Endnotes,
2023
American University Washington College of Law
Toxic Criminals: Prosecuting Individuals For Hazardous Waste Crimes Under The United States Resource Conservation And Recovery Act,
2023
American University Washington College of Law
Toxic Criminals: Prosecuting Individuals For Hazardous Waste Crimes Under The United States Resource Conservation And Recovery Act, Dr. Joshua Ozymy, Dr. Melissa Jarrell Ozymy
Sustainable Development Law & Policy
The U.S. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (“RCRA”) contains criminal provisions which allow prosecutors to seek substantial penalties when individuals commit hazardous waste crimes involving significant harm or culpable conduct. However, our empirical understanding of enforcement outcomes is limited. We used content analysis of 2,728 criminal prosecutions derived from U.S. EPA criminal investigations from 1983 to 2021 and examined all prosecutions of individual defendants for RCRA violations. Our results show that 222 prosecutions were adjudicated, with over $72.9 million in monetary penalties, 755 years of probation, and 451 years of incarceration levied at sentencing. Seventeen percent of prosecutions centered on …
It's Time To Trash Consumer Responsibility For Plastics: An Analysis Of Extended Producer Responsibility Laws' Sucess In Maine,
2023
American University Washington College of Law
It's Time To Trash Consumer Responsibility For Plastics: An Analysis Of Extended Producer Responsibility Laws' Sucess In Maine, Marina Mozak
Sustainable Development Law & Policy
Consumer responsibility for waste is a historic relic, dating back to a time when nearly all of a consumer’s waste was compostable, reusable, or marketable. Today, with the rise of plastics and complex goods like electronics, consumers lack the expertise, time, and ability to personally break down the products they consume for reuse. Much of our household waste goes to the curb and into a single stream of municipal solid waste (“MSW”). This includes a variety of wastes which each require specialized processing. Recycling this complex waste falls to municipalities which are woefully underfunded and underqualified to process such complex …
Ohio House Bills 168 And 110: Just Another Drop In The Bucket For Brownfield Redevelopment?,
2023
American University Washington College of Law
Ohio House Bills 168 And 110: Just Another Drop In The Bucket For Brownfield Redevelopment?, Mia Petrucci
Sustainable Development Law & Policy
This article examines Ohio House Bills 168 and 110. These House Bills provide liability protection to purchasers of brownfield sites, allocate $500 million dollars to brownfield funding—with $350 million allotted for investigation, cleanup, and revitalization of brownfield sites and $150 million for demolition of vacant/abandoned buildings—and create a new Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program, for the revitalization of properties surrounding brownfield sites. In the first three Sections of this article, the concept of brownfield redevelopment is introduced, the associated challenges with brownfield projects are discussed, and attempts by federal and state governments to address brownfield remediation challenges in the …
About Sdlp,
2023
American University Washington College of Law
About Sdlp, Sdlp
Sustainable Development Law & Policy
The Sustainable Development Law & Policy Brief (ISSN 1552-3721) is a student-run initiative at American University Washington College of Law that is published twice each academic year. The Brief embraces an interdisciplinary focus to provide a broad view of current legal, political, and social developments. It was founded to provide a forum for those interested in promoting sustainable economic development, conservation, environmental justice, and biodiversity throughout the world.
Editors' Note,
2023
American University Washington College of Law
Editors' Note, Rachel Keylon, Meghen Sullivan
Sustainable Development Law & Policy
For more than two decades, the Sustainable Development Law and Policy Brief (SDLP) has published works analyzing emerging legal and policy issues within the fields of environmental, energy, sustainable development, and natural resources law. SDLP has also prioritized making space for law students in the conversation. We are honored to continue this tradition in Volume XXIII.
Who Is Manning The Ship? The Environmental And Legal Questions Facing The Emerging Commercial Space Tourism Market,
2023
Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law
Who Is Manning The Ship? The Environmental And Legal Questions Facing The Emerging Commercial Space Tourism Market, Alec Fante
Villanova Environmental Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Solenex, Llc V. Haaland,
2023
University of Montana
Solenex, Llc V. Haaland, Jennifer Kieffer Jensen
Public Land & Resources Law Review
In 1982, BLM issued an oil and gas lease in the Badger-Two Medicine to Solenex’s predecessor. The Badger-Two Medicine, located in the Lewis and Clark National Forest, is an area of cultural and spiritual importance to the Blackfeet Tribe. After four decades of disagreement as to whether the lease was validly issued, the Secretary of the Interior found that the lease violated the National Historic Preservation Act. Accordingly, she canceled Solenex’s lease and revoked Solenex’s Application for Permit to Drill. The District Court for the District of Columbia held the Secretary did not possess the authority to cancel Solenex’s lease. …
Defining Interim Storage Of Nuclear Waste,
2023
Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
Defining Interim Storage Of Nuclear Waste, Max Johnson
Northwestern University Law Review
Nuclear power may be humanity’s best hope to curb climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions. But public fear of its dangers, including the toxicity of nuclear waste, undermines its expansion. To provide for more effective waste disposal, in 2021 and 2022 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) recommended licensing two privately-owned nuclear waste storage facilities—called Consolidated Interim Storage Facilities (CISFs)—to be built in New Mexico and in Texas. Both states vehemently oppose the construction and operation of these facilities: legislators in both states have proposed state laws opposing them, and both states have sued the NRC challenging the legality of the facilities’ licensure. …
Examining The Role Of Ags In A Just Transition,
2023
New York University Faculty Account
Examining The Role Of Ags In A Just Transition, Bethany Davis Noll, Terri Gerstein
Pace Environmental Law Review
Tackling the climate crisis requires transitioning from fossil fuel to clean energy, which will necessarily have a significant impact on jobs and the economy overall. The impact of this shift has sometimes been feared as a development that will be harmful to workers and the economy. Fossil fuel jobs are seen as good jobs--well-paid jobs with good benefits and protections--while the emerging clean energy industry has not yet uniformly embraced a high-road employment model. But workers’ rights and environmental concerns are not fundamentally incompatible. There are many policies and tools that can be and are being harnessed to bring about …
Shifting Away From Coal Power: Prioritizing Ratepayers And Communities Vs. Shareholders?,
2023
University of Pittsburgh - Main Campus
Shifting Away From Coal Power: Prioritizing Ratepayers And Communities Vs. Shareholders?, Shanti Gamper-Rabindran
Pace Environmental Law Review
No abstract provided.
Green Transitions In A Covid Economy,
2023
Louisiana State University
Green Transitions In A Covid Economy, Nicholas Bryner
Pace Environmental Law Review
As many elements of a Green New Deal languished in Congress, economic policy took dramatic turns instead to address a different crisis: the Covid-19 pandemic. This Essay explores the way in which legal and policy responses to Covid-19 in the United States—particularly as discourse has focused on the impacts of Covid-19 response on labor markets—may provide insight into the political economy of a Green New Deal. New federal spending toward a just transition is structurally much easier to accomplish than developing new regulatory policy through legislation or executive action and avoids judicial policing of administrative authority.
What Makes It A Just Transition? A Case Study Of Renewable Rikers,
2023
CUNY Law School
What Makes It A Just Transition? A Case Study Of Renewable Rikers, Rebecca Bratspies
Pace Environmental Law Review
This essay offers New York City’s Renewable Rikers as an example of what a just transition might look like in practice. Specifically, this essay describes how Renewable Rikers connects the need for non-polluting energy infrastructure with a broader conversation about decarceration and racial justice to build an inclusive pathway for prosperity and environmental health for all New Yorkers. The first part of this essay sets the stage with a brief overview of the climate crisis. Part two sketches the contours of what constitutes a just transition as that term is used in the Green New Deal Resolution. Part three situates …
Renewable Portfolio Standards: Effectiveness And Carbon Implications,
2023
Claremont McKenna College
Renewable Portfolio Standards: Effectiveness And Carbon Implications, Alexander S. Albrecht
CMC Senior Theses
A renewable portfolio standard (RPS) policy is a popular regulatory tool implemented within the U.S. and abroad to limit energy sector emissions and incentivize renewable energy. Assessing their effectiveness and efficiency is a key component of achieving further reductions. We assess an energy market under an RPS using fixed-effects panel and 2SLS regression models to lend empirical credence to common theory-based concerns about RPS policy, namely (1) that they leave emissions unregulated once the RPS requirement is met and (2) that they do not incentivize full use of renewable energy resources. Our results show these to be valid concerns that …
Climate Choice Architecture,
2023
Texas A&M University School of Law
Climate Choice Architecture, Felix Mormann
Faculty Scholarship
Personal choices drive global warming nearly as much as institutional decisions. Yet, policymakers overwhelmingly target large-scale industrial facilities for reductions in carbon emissions, with individual and household emissions a mere afterthought. Recent advances in behavioral economics, cognitive psychology, and related fields have produced a veritable behavior change revolution. Subtle changes to the choice environment, or nudges, have improved stake-holder decision-making in a wide range of contexts, from healthier food choices to better retirement planning. But the vast potential of choice architecture remains largely untapped for purposes of climate policy and action. This Article explores that untapped potential and makes the …
Deals In The Heartland: Renewable Energy Projects, Local Resistance, And How Law Can Help,
2023
Indiana University Maurer School of Law
Deals In The Heartland: Renewable Energy Projects, Local Resistance, And How Law Can Help, Christiana Ochoa
Articles by Maurer Faculty
Informed by original empirical research conducted in the Midwestern United States, this Article provides a rich and textured understanding of the rapidly emerging opposition to renewable energy projects. Beyond the Article’s urgent practical contributions, it also examines the importance of formalism and formality in contracts and complicates current understandings.
Rural communities in every windblown and sun-drenched region of the United States are enmeshed in legal, political, and social conflicts related to the country’s rapid transition to renewable energy. Organized local opposition has foreclosed millions of acres from renewable energy development, impeding national and state-level commitments to achieving renewable energy targets …
The Value Of Vehicle-To-Grid Systems In The Clean Energy Transition: Policy And Regulatory Issues,
2023
Seattle University School of Law
The Value Of Vehicle-To-Grid Systems In The Clean Energy Transition: Policy And Regulatory Issues, Alyssa Valentine
Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental & Innovation Law
As the United States transitions to clean energy, advances in technology are making such a transition possible by enabling utility-scale renewable energy generation (primarily wind and solar) and transportation electrification. However, the growth in renewable energy generation and electric vehicles (EVs) has created new reliability issues for the electric grid due to the intermittent nature of solar and wind power and increased load on the grid from EV charging. New methods and tools are needed to balance energy supply and demand. One such tool is the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) system, which uses EV batteries to help balance the grid, providing additional …
Sovereign Lands,
2022
University of Oklahoma College of Law
Sovereign Lands, Brent D. Chicken, Amanda J. Dick
Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal
No abstract provided.
Wyoming,
2022
University of Oklahoma College of Law
Wyoming, John R. Chadd
Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal
No abstract provided.
West Virginia,
2022
University of Oklahoma College of Law
West Virginia, Andrew S. Graham
Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal
No abstract provided.
