Law Commons^™

Rural Bashing, Kaceylee Klein, Lisa R. Pruitt

University of Richmond Law Review

Anti-rural sentiment is expressed in the United States in three major threads. The first is a narrative about the political structure of our representative democracy—an assertion that rural people are over-represented thanks to the structural features of the U.S. Senate and the Electoral College. Because rural residents are less than a fifth of the U.S. population, complaints about this situation are often framed as “minority rule.”

The second thread is related to the first: rural people and their communities get more than their fair share from federal government coffers. The argument, often expressed in terms of “subsidies,” is that rural …

Those Who Need The Most, Get The Least: The Challenge Of, And Opportunity For Helping Rural Virginia, Andrew Block, Antonella Nicholas

University of Richmond Law Review

Rural America, as has been well documented, faces many challenges. Businesses and people are migrating to more urban and suburban regions. The extraction and agricultural economies that once helped them thrive—mining, tobacco, textiles—are dying. And, as we discuss below, residents of rural communities tend to be older, poorer, less credentialed in terms of their education, less healthy, and declining in population.

On a regular basis, political leaders on both sides of the aisle, and on national and state levels, make commitments to rural areas to help improve the quality of life for residents, to listen, and to help. Even with …

Foreword: Toward A New Compact With Rural America, Anthony F. Pipa

University of Richmond Law Review

The interpretation of United States laws and policies, and the extent to which they obstruct or support rural places and people to take advantage of opportunity, are at the nexus of our nation’s ability to reweave the social fabric and create a new compact between its rural areas and the rest of the country. It requires recognizing our interdependencies, our mutual interests, and our shared humanity. The Articles contained herein get us started—it is incumbent that we build on these contributions to take their ideas forward and provoke new and constructive policy debates.

Avoiding The Catch-22: Reforming The Renewable Fuel Standard To Protect Freshwater Resources And Promote Energy Independence, Leah Stiegler

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Hydraulic Fracturing And The Baseline Testing Of Groundwater, Keith B. Hall

University of Richmond Law Review

This article discusses some of the legal and practical issues relating to baseline testing of groundwater and the rules designed to encourage or require such testing. Part I of the article discusses basic background material why this issue is important, what fracturing is and why it is used, the basic types of fracturing, why it can be challenging to determine the cause of alleged contamination, and why baseline testing might help. Part II examines different approaches to increasing the use of baseline testing, including regulations that require such testing and legislation that creates presumptions that provide incentives to conduct such …

Oil And Gas And Floods, Justin Pidot

University of Richmond Law Review

This symposium article has three goals. First, it seeks to draw attention to the pressing risks that natural disasters pose to energy infrastructure. It focuses on one type of natural disaster flooding and one variety of energy infrastructure-oil and natural gas. Natural disasters do not, however, discriminate and also pose broad risks to energy systems of all stripes. Second, the article seeks to provide examples of existing federal and state legal regimes that address to some extent the dangers floods pose to the oil and gas industry. As we shall see, the regulatory regimes I address are sparse and hardly …

Energy Versus Water: The Growing Role Of Water In Controlling Energy Decisions, Andrea West Wortzel

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Carbon Capture And Storage: An Option For Helping To Meet Growing Global Energy Demand While Countering Climate Change, Victor K. Der

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Offshore Windfall: What Approval Of The United States' First Offshore Wind Project Means For The Offshore Wind Energy Industry, Michael P. Giordano

University of Richmond Law Review

This comment explores the Cape Wind project with an emphasis on its role as the first United States offshore wind energy project. Part II of this comment explains the potential energy resource that offshore wind provides and examines some of the economic, technological, and regulatory challenges facing the development of offshore wind projects in United States waters. Part III of this comment introduces the Cape Wind project as a case study by briefly describing the particular political struggles and permitting challenges faced by its developers. Part IV of this comment analyzes how DOI approval and the eventual construction of Cape …

Environmental Law, Dana C. Nifosi

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Tragedy Of The Commons: The Case Of The Blue Crab, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

The blue crab has achieved iconic status throughout the Chesapeake Bay area, while the pugnacious crustacean and the majestic estuary are national treasures. The shallow waters provide optimal habitat for the species that has been deeply woven into the bay's economic and cultural fabric. Last year, after a respected committee ascertained that the crab was in jeopardy, anticipated future deterioration, and proffered extreme recommendations, Virginia and Maryland imposed draconian strictures which could reduce harvests by one third and help ameliorate the creature's depletion. A recent Executive Order, ambitiously designed by President Barack Obama to safeguard and restore the Chesapeake, illuminates …

Public Utility Law, Brian R. Greene, Katharine A. Hart

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

My Two Cents Per Kilowatt-Hour: Virginia's Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard, Justin W. Curtis

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Environmental Law, Brooks Meredith Smith, Andrea West Wortzel

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative And California Assembly Bill 1493: Filling The American Greenhouse Gas Regulation Void, Michael H. Wall

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

New Orleans, The Chesapeake, And The Future Of Environmental Assessment: Overcoming The Natural Resources Law Of Unintended Consequences, Eric Ryan

University of Richmond Law Review

This article tells the stories of the disappearing wetlands ringing the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and the Chesapeake Bay of Virginia and Maryland, which are vanishing under different circumstances but bear the same message for environmental policy makers: more sophisticated natural resource planning is required to avoid the unanticipated consequences that can cause even wellintended policies to backfire. The stories suggest that a model of environmental assessment that better tracks the complex network characteristics of regional ecosystems would yield better long-term results, and this article proposes a network-based model that expands the lateral, temporal, and causal analysis of conventional environmental …

Amending Perpetual Conservation Easements: A Case Study Of The Myrtle Grove Controversy, Nancy A. Mclaughlin

University of Richmond Law Review

This article explores the issue of amending perpetual conservation easements by examining the Myrtle Grove controversy, in which the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States (the "National Trust")" "conceptually approved" a request made by a successor owner of land encumbered by a perpetual conservation easement to substantially amend the easement. Several months later, as a result of public opposition to the amendments and a reassessment of its position, the National Trust withdrew that approval. The owner of the encumbered land subsequently filed a suit for breach of contract, and the National Trust and the Attorney General of …

Rapanos, Carabell, And The Isolated Man, Joel B. Eisen

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Checking In On The Chesapeake: Some Questions Of Design, Jonathan Cannon

University of Richmond Law Review

The Chesapeake Bay Program ("the CBP" or "Program") has been widely celebrated as a model of collaborative management for large multijurisdictional watersheds and for ecosystem management more generally.' In an article published six years ago, I joined in the celebration.2 But recent events warrant consideration of whether restructuring of the program is called for. In this essay, I consider whether greater centralization of decisionmaking for the Bay would address recent criticisms of the Program and better protect the public interest. After evaluating two alternative forms for the Program involving greater centralization, I conclude that major restructuring is not in order. …

Environmental Law, Lisa Spickler Goodwin

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Natural Resources And The White Commission Report, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Individuals and entities with concerns regarding environmental issues as well as those concerned about the federal judicial system have carefully followed the debate over the possible division of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that has been raging since 1995. During the first session of the 105th Congress, the Senate approved an appropriations rider, which would have established a new Twelfth Circuit including Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands, and would have left California and Nevada in the Ninth Circuit. That action was very important because neither house of …

Remarks Of The Secretary Of Natural Resources At Environmental Virginia '98, April 2, 1998, John Paul Woodley Jr.

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

As Attorney General, Jim Gilmore delivered on his commitment to foster a strong and healthy environment through responsible stewardship of our natural resources. Today, I reaffirm Governor Gilmore's commitment. I want to focus our particular attention on the Governor's number one environmental priority - improving the quality of our Commonwealth's great waters.

Remarks Of The Secretary Of Natural Resources At Environmental Virginia '98, April 2, 1998, John Paul Woodley Jr.

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

As Attorney General, Jim Gilmore delivered on his commitment to foster a strong and healthy environment through responsible stewardship of our natural resources. Today, I reaffirm Governor Gilmore's commitment. I want to focus our particular attention on the Governor's number one environmental priority - improving the quality of our Commonwealth's great waters.

Northern Rockies Report On 1994 Natural Resources Legislation, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

I want to report on certain political developments in the Big Sky states which will help to illuminate why 1994 was such a dismal year for national legislation relating to Montana natural resources by emphasizing the ongoing wilderness debate. Representative Pat Williams (D-Mont.), who fist won election to the House of Representatives in 1978, developed, introduced and skillfully shepherded through the House a wilderness bill that would have created approximately 1.7 million acres of new wilderness. The legislation would also have released much land for multiple use, particularly for resource development, and would have designated considerable additional acreage for further …

Fact, Fiction, And Forest Service Appeals, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

People who live in the western United States have long considered the United States Forest Service to be a mammoth, hierarchical bureaucracy. The Forest Service has responsibility for managing the national forests, which in some western states comprise substantial components of the total land base. The Forest Service administers the national forests pursuant to numerous congressional mandates. Perhaps the most important and most difficult task that Congress has assigned the Forest Service is to manage the national forests for multiple uses, including resource (timber, mineral, oil and gas) extraction, recreation, fish and wildlife, and water quality. Implementation of this multiple-use …