrimination standard under the Equal Protection Clause and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Interestingly, no equal protection environmental justice case or Title VI action has been presented to a jury charged with determining the factual issue of intent. The author will next explore the possibility of winning environmental justice cases under the citizen suit provisions that are part of most environmental statutes. Lastly, the author will suggest arguments to possible defenses that might be raised by defendants.
What Is Good For The Market, Can Be Bad For The Health: Emissions Trading Under Scaqmd's Rule 1610 And The Unjust Environmental Effects, Rachel Brasso Razon
What Is Good For The Market, Can Be Bad For The Health: Emissions Trading Under Scaqmd's Rule 1610 And The Unjust Environmental Effects, Rachel Brasso Razon
Golden Gate University Law Review
This Comment examines the development of both the environmental justice movement and the traditional environmental movement. It also describes the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) and its application of a market-based incentive program known as "emissions trading." This section explains SCAQMD's Old-Vehicle Scrapping Rule 1610 (Rule 1610) and Rule 1610's failure to address environmental justice issues. Section III examines the disparate effects of the program on minority communities. Section IV critiques the way in which oil companies were permitted to use Rule 1610 and how their use resulted in such disparate effects. Finally, Section V proposes that emissions …
Doling Out Environmental Justice To Nicaraguan Banana Workers: The Jose Adolfo Tellez V. Dole Food Company Litigation In The U.S. Courts, Armin Rosencranz, Stephen Roblin, Nicole Balloffet
Doling Out Environmental Justice To Nicaraguan Banana Workers: The Jose Adolfo Tellez V. Dole Food Company Litigation In The U.S. Courts, Armin Rosencranz, Stephen Roblin, Nicole Balloffet
Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal
In this article, we will explore the circumstances that led to this landmark ruling and verdict in Los Angeles, how Judge Chaney’s rulings changed the trajectory of the case, the recent developments concerning fraud by at least one U.S. lawyer, and how all of these factors might impact the future practices of transnational corporations.
The People Down The Hill: Parks Equity In San Francisco's East Bay, Paul Stanton Kibel
The People Down The Hill: Parks Equity In San Francisco's East Bay, Paul Stanton Kibel
Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal
The public parkland system managed by the East Bay Regional Park District (East Bay Parks) is impressive in its geographic scope. It covers nearly 100,000 acres of land in Alameda and Contra Costa counties east of San Francisco, with 55 separate units comprising 14 Regional Parks, 19 Regional Preserves, 9 Regional Recreation Areas and 13 Regional Shorelines. The acreage under East Bay Parks’ jurisdiction constitutes the largest regional metropolitan regional park system in the United States. In selecting East Bay Parks as an initial focus of environmental justice inquiry, this article is mindful that East Bay Parks is only one …
Highway To Health: Exploring Legal Avenue To Connecting General Plans And Public Health Standards In California, E. Jacob Lubarsky
Highway To Health: Exploring Legal Avenue To Connecting General Plans And Public Health Standards In California, E. Jacob Lubarsky
Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal
This Article first gives background on the health crisis facing those living in low-income urban centers. As the general plan for a city or county is the most comprehensive planning document required by California law, this Article next explains the process surrounding the formulation of general plans, what may and what must be contained in a city or county’s general plan, and how courts should broadly interpret mandatory elements in a general plan to include public health standards. Part III addresses the legal obstacles to requiring public health concerns to be considered in planning, and possible strategies for obtaining court-ordered …
Strategies For Implementing The Environmental Justice Vision, Clifford Rechtschaffen
Strategies For Implementing The Environmental Justice Vision, Clifford Rechtschaffen
Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Endless Exemptions: An Environmental Justice Critique Of The Ongoing Use Of Methyl Bromide, Laura Kent-Monning
Endless Exemptions: An Environmental Justice Critique Of The Ongoing Use Of Methyl Bromide, Laura Kent-Monning
Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal
This Comment is an environmental justice critique of the ongoing use of methyl bromide. Part I provides an overview of methyl bromide, the Montreal Protocol, the CAA, and the Executive Order on Environmental Justice. Part II critiques the system of CUEs by arguing that the ongoing use of methyl bromide, facilitated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), places an undue burden on minority and low income communities and, therefore, violates the Executive Order on Environmental Justice. In addition, Part II illustrates other instances in which the EPA has violated the Executive Order; argues that the CUE system violates the environmental …
Warren County's Legacy For Mexico's Border Maquiladoras, Amelia Simpson
Warren County's Legacy For Mexico's Border Maquiladoras, Amelia Simpson
Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal
This Article explores the legacy of the U.S. environmental justice movement for the U.S.-Mexico border region. Part I introduces the case of Metales y Derivados, an abandoned, U.S.-owned maquiladora factory in Tijuana, Mexico, and the community’s struggle to compel cleanup of toxic waste at the site. In the context of environmental justice, Metales y Derivados illustrates a complex intersection of histories and cultures, international trade policy, and movement building. Part II discusses how racism, a defining element of the environmental justice movement, is often minimized and even denied in Latin America, despite studies documenting its persistence. Part III examines obstacles …
Warren County's Legacy For Healthy Parks, Schools And Communities: From The Cornfield To El Congreso And Beyond, Robert Garcia, Aubrey White
Warren County's Legacy For Healthy Parks, Schools And Communities: From The Cornfield To El Congreso And Beyond, Robert Garcia, Aubrey White
Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal
This Article traces the impact of the struggle for the Cornfield on the creation of other great urban parks, resource bonds, the greening of the Los Angeles River, and evolving efforts to achieve equity in the distribution of public resources. Part II presents a vision for a comprehensive and coherent web of public spaces, including parks, school fields, rivers, beaches, mountains, and forests, that will enhance human health and economic vitality for all the people of the Southern California region, with lessons for regions across the country. Part III describes lessons learned from raising funds for parks through resource bonds. …
Sb 115: California's Response To Environmental Justice - Process Over Substance, Caroline Farrell
Sb 115: California's Response To Environmental Justice - Process Over Substance, Caroline Farrell
Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal
This article discusses California’s development of an institutional framework for addressing environmental justice through the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (“OPR”) and the California Environmental Protection Agency (“Cal/EPA”). It will demonstrate the ways these agencies’ foci have been on coordination as well as formulating guidelines. Further, the article’s purpose is to point out that while these guidelines provide important tools for environmental justice advocates, they do not provide any substantive guarantees that disproportionate impacts will not occur in communities of color and low income populations.
Warren County's Legacy For Federal And State Environmental Impact Assessment Laws, Anhthu Hoang
Warren County's Legacy For Federal And State Environmental Impact Assessment Laws, Anhthu Hoang
Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal
The first part of this article discusses the modern environmental-quality review process at the federal and state levels, starting with a summary of the National Environmental Policy Act and then California’s and New York’s approaches. This is followed by a brief discussion of how each entity addresses environmental justice. The second part describes one community’s difficulties in meeting the required evidentiary showing to demonstrate environmental injustice.
Warren County's Legacy For The Quest To Eliminate Health Disparities, Charles Lee
Warren County's Legacy For The Quest To Eliminate Health Disparities, Charles Lee
Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal
At least two paradigm shifts have revolutionized the field of environmental health since Rachel Carson’s day. One occurred when environmental health encountered civil rights, forming the environmental justice movement. We are in the midst of the second, as environmental health reunited with architecture and urban planning. Significantly, these two paradigm shifts are converging. This article will examine how this convergence is taking place, and its significant implications for efforts to achieve environmental justice, community health and sustainability, and the elimination of health disparities.
Title Vi And The Warren County Protests, Bradford Mank
Title Vi And The Warren County Protests, Bradford Mank
Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal
One part of the 1982 civil rights struggle against building a Polychlorinated Biphenyls (“PCB”) landfill in Warren County, North Carolina, was an unsuccessful suit by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (“NAACP”) under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act . The NAACP alleged that the state of North Carolina, a recipient of United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA” or “the Agency”) funds, had discriminated against minorities by building the landfill in Warren County, which had the highest percentage of minorities among all the counties in the state, while ignoring several alternative suitable or superior sites …
Warren County And The Birth Of A Movement: The Troubled Marriage Between Environmentalism And Civil Rights, Veronica Eady
Warren County And The Birth Of A Movement: The Troubled Marriage Between Environmentalism And Civil Rights, Veronica Eady
Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal
The protests at Warren County, North Carolina, in the early 1980s led to several critical, galvanizing events in the history of the environmental justice movement. This article suggests that the environmental justice movement — while often characterized as a marriage between the environmental and civil rights movements — has adopted key facets of both movements. The 1990 letter to the so-called “Big 10” marked an evolutionary point that has led the environmental justice movement to establish valuable alliances with some mainstream environmental groups. Additionally, the article suggests from a jurisprudential perspective that civil rights laws in that same period failed …
Environmental Justice Comes Full Circle: Warren County Before And After, Dollie Burwell, Luke W. Cole
Environmental Justice Comes Full Circle: Warren County Before And After, Dollie Burwell, Luke W. Cole
Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal
This article/remembrance chronicles the Warren County struggle. It begins before the protests that thrust it into the national spotlight, examining the factors that led to the struggle in the first place. It touches on the protests themselves, and then recounts part of the Warren County story that is not well known: the ultimate detoxification of the polychlorinated biphenyls (“PCBs”) site. Finally, it examines the legacy of the Warren County struggle, both nationally and locally in the county itself. In places, it self-consciously departs from the third person to describe in first person narrative (presented in the italicized portions of the …