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Full-Text Articles in Law
Comments Submitted In Response To Request For Information To Inform Interagency Working Group On Mining Regulations, Laws, And Permitting, Robert B. Keiter, Jamie Pleune, Heather Tanana, Brigham Daniels, Tim Duane, Elisabeth Parker
Comments Submitted In Response To Request For Information To Inform Interagency Working Group On Mining Regulations, Laws, And Permitting, Robert B. Keiter, Jamie Pleune, Heather Tanana, Brigham Daniels, Tim Duane, Elisabeth Parker
Utah Law Faculty Scholarship
On March 31, 2022, the Department of Interior announced the formation of an interagency working group to develop recommendations for improving Federal hardrock mining regulations, laws, and permitting processes, and invited public comment to help inform the efforts of the working group. The Request for Information sought, among other things, recommendations on “opportunities to reduce time, cost, and risk of permitting without compromising strong environmental and consultation benchmarks.” Members of the Wallace Stegner Center of Land Resources and the Environment, at the S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah submitted comments based on their shared expertise in mining law, …
Playing The Long Game: Expediting Permitting Without Compromising Protections, Jamie Pleune
Playing The Long Game: Expediting Permitting Without Compromising Protections, Jamie Pleune
Utah Law Faculty Scholarship
The Biden Administration’s efforts to expedite a transition to clean energy have prompted calls for permit reform. Clean energy relies heavily upon critical minerals and transitioning to a clean energy economy demands a global increase in mineral production. Some commentators suggest that environmental standards must be loosened in order to achieve efficiency. This premise offers short term gain in exchange for long-term pain. It also poses a false dilemma by failing to distinguish between productive and unproductive causes of delay in the permitting process. The permit process creates opportunities to eliminate, reduce, or mitigate risks. These opportunities may cause short-term …
George Perkins Marsh: Anticipating The Anthropocene, Robin Kundis Craig
George Perkins Marsh: Anticipating The Anthropocene, Robin Kundis Craig
Utah Law Faculty Scholarship
This chapter, part of the forthcoming volume PIONEERS OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAW, explores the vision of humanity's influence on social-ecological systems that George Perkins Marsh provided to the world in his 1964 work, MAN AND NATURE, OR PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AS MODIFIED BY HUMAN ACTION, republished in 1874 as THE EARTH AS MODIFIED THROUGH HUMAN ACTION. In addition to tracing how Marsh and these publications influenced nature resources and environmental law in the United States well into the 20th century, this chapter also argues that Marsh anticipated, in many respects, the environmental legal and policy issues of the Anthropocene by tracing clearly …
Raping Indian Country, Sarah Deer, Elizabeth Kronk Warner
Raping Indian Country, Sarah Deer, Elizabeth Kronk Warner
Utah Law Faculty Scholarship
In this article, we have examined the policies of the Trump Administration as they relate to extractive development on and near Indian country, and policies related to the protection of Native people from rape and sexual assault. As demonstrated above, the Administration’s policies are likely to increase both the environmental and physical vulnerabilities of Native people. Native people will not only likely face exasperated physical insecurity, but their environments will likely be increasingly stripped on natural resources. As a result, the raping of Indian county continues. But, this article is not without hope. At least two ways forward, improvements upon …
Dealing With Climate Change Under The National Environmental Policy Act, Arnold W. Reitze Jr.
Dealing With Climate Change Under The National Environmental Policy Act, Arnold W. Reitze Jr.
Utah Law Faculty Scholarship
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was an important environmental law for several decades before climate change became an issue of concern. Beginning in the 1990s efforts began to include in NEPA’s environmental assessments and environmental impact statements both the impact of federal government actions on climate change and the impact of climate change on proposed federal actions. These efforts were encouraged by the Council on Environmental Quality. However, implementation at the agency level has been uneven. Some Federal agencies have resisted making serious efforts to incorporate climate change impacts into their decision-making process. Moreover, the courts have not been …
Reversing Course On Environmental Justice Under The Trump Administration, Uma Outka, Elizabeth Kronk Warner
Reversing Course On Environmental Justice Under The Trump Administration, Uma Outka, Elizabeth Kronk Warner
Utah Law Faculty Scholarship
This Article traces how policy reversals in the first years of the Trump Administration implicate protections for diverse, low-income communities in the context of environmental pollution and climate change. The environmental justice movement has drawn critical attention to the persistent inequality in exposure to environmental harms, tracking racial and income lines. As a result of decades of advocacy, environmental justice has become an established, if not realized, principle in environmental law. Shifting positions under the Trump Administration now undermine this progress. To illustrate, this Article uses three exemplary contexts — agency transition, environmental law implementation, and international relations on climate …