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Full-Text Articles in Energy and Utilities Law

Measuring Brief (Fossil Creek Watchers, Inc.), Lowell J. Chandler, Nathan A. Burke Nov 2018

Measuring Brief (Fossil Creek Watchers, Inc.), Lowell J. Chandler, Nathan A. Burke

Pace Environmental Law Review Online Companion

No abstract provided.


Measuring Brief (Enerprog, Llc), Mehrded Safvati, Joshua Smith, Gabriela S. Perez Nov 2018

Measuring Brief (Enerprog, Llc), Mehrded Safvati, Joshua Smith, Gabriela S. Perez

Pace Environmental Law Review Online Companion

No abstract provided.


Measuring Brief (Epa), Zachary Jones, Narayan Subramanian, Shravya Govindgari Nov 2018

Measuring Brief (Epa), Zachary Jones, Narayan Subramanian, Shravya Govindgari

Pace Environmental Law Review Online Companion

No abstract provided.


2018 Bench Memorandum Nov 2018

2018 Bench Memorandum

Pace Environmental Law Review Online Companion

No abstract provided.


2018 Competition Problem Nov 2018

2018 Competition Problem

Pace Environmental Law Review Online Companion

No abstract provided.


Western Organization Of Resource Councils V. United States Bureau Of Land Management, Seth Sivinski Oct 2018

Western Organization Of Resource Councils V. United States Bureau Of Land Management, Seth Sivinski

Public Land & Resources Law Review

To what extent must the BLM analyze potential climate change impacts where millions of acres of public lands and federal mineral estates are being considered for coal development? Western Organization of Resource Councils v. BLM addresses this, setting the scope for NEPA-mandated environmental impact analysis and reasonable alternative consideration by federal agencies. Judge Brian Morris of the District of Montana eschewed BLM’s assertions that considering climate impacts would be speculative, instead requiring BLM to acknowledge scientific reality and include modern climate science in its NEPA review analysis.


Highway Culverts, Salmon Runs, And The Stevens Treaties: A Century Of Litigating Pacific Northwest Tribal Fishing Rights, Ryan Hickey Oct 2018

Highway Culverts, Salmon Runs, And The Stevens Treaties: A Century Of Litigating Pacific Northwest Tribal Fishing Rights, Ryan Hickey

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Isaac Stevens, then Superintendent of Indian Affairs and Governor of Washington Territory, negotiated a series of treaties with Indian tribes in the Pacific Northwest during 1854 and 1855. A century and a half later in 2001, the United States joined 21 Indian tribes in filing a Request for Determination in the United States District Court for the District of Washington. Plaintiffs alleged the State of Washington had violated those 150-year-old treaties, which remained in effect, by building and maintaining culverts under roads that prevented salmon passage. This litigation eventually reached the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which held in favor …


Collaboration Through Nepa: Achieving A Social License To Operate On Federal Public Lands, Temple Stoellinger, L. Steven Smutko, Jessica M. Western Oct 2018

Collaboration Through Nepa: Achieving A Social License To Operate On Federal Public Lands, Temple Stoellinger, L. Steven Smutko, Jessica M. Western

Public Land & Resources Law Review

As demand and consumption of natural gas increases, so will drilling operations to extract the natural gas on federal public lands. Fueled by the shale gas revolution, natural gas drilling operations are now frequently taking place, not only in the highly documented urban settings, but also on federal public lands with high conservation value. The phenomenon of increased drilling in sensitive locations, both urban and remote, has sparked increased public opposition, requiring oil and gas producers to reconsider how they engage the public. Oil and gas producers have increasingly deployed the concept of a social license to operate to gain …


Public-Private Conservation Agreements And The Greater Sage-Grouse, Justin R. Pidot Oct 2018

Public-Private Conservation Agreements And The Greater Sage-Grouse, Justin R. Pidot

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In 2015, the Obama Administration announced its conservation plans for the greater sage-grouse, an iconic bird of the intermountain west.Political leadership at the time described those plans as the “largest landscape-level conservation effort in U.S. history,”and they served as the foundation for a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWS”) that a listing of the bird was not warranted under the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”). The Trump Administration appears poised to substantially amend the plans, although an array of interested parties have urged that the plans be left intact. Regardless of the outcome of this debate, conservation of …


Streamlining The Production Of Clean Energy: Proposals To Reform The Hydroelectricity Licensing Process, Travis Kavulla, Laura Farkas Oct 2018

Streamlining The Production Of Clean Energy: Proposals To Reform The Hydroelectricity Licensing Process, Travis Kavulla, Laura Farkas

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Hydroelectric power is an efficient and clean source of power. In an era when air emissions dominate public concern about the environmental effects of the energy sector, it is a paradox that among the most highly regulated energy projects are hydroelectric dams, which do not combust fuel. This is partly due to a failure of successive statutory enactments,which have transformed hydroelectric licensing from a regulatory “one-stop shop” with a single regulator, to a process chained to a bewilderingnumber of often conflicting regulatory agencies, often riven with delay. Hydroelectric licensing has also failed because its capacious standard of review encourages special-interest …


Keeping Power In Charge: Federal Hydropower And The Downstream Environment, Reed D. Benson Oct 2018

Keeping Power In Charge: Federal Hydropower And The Downstream Environment, Reed D. Benson

Public Land & Resources Law Review

No abstract provided.


Language Matters: Environmental Controversy And The Quest For Common Ground, Scott Slovic Oct 2018

Language Matters: Environmental Controversy And The Quest For Common Ground, Scott Slovic

Public Land & Resources Law Review

No abstract provided.


Center For Biological Diversity V. Zinke, Ryan Hickey Oct 2018

Center For Biological Diversity V. Zinke, Ryan Hickey

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The oft-cited “arbitrary and capricious” standard revived the Center for Biological Diversity’s most recent legal challenge in its decades-long quest to see arctic grayling listed under the Endangered Species Act. While this Ninth Circuit decision did not grant grayling ESA protections, it did require the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider its 2014 finding that listing grayling as threatened or endangered was unwarranted. In doing so, the court found “range,” as used in the ESA, vague while endorsing the FWS’s 2014 clarification of that term. Finally, this holding identified specific shortcomings of the challenged FWS finding, highlighting how …


Friends Of Animals V. United States Fish & Wildlife Service, Bradley E. Tinker Oct 2018

Friends Of Animals V. United States Fish & Wildlife Service, Bradley E. Tinker

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In Friends of Animals v. United States Fish & Wildlife Service, the Ninth Circuit held that the plain language of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act allows for the removal of one species of bird to benefit another species. Friends of Animals argued that the Service’s experiment permitting the taking of one species––the barred owl––to advance the conservation of a different species––the northern spotted owl––violated the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The court, however, found that the Act delegates broad implementing discretion to the Secretary of the Interior, and neither the Act nor the underlying international conventions limit the taking of …


Public Employees For Environmental Responsibility V. United States Epa, F. Aaron Rains Oct 2018

Public Employees For Environmental Responsibility V. United States Epa, F. Aaron Rains

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Prior to 2016, the EPA acknowledged that human activities significantly contribute to climate change. However, on March 9, 2017, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced that significant debate regarding the issue remained in the scientific community. In response to these statements, a nonprofit organization filed a FOIA request with the EPA seeking any documents or records Pruitt may have used when formulating his statements or substantiating his position. The EPA refused to comply with the request, citing undue burden and improper interrogation and this action followed. Upon review, the District Court for the District of Columbia found the plaintiff’s FOIA request …


National Association Of Manufacturers V. Department Of Defense, Summer L. Carmack Mar 2018

National Association Of Manufacturers V. Department Of Defense, Summer L. Carmack

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In an attempt to provide consistency to the interpretation and application of the statutory phrase “waters of the United States,” as used in the Clean Water Act, the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers together passed the WOTUS Rule. Unfortunately, the Rule has created more confusion than clarity, resulting in a number of lawsuits challenging substantive portions of the Rule’s language. National Association of Manufacturers v. Department of Defense did not address those substantive challenges, but instead determined whether those claims challenging the Rule must be filed in federal district courts or federal courts of appeals. In its decision, the …


Serving Pets In Poverty: A New Frontier For The Animal Welfare Movement, Amanda Arrington, Michael Markarian Feb 2018

Serving Pets In Poverty: A New Frontier For The Animal Welfare Movement, Amanda Arrington, Michael Markarian

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.


How Fast Is Too Fast? Osha’S Regulation Of The Meat Industry’S Line Speed And The Price Paid By Humans And Animals, Israel Cook Feb 2018

How Fast Is Too Fast? Osha’S Regulation Of The Meat Industry’S Line Speed And The Price Paid By Humans And Animals, Israel Cook

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.


The Farts Heard ‘Round The World: Where Cow-Tapping Falls On The International Agenda Of Sustainable Development, Alexandra C. Nolan Feb 2018

The Farts Heard ‘Round The World: Where Cow-Tapping Falls On The International Agenda Of Sustainable Development, Alexandra C. Nolan

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.


This Is Not The Bee’S Knees: A Critical View Of The Government’S Lack Of Policy To Conserve The Pollinators, Savannah Pugh Feb 2018

This Is Not The Bee’S Knees: A Critical View Of The Government’S Lack Of Policy To Conserve The Pollinators, Savannah Pugh

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.


Legislative Efforts To Increase State Management For Imperiled Species Should Be Rejected, Stephanie Kurose Feb 2018

Legislative Efforts To Increase State Management For Imperiled Species Should Be Rejected, Stephanie Kurose

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.


Anthropogenic Noise And The Endangered Species Act, Carolyn Larcom Feb 2018

Anthropogenic Noise And The Endangered Species Act, Carolyn Larcom

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.


Cruelty To Human And Nonhuman Animals In The Wild-Caught Fishing Industry, Kathy Hessler, Rebecca Jenkins, Kelly Levenda Feb 2018

Cruelty To Human And Nonhuman Animals In The Wild-Caught Fishing Industry, Kathy Hessler, Rebecca Jenkins, Kelly Levenda

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.


The “Fowl” Practice Of Humane Labeling: Proposed Amendments To Federal Standards Governing Chicken Welfare And Poultry Labeling Practices, Latravia Smith Feb 2018

The “Fowl” Practice Of Humane Labeling: Proposed Amendments To Federal Standards Governing Chicken Welfare And Poultry Labeling Practices, Latravia Smith

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

Chickens raised specifically for meat production are the world’s most intensively farmed land animals. Yet, the existing legal frameworks that regulate the production and labeling of poultry products in the United States allow poultry producers to mistreat chickens, falsely distinguish poultry products, and defraud conscious consumers. This article proposes unique opportunities to improve poultry welfare in the United States’ agricultural industry and offers methods to ensure the accurate labeling of poultry products.


Cafos: Plaguing North Carolina Communities Of Color, Christine Ball-Blakely Feb 2018

Cafos: Plaguing North Carolina Communities Of Color, Christine Ball-Blakely

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.


About Sdlp Feb 2018

About Sdlp

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.


Editor's Note, Luke Trompeter, Ingrid Lesemann Feb 2018

Editor's Note, Luke Trompeter, Ingrid Lesemann

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.


Wyoming V. Zinke, Jaclyn Van Natta Jan 2018

Wyoming V. Zinke, Jaclyn Van Natta

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In Wyoming v. Zinke, the Bureau of Land Management attempted to update a regulation governing hydraulic fracturing from the 1980s, but oil and gas industry companies opposed, and brought suit. The district court held in favor of the industry petitioners, and the Bureau of Land Management and citizen group intervenors appealed. In the wake of appeal, Donald J. Trump became President of the United States. The administration change caused the Bureau of Land Management to alter its position and align with the new administration. Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, via executive order, began rescinding the new fracking regulation, …