Vetoing Wetland Permits Under Section 404(C) Of The Clean Water Act: A History Of Inter-Federal Agency Controversy And Reform, Michael Blumm, Elisabeth D. Mering

Michael Blumm

For most of its four-decade history, section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act could have been considered to be a sleeper provision of environmental law. The proviso authorizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) overrule permits for discharges of dredged or fill material issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) where necessary to ensure protection of fish and wildlife habitat, municipal water supplies, and recreational areas against unacceptable adverse effects. This authority of one federal agency to veto the decisions of another federal agency is quite unusual, perhaps unprecedented in environmental law. The exceptional nature ...

What Is The Big Fracking Deal?, Vanessa Klass

Vanessa Klass

At a time when the country has struggled to grow economically, energy production in the United States has been one of the most promising success stories. A large part of the success behind this remarkable oil and gas production as well as job creation is due to an energy-extraction process known as Hydraulic Fracturing (also known as “fracking”). Fracking has transformed America’s energy potential by allowing increased production of oil and natural gas from formerly inaccessible shale formations. As a result, the United States surpassed Russia as the world’s top natural gas producer, becoming the world leader in ...

A Taxing Endeavor: Local Government Protection Of Our Nation's Coasts In The "Wake" Of Climate Change, Simone Savino

Simone Savino

A storm is brewing, and not just in our nation’s coastal waters. The effects of climate change are becoming alarmingly apparent: sea levels are rising, storm surges are intensifying and ocean temperatures are warming at increasing speeds. Higher storm surges have led to increased flooding in coastal zones and nearby low-lying regions. The need for greater disaster preparedness in areas vulnerable to storm surges is evident, not just in the United States, but worldwide. As a direct result, coastal towns and cities have been left with the daunting task, and cost, of implementing littoral adaptation measures such as beach ...

Book Review: Environmental Protection And Coastal Zone Management In Asia And The Pacific. Kato, Kumamoto, Matthews, & Suhaimi Eds. Tokyo University Press. 1985., Thomas J. Schoenbaum

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Shut Up: Pay More: This What You Voted For. Why You Don't See Me At San Francisco's Hall Of Justice, David D. Butler

David D. Butler

Urban violence, much of it politically motivated, has driven the taxpaying Middle Class into the suburbs. This has left only the tax eating poor and the tax avoiding rich in the big cities. This has resulted in urban bankruptcy in Detroit and even in California with its gifts of the technological Gold Rush, the Pacific Ocean, and the Sierra Nevada and Santa Lucia Mountains. The poor are more issolated than ever confined to the functional equivalent of no go zones. They speak a differenct language, dress differently, and sell drugs until they are caught and caged, providing good pay and ...

Segmentation Of Environmental Review: Why Defenders Of Wildlife V. U.S. Navy Threatens The Effectiveness Of Nepa And The Esa, Erica Novack

Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review

In Defenders of Wildlife v. United States Department of the Navy, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that the environmental review conducted by the Navy and the National Marine and Fishery Service regarding the proposed construction and operation of a warfare training range was in compliance with federal law. In particular, the court found that segmentation of review at its final stages did not violate the National Environmental Policy Act or the Endangered Species Act. This Comment addresses the danger of allowing a technicality to authorize segmentation of environmental review, and its potential negative impacts ...

Protecting Endangered Species Habitat On Private Property: The Public-Private Constitutional Balance Need Not Be A Zero-Sum Game, Marisa P. Kaley

Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review

In 2006, the thirty-six acre parcel of land in Hampden, Massachusetts on which William and Marlene Pepin planned to build their retirement home was designated as “priority habitat” for the eastern box turtle, a species of special concern in the Commonwealth. The designation triggered development restrictions intended to prevent harm to the turtle, prompting the Pepins to challenge both the validity of the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act regulations that implement the priority habitat scheme, and the decision by the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife to so delineate their property. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld the priority habitat scheme and ...

Ferc Net Metering Decisions Keep States In The Dark, Benjamin Hanna

Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review

As the effects of climate change increasingly become a reality, policymakers have recognized the need for more renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, and the benefits of distributed generation. One important way that both renewable energy and distributed generation are being addressed is through the use of electrical net metering policies. Net metering allows property owners to generate their own electricity and to receive credit from their utility company for any excess. State net metering policies are pervasive—forty-three states and the District of Columbia have adopted some form of net metering—and yet uncertainty remains about their ...

Using Hgm Analysis To Aggregate Wetlands As “Similarly Situated” Under The Rapanos “Significant Nexus” Test, Natalia Cabrera

Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review

Wetlands are vital to the health of the nation’s waterways. Even small, geographically isolated wetlands can perform important functions that benefit their surrounding ecosystem. Despite the important role of smaller wetlands, the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) protection of these areas is limited to those wetlands that satisfy legal tests limited by the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. The main test to establish jurisdiction—the “significant nexus” test—relies on a connection between a wetland and a navigable-in-fact waterway. Smaller wetlands, however, may not each have individual connections that are sufficient to satisfy the significant nexus test. When wetlands ...

Communities In The Dark: The Use Of State Sunshine Laws To Shed Light On The Fracking Industry, Kellie Fisher

Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review

Although oil and gas companies continue to maintain that fracking is safe and there is no risk of injury, personal accounts from residents of areas with a fracking industry presence suggest otherwise. Oil and gas companies utilize a variety of mechanisms to ensure secrecy within the industry. Through gaps in federal regulation, the classification of fracking fluid as a trade secret, sealed settlements, and confidentiality orders imposed on people injured by fracking, access to information about the industry—including chemicals used and harm to residents—is minimal. This Note argues that the implementation of state sunshine laws is one possible ...

Blowing The Whistle On Environmental Law: How Congress Can Help The Epa Enlist Private Resources In The Fight To Save The Planet, Christopher K. Warren

Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review

Following the 2008 financial crisis, regulators faced the task of returning the country to financial stability and protecting consumers. Given the challenges involved, Congress empowered the SEC and the CFTC, through the Dodd-Frank Act, to encourage whistleblowers to come forward through programs that provide significant financial rewards and protection. These programs are part of the evolving field of whistleblower law that has been tremendously successful at uncovering wrongdoing while rewarding whistleblowers. Given the success of these programs and recognition by Congress that they can be useful tools to combat threats to the government, Congress should consider whether a similar system ...

When Will Governments Regulate Nonpoint Source Pollution? A Comparative Perspective, Robin Kundis Craig, Anna M. Roberts

Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review

Although the U.S. Clean Water Act does not directly regulate nonpoint source water pollution, it does provide mechanisms that prompt states to address nonpoint source water quality problems within their borders. This prompt, however, merely raises the next question: when, or under what political conditions, will states actually do so? Although individual states within the United States provide many bases for comparison, this Article examines the issue of prompting nonpoint source regulation from an international comparative perspective, focusing on the nascent efforts of the Australian states of Victoria and Queensland to address nonpoint source pollution and the potential lessons ...

Candlestick Park Will Go Out With A Wrecking Ball, Not A Bang, Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross

Articles About GGU Law

Plans for a pyrotechnic implosion of Candlestick Park have fizzled in favor of the wrecking ball — with health fears and political pressure playing a big part in the decision.

The 54-year-old stadium is being demolished to make way for a shopping center, hotel and housing complex. But an attention-grabbing plan to implode the Stick next month ran into stiff opposition from Golden Gate University’s Environmental Law and Justice Clinic and the Bayview Hill Neighborhood Association over fears about noise and the spread of toxic dust.

Deployment Of Geoengineering By The Private And Public Sector: Can The Risks Of Geoengineering Ever Be Effectively Regulated?, Daniela E. Lai

Daniela E Lai

Geoengineering has been described as any large-scale environmental manipulation designed with the purpose of mitigating the effects of climate change without decreasing greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). Currently there are no specific rules regulating geoengineering activities particularly if geoengineering is deployed in areas beyond national jurisdiction. This article argues that, in order to mitigate the risks of geoengineering, there needs to be effective regulation of its deployment both in international and domestic law. The risks of geoengineering can only be effectively regulated if there is international cooperation between all levels of governments and private individuals involved in the research and development ...

Market Failures And Protecting The Environment, Chad J. Mcguire

Chad J McGuire

Whether you agree with government intervention, or with the specific form of gov- ernment intervention applied, it is a fact that government becomes involved in environ- mental issues because, to date, we have failed to fully inter- nalize the costs of our actions toward the environment in our market systems. So this is why government becomes involved in the first place, to correct existing and recurring market failures. Knowing this important fact helps us better understand, and judge, envi- ronmental laws and policies.

The Next Generation Of Trade And Environment Conflicts: The Rise Of Green Industrial Policy, Mark Wu, James Salzman

Northwestern University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rising Sea Levels Challenge Flood Insurance Management, Chad J. Mcguire

Chad J McGuire

Our climate is changing. And the trend of this climate change shows the earth is, on average, getting warmer. We in New England emerged from a very cold winter in 2014 making it hard for us to see (and thus believe) the earth is getting warmer. But this is the trick of cli- mate change: The pattern of overall warming is hard to see on a day-to-day basis. We tend to judge our climate through experiencing our local weather patterns: When the weather is cold like it has been in our region over the past winter, it is hard for ...

Promoting The Sustainability Of Biofuels In America: Looking To Brazil, Julia Johnson

Julia Johnson

This article explores the reasons why previous attempts at biofuels legislation in the United States have not been successful and focuses upon market-level incentives that drive consumer willingness to purchase biofuels. For the U.S.’s biofuels policies to be more effective, the nation must better employ consumer-side factors and devise policies around promoting biofuels’ ability to compete with conventional fuels. Consumer-side factors include biofuels’ accessibility and pricing, as well as the ease and attractiveness of purchasing alternative energy-powered vehicles. The U.S.’s initiatives have also neither been aggressive enough, nor sufficiently comprehensive, to enable the U.S. to ...

Environmental Federalism's Tug Of War Within, Erin Ryan

Erin Ryan

Anyone paying attention has noticed that many of the most controversial issues in American governance—health care reform, marriage rights, immigration, drug law, and others—involve questions of federalism. The intensity of these disputes reflects inexorable pressure on all levels of government to meet the increasingly complicated challenges of governance in an ever more interconnected world, where the answers to jurisdictional questions are less and less obvious. Yet even as federalism dilemmas continue to erupt all from all corners, environmental law remains at the forefront of controversy, and it is likely to do so for some time. From mining to ...

Time For A Restatement, Irma S. Russell

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

After a quarter century of statutory stagnation, the American Law Institute needs to address environmental laws, regulations, and judicial decisions to clarify and solidify the consensus to date and the need for evolution to address emerging threats.