Law Commons^™

Environmental Law At Maryland, No. 30, Fall 2010

Environmental Law at Maryland

No abstract provided.

From Ship To Shore: Reforming The National Contingency Plan To Improve Protections For Oil Spill Cleanup Workers, Rebecca Bratspies, Alyson Flournoy, Thomas Mcgarity, Sidney A. Shapiro, Rena I. Steinzor, Matthew Shudtz

Faculty Scholarship

Eleven workers died on April 20, 2010, when the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform exploded beneath them. Since then, tens of thousands of workers have toiled under difficult conditions to stop the leak and clean up the mess. For these workers, the spill is more than an environmental and economic disaster; it poses straightforward and serious risks to their health and safety. Oil is toxic, as are the dispersants used liberally by BP to contain it. BP’s foul up is not the first significant oil spill in the nation’s history, nor even the first in the Gulf. The oil companies …

Environmental Law At Maryland, No. 29, Spring 2010

Environmental Law at Maryland

No abstract provided.

Liability For Environmental Harm And Emerging Global Environmental Law, Robert V. Percival

Faculty Scholarship

Environmental law and policy are undergoing rapid change at the global, national, and even local levels. The nations of the world continue to struggle to develop an effective global response to climate change. Transboundary pollution and resource management problems command regional attention even as nations work to upgrade their own environmental standards and their energy, transportation, and land use policies. Surprising environmental initiatives are emerging even from state and local governments.

In my previous work I have argued that globalization is affecting law and legal systems throughout the world in profound new ways. See Robert V. Percival, The Globalization of …

From The Greenhouse To The Poorhouse: Carbon Emissions Control And The Rules Of Legislative Joinder, David A. Super

Faculty Scholarship

Pending legislation to address carbon emissions would include large subsidies for existing emitters. These subsidies make little sense economically or politically. Worse, they divert resources needed to address two crucial issues that the proposed legislation largely ignores: the impact of raising carbon costs on low-income people and the massive structural federal deficit. A carbon tax or cap-and-trade system would increase costs substantially not only for transportation but for food and housing. With poverty rising even before the current economic downturn, these price increases’ consequences could be dire. The structural deficit will require deflationary tax increases or spending cuts. Combining carbon …

Regulatory Blowout: How Regulatory Failures Made The Bp Disaster Possible, And How The System Can Be Fixed To Avoid A Recurrence, Alyson Flournoy, William Andreen, Rebecca Bratspies, Holly Doremus, Victor Flatt, Robert Glicksman, Joel Mintz, Daniel Rohlf, Amy Sinden, Rena I. Steinzor, Joseph Tomain, Sandra Zellmer, James Goodwin

Faculty Scholarship

The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is destined to take its place as one of the greatest environmental disasters in the history of the United States, or for that matter, of the entire planet. Like so many other disasters on that list, it was entirely preventable.

BP must shoulder its share of the blame, of course. Similarly, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) – since reorganized and rebranded – has come under much deserved criticism for its failure to rein in BP’s avaricious approach to drilling even where it was unable to respond to a worst-case scenario in …

Corrective Lenses For Iris: Additional Reforms To Improve Epa's Integrated Risk Information System, Rena I. Steinzor, Wendy E. Wagner, Lena Pons, Matthew Shudtz

Faculty Scholarship

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) is the most important toxicological database in the world. Not only is it the single most comprehensive database of human health information about toxic substances, it also serves as a gateway to regulation, as well as to a range of public and private sector efforts to protect against toxic substances. IRIS “profiles” of individual substances include a number of scientific assessments of the substance’s toxicity to humans by various means of exposure – by inhalation, contact with the skin, and so on. Federal regulators rely on the assessments to do …

Strategies For Promoting Green Energy Innovation, Deployment, & Technology Transfer, Robert V. Percival

Faculty Scholarship

This paper surveys various strategies for promoting the development and deployment of green energy technologies.

Bike Club, Charlie Friedman, Liz Shaner, Greg Simmons, Dan Stringer

Student Environmental Law Films/Golden Tree Films

The film “Bike Club” that extols the environmental virtues of biking to school or work won a Special Judge’s Award in the school’s “Golden Tree” awards for having the best end credits. The film was produced by Charlie Friedman, Liz Shaner, Greg Simmons, and Dan Stringer.

Environmental Awareness, Adam Sharpe, Blake Baron

Student Environmental Law Films/Golden Tree Films

The film "Environmental Awareness" quizzed law students about a variety of environmental issues, demonstrating that their knowledge of current events often is laughably deficient.

Environmental Injustice, Nancy Lineman, Elsa Clausen Michels, Holly Devaser

Student Environmental Law Films/Golden Tree Films

A film about the Cherry Hill neighborhood of Baltimore and the environmental problems facing that community.

Produced by Nancy Lineman, Elsa Clausen Michels and Holly Devaser, the film won “Golden Trees” awards for Best Picture, Most Educational Film, Best Cinematography, and Best Narration.

Red Rocks, Tom Grillo, John Sipple, Ethan Weitzman

Student Environmental Law Films/Golden Tree Films

This film explores the background and issues surrounding Senate bill 799 - A bill to designate as wilderness certain Federal portions of the red rock canyons of the Colorado Plateau and the Great Basin Deserts in the State of Utah for the benefit of present and future generations of people in the United States.

Rats Are Rotten, Irene Hantman, Katie O’Malley, Jessica Rozali

Student Environmental Law Films/Golden Tree Films

The film "Rats Are Rotten” explores pest control techniques in Baltimore.

Scrap Tires, Jacquin Milhouse, Terri Morse

Student Environmental Law Films/Golden Tree Films

This film discusses the problem of how to dispose of used tires.

Somebody Call 911: Windmills Are Killing Our Birds, Jessica Raba, Bryan Ebert

Student Environmental Law Films/Golden Tree Films

The film "Somebody Call 911: Windmills Are Killing Our Birds” examines the impact of wind power on birds.

Just A Reminder, Paul Huntington

Student Environmental Law Films/Golden Tree Films

A musical exploration of the challenges of being a law student. Original music by Paul Huntington.

Six Stages In The History Of Environmental Law, Nat Keller, Sasha Millard, Emily Rohm

Student Environmental Law Films/Golden Tree Films

The film “Six Stages in the History of Environmental Law” won the University of Maryland School of Law's “Golden Tree” award for Best Use of Special Effects. Nat Keller, Sasha Millard, and Emily Rohm used moving stick figures against a backdrop of historic photos to illustrate the history of environmental law as described in Professor Percival’s casebook.

Baltimore Urban Gardening, April Morton, Betty Franky, Emily Fisher, Erin Doran, Heather Sites

Student Environmental Law Films/Golden Tree Films

The student film “Baltimore Urban Gardening” highlights the benefits of creating spaces for and using locally grown produce.

Believe, Taggart Hutchinson, Shauna Stringham, Beth Grasso, Will Tilburg

Student Environmental Law Films/Golden Tree Films

The student created film “Believe,” a parody of the notion of clean coal, won the “Golden Tree” for Best Use of Humor. Produced by Taggart Hutchinson, Shauna Stringham, Beth Grasso and Will Tilburg, the film featured Tagg showering with coal-based soap, using a coal lightbulb, and cooking with coal.

The Constitution And Our Debt To The Future, Rena I. Steinzor

Faculty Scholarship

Health and safety laws have always been justified as manifestations of congressional authority to regulate and protect the free flow of interstate commerce under Article I, section 8 of the Constitution. Professor Steinzor argues that reliance on the Commerce Clause can support next generation proposals, including a National Environmental Legacy Act proposed by Professor Alyson Flournoy, which would require that any action on federal land involving the consumption or destruction of resources must be sustainable, as well as pending climate change legislation. But, Steinzor says, a far more desirable constitutional foundation for such laws is the General Welfare Clause found …

Workers At Risk: Regulatory Dysfunction At Osha, Thomas Mcgarity, Rena I. Steinzor, Sidney A. Shapiro, Matthew Shudtz

Faculty Scholarship

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration was born with a heavy load to bear – the obligation of ensuring that every worker in America has a safe and healthful workplace for his or her entire working life. In its early years, OSHA acted with great vigor, establishing important standards for occupational health and safety that have prevented hundreds of thousands of injuries and illnesses. But the agency has not aged gracefully. Today its enforcement staff is stretched thin and the rulemaking staff struggle to produce health and safety standards that can withstand industry legal challenges. In short, OSHA is a …

Constitutional Limitations On Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations And Governmental Exactions (2010 Ed.), Garrett Power

Faculty Scholarship

This electronic book is published in a searchable PDF format as a part of the E-scholarship Repository of the University of Maryland School of Law. It is an “open content” casebook intended for classroom use in courses in Land Use Control, Environmental Law and Constitutional Law. It consists of cases carefully selected from the two hundred years of American constitutional history which address the clash between public sovereignty and private property. It considers both the personal right to liberty and the personal right in property. The text consists of non-copyrighted material and readers are free to use it or re-mix …

La Responsabilidad Por Daño Ambiental Global Y La Evolución En Las Relaciones Entre El Derecho Público Y Privado [Liability For Global Environmental Harm And The Evolving Relationship Between Public And Private Law], Robert V. Percival

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.