Natural Resources Law Commons^™

The Mexican Petroleum License Of 2013: A Step To The Past To Bring Mexico Into The Present And The Grounds For An Uncertain Future, Guillermo Garcia Sanchez

Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

The Footprint Of The Chinese Petro-Dragon: The Future Of Investment Law In Transboundary Resources, Guillermo Garcia Sanchez

Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

The Fine Print Of The Mexican Energy Reform, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

Five years ago, when Mexico transformed its energy sector, most commentators were worried about the government’s capacity to implement the reform. What would the upstream contracts look like? Would the auctions be transparent? How would international companies react? After two successful auction rounds, 107 signed contracts, and the creation of viable regulatory agencies to manage and monitor the reform agenda, the questions have changed. Today, Mexico’s capacity to implement energy reforms and attract foreign investment is no longer in doubt. Today, the most pressing questions about the reform concern its long-term sustainability. Can it survive the Mexican electoral cycles? Will …

Tthe Requirement Of Domestic Participation In New Mining Ventures In Zambia, Muna Ndulo

Muna B Ndulo

No abstract provided.

Introduction, G. Emlen Hall

G Emlen Hall

No abstract provided.

Introduction, G. Emlen Hall

G Emlen Hall

No abstract provided.

Access To Justice And Corporate Accountability: A Legal Case Study Of Hudbay In Guatemala, Shin Imai, Bernadette Maheandiran, Valerie Crystal

Shin Imai

This case study looks at the avenues open for addressing serious allegations of murder, rape and assault brought by indigenous Guatemalans against a Canadian mining company, HudBay Minerals. While first-generation legal and development policy reforms have facilitated foreign mining in Guatemala, second-generation reforms have failed to address effectively conflicts arising from the development projects. The judicial mechanisms available in Guatemala are difficult to access and suffer from problems of corruption and intimidation. Relevant corporate social responsibility policies and mechanisms lack the necessary enforcement powers. Canadian courts have been reluctant to permit lawsuits against Canadian parent companies; however, in Choc v. …

Gandhi’S Prophecy: Corporate Violence And A Mindful Law For Bhopal, Nehal A. Patel

Nehal A. Patel

AbstractOver thirty years have passed since the Bhopal chemical disaster began,and in that time scholars of corporate social responsibility (CSR) havediscussed and debated several frameworks for improving corporate responseto social and environmental problems. However, CSR discourse rarelydelves into the fundamental architecture of legal thought that oftenbuttresses corporate dominance in the global economy. Moreover, CSRdiscourse does little to challenge the ontological and epistemologicalassumptions that form the foundation for modern economics and the role ofcorporations in the world.I explore methods of transforming CSR by employing the thought ofMohandas Gandhi. I pay particular attention to Gandhi’s critique ofindustrialization and principle of swadeshi (self-sufficiency) …

Antimonopoly In Public Land Law, Michael Blumm, Kara Tebeau

Michael Blumm

Public land law is often thought to be divided into historical eras like the Disposition Era, the Reservation Era, and the Modern Era. We think an overarching theme throughout all eras is antimonopoly. Since the Founding, and continuing for over two-and-a-quarter centuries into the 21^st century, antimonopoly policy has permeated public land law. In this article we show the persistence of antimonopoly sentiment throughout the public land history, from the Confederation Congress to Jacksonian America to the Progressive Conservation Era and into the modern era.

Antimonopoly policy led to widespread ownership of American land, perhaps America’s chief distinction from …

Developing An International Carbon Tax Regime, Steven Specht

Steven Specht

As atmospheric CO2 remains in the range of 400 ppm, it is necessary to find new international coordination to deal with climate change. The best way forward is an international regime of harmonized domestic carbon taxes. By agreeing to a minimum amount of taxation on domestic, point-source producers, money can be set aside for adaptation costs and alternative means of energy production. Finally, such a plan will overcome the problem of non-participation of countries in agreements like the Kyoto Protocol. As this is a treaty dealing with economics and trade, countries can place taxes on imports of non-participatory countries under …

Take It To The Limit: The Illegal Regulation Prohibiting The Take Of Any Threatened Species Under The Endangered Species Act, Jonathan Wood

Jonathan Wood

The Endangered Species Act forbids the “take” – any activity that adversely affects – any member of an endangered species, but only endangered species. The statute also provides for the listing of threatened species, i.e. species that may become endangered, but protects them only by requiring agencies to consider the impacts of their projects on them. Shortly after the statute was adopted, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service reversed Congress’ policy choice by adopting a regulation that forbids the take of any threatened species. The regulation is not authorized by the Endangered Species Act, but …

What The Frack? How Weak Industrial Disclosure Rules Prevent Public Understanding Of Chemical Practices And Toxic Politics, Benjamin W. Cramer

Benjamin W. Cramer

Hydraulic fracturing, known colloquially as “fracking,” makes use of chemically-formulated fluid that is forced down a gas well at great pressure to fracture underground rock formations and release embedded natural gas. Many journalists, environmentalists, and public health advocates are concerned about what may happen if the fracking fluid escapes the well and contaminates nearby drinking water supplies. This article attempts a comprehensive analysis and comparison of all relevant fracking fluid disclosure regulations currently extant in the United States, and considers whether the information gained is truly useful for citizens, journalists, and regulators. In recent years the federal government and several …

Proposed Implementing Procedures For Restore Act Awards Under Nepa, Sara Mammarella

Sara Mammarella

On April 20, 2010, what has been described as “the worst oil spill in U.S. history,” the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, occurred off the Louisiana coast, affecting a five-state area in the Gulf region (Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas), dumping an estimated 4.9 billion barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. In response, Congress enacted the federal RESTORE Act to set up a mechanism for compensating the victims of the oils spill and to Repair the environmental harm caused by the oil spill.

This article will examine the effectiveness of the regulatory scheme in place that was …

Robinson Township V. Commonwealth Of Pennsylvania: Examination And Implications, John C. Dernbach, James R. May, Kenneth T. Kristl

John C. Dernbach

Shared Sovereignty: The Role Of Expert Agencies In Environmental Law, Michael Blumm, Andrea Lang

Michael Blumm

Environmental law usually features statutory interpretation or administrative interpretation by a single agency. Less frequent is a close look at the mechanics of implementing environmental policy across agency lines. In this article, we offer such a look: a comparative analysis of five statutes and their approaches to sharing decision-making authority among more than one federal agency. We call this pluralistic approach to administrative decisionmaking “shared sovereignty.”

In this analysis, we compare implementation of the National Environmental Policy, the National Historic Preservation Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Federal Power Act. All of these statutes incorporate …

Preventing Perpetuity: Ensuring Clean Mine Closure Without Water Treatment Into Infinity, Nicholas Clabbers

Nicholas Clabbers

Mine closure is a pressing environmental problem. Done improperly, mine closure can leave behind an ugly legacy of water and soil pollution from heavy metals and mining byproducts. Many scientific studies that attempt to quantify and explain the impacts of mine closure, both the formal legal and policy analysis, are sparse, especially with regards to proposed solutions. This article fills that gap – it provides an overview of the legal barriers to clean mine closure, a survey of existing law, and a thorough analysis of a possible framework for improved mine remediation. It advances practical solutions and works through the …

Robinson Township V. Commonwealth Of Pennsylvania: Examination And Implications, John Dernbach, James May, Kenneth Kristl

Kenneth T Kristl

In Robinson Township v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held unconstitutional major parts of Pennsylvania’s “Act 13”—a 2012 oil and gas law designed to facilitate the development of natural gas from Marcellus Shale. In so doing, the Court breathed new life into Article I, Section 27 of Pennsylvania’s constitution, which creates public rights in certain environmental amenities and requires the state to “conserve and maintain” public resources “for the benefit of all the people.” This paper describes the decision, explains some of its immediate implications in Pennsylvania, and also explains its importance for public environmental rights and environmental …

Economics-Based Environmentalism In The Fourth Generation Of Environmental Law, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

Environmental protection and economic concerns are not mutually exclusive. This article explores some of the issues of economic analysis that might arise as we approach the fourth generation of environmental law. It explains ways that economic analysis can be employed to generate the best environmental rules, including measures under what this article terms as "economics-based environmentalism." Economics-based environmentalism contends that the advantages of using economic principles within a “polycentric toolbox” of environmental law come from the benefits available in private ordering, markets, property rights, liability regimes and incentives structures that will better protect the environment than alternatives like state-based interventionist, …

A Framework For Understanding Property Regulation And Land Use Control From A Dynamic Perspective, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

Mineral Taxation In Zambia, Muna Ndulo

Muna B Ndulo

No abstract provided.

Symposium The International Legal Regime For Antarctica: Introduction, John J. Barceló Iii

John J. Barceló III

No abstract provided.

Avoiding The Road To Ferc-Dom: The Supreme Court Affirms The Right To Contract In Morgan Stanley V. Snohomish, Jorge A. Mestre

Jorge A Mestre

No abstract provided.

Renewable Energy: Where We Are Now And How Renewable Energy Investment And Development Can Be Expanded, Kevin M. Walsh

Kevin M Walsh

The renewable energy field is currently stifled because many renewable energy developments require tax equity investors to provide additional funds to get the project off the ground and running. The Code provides tax credits to incentivize investors to invest. Currently, the Investment Tax Credit (“ITC”) is the only available credit left for renewable projects placed in service from 2014 on. Tax credits are a step in the right direction to encourage renewable investment; however, the credits are limited in application mostly to large financial institutions. Moreover, investments into one specific renewable energy project can be risky because there is no …

The Durability Of Private Claims To Public Property, Bruce R. Huber

Bruce R Huber

Property rights and resource use are closely related. Scholarly inquiry about their relation, however, tends to emphasize private property arrangements while ignoring public property — property formally owned by government. The well-known tragedies of the commons and anticommons, for example, are generally analyzed with reference to the optimal form and degree of private ownership. But what about property owned by the state? The federal government alone owns nearly one-third of the land area of the United States. One could well ask: is there a tragedy associated with public property, too? If there is, here is what it might look like: …

Revisiting Curd V. Mosaic Fertilizer, Llc. A Perversion Of Private Standing Under Section 376.313 Of Florida’S Pollution Discharge Prevention And Recovery Act, Levi L. Wilkes

Levi L Wilkes

No abstract provided.

Preventing Cold War: Militarization In The Southernmost Continent And The Antarctic Treaty System's Fading Effectiveness, Dillon A. Redding

Dillon A Redding

This note argues that the preservation of Antarctica for peaceful research and internationally cooperative activity as envisioned originally by the Antarctic Treaty in 1961 has gone unrealized amid growing international interest in the strategic advantages offered by Antarctica, including the possibility of large swathes of mineral deposits and optimal locations for satellite stations. Part 1 describes the motivations behind the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) and outlines the relevant provisions of the Antarctic Treaty. Part 2 examines the military advantages to a state presence in Antarctica and the ways in which the ATS allows for such a presence to be carried …

A Response To The Major Arguments Against Shale Gas Development Using Hydraulic Fracturing, Monika Ehrman

Monika U. Ehrman

No abstract provided.

Third Party Access To Infrastructure In The United Kingdom Continental Shelf: An Unhappy Mix Of Heavy-Handed Regulation And Light-Handed Regulation, Yanal Abul Failat

Yanal Abul Failat

“An unhappy mix of poorly-drafted legislation; Statutory Guidance relative to the Ministerial power which is unfit for purpose; and a well-meaning but essentially useless industry code of best practice.”(Gordon 2012) The objective of this paper is to provide a synopsis on both hard law and soft law instruments addressing third-party access (“TPA”) to infrastructure in the UKCS. Firstly, the paper will outline the scope and purpose of TPA; followed by an outline and evaluation of the regulatory regime under the recently enacted Energy Act 2011 (“Act”) and the Infrastructure Code of Practice (“ICOP”). Finally, it will provide a conclusion on …

Ferc's Order No. 1000 From A Historical Perspective: Restructuring And Reorganization Of Electric Transmission Markets From 1996 Until Present, Nicolas A. Mctyre

Nicolas A. McTyre

No abstract provided.

The Next Great Compromise: A Comprehensive Response To Opposition Against Shale Gas Development Using Hydraulic Fracturing In The United States, Monika Ehrman

Monika U. Ehrman