Law Commons^™

Environmental Benefits And The Notion Of Positive Environmental Justice, Colin Crawford

Publications

Following the introductory section, the Article is divided into three parts. The first portion of Part 1 will chart the relatively thin case made in the U.S. literature for what this Article labels "positive environmental justice." The second section in Part 1 then looks outside the United States and analyzes an important and relatively recent decision of the Colombian Constitutional Court. The Colombian decision, which affirmed the constitutional and other international and domestic law rights of native and Afro- Colombian peoples in that country to make decisions regarding the use and exploitation of the nation's abundant forests," provides a nuanced …

Regulatory Impact Analyses Of Environmental Justice Effects, Spencer Banzhaf

ECON Publications

Recently, the US EPA has pledged to incorporate environmental justice considerations "into the fabric" of its rulemaking procedures. But finding an appropriate way to incorporate environmental justice considerations into policy-making has been a procedural challenge since President Clinton issued Executive Order 12898 over 15 years ago. In particular, environmental justice concerns tend to be overshadowed by efficiency considerations as embodied in benefit-cost analysis. Yet at the same time, both Presidents Obama and Clinton have issued orders to incorporate distributional and equity considerations into benefit-cost analysis, as well as the standard efficiency considerations.

This article argues that the environmental justice and …

New York's Revived Power Plant Siting Law Preempts Local Control, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

Taking most observers by surprise, the New York State Legislature on June 22, 2011, overwhelmingly passed The Power NY Act of 2011. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed it on Aug. 4. The new law revives Article X of the Public Service Law after a nearly nine-year hibernation. As before, the law creates a one-stop, state-led program for permitting electric generating facilities while preempting local requirements. But the new Article X differs from its predecessor in several important ways: It covers facilities as small as 25 megawatts (down from the prior 80 megawatts threshold), it has even more generous provisions for funding …