Environmental Law Commons^™

The Dirty Effects Of Clean Energy Technology: Supportive Regulations To Promote Recycling Of Lithium Ion Vehicle Batteries, Liz Harland

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

The discovery of potential environmental, geo-political, and human health concerns from the production and disposal of millions of Li-ion batteries each year demands stronger government policies to encourage recovery, recycling and reuse of Li-ion battery materials. The increasing demand for lithium will potentially shift the resource curse experienced by oil-rich countries to lithium-rich countries in South America, such as Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. Part II of this Comment provides an overview of the negative impacts associated with the mining, production, and disposal of Li-ion batteries. It examines the environmental and human health effects of mining lithium on surrounding communities, and …

Subnational Discretion Mediating New Climate Regulatory Challenges, Steven Ferrey

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

Subnational units of government are critical actors in the U.S. federalist scheme of regulation. It was the original 13 colonies/states which were the core of the American experiment, and banded together as a nation for common defense and commerce after fighting for independence from the United Kingdom. The Constitution vested in the new federal government the treaty and war powers, as well as powers over interstate commerce.

Carbon Pricing Initiatives In Western North America: Blueprint For Global Climate Change Policy, Nancy Shurtz

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

In the absence of effective international and federal initiatives to combat the impacts of global climate change, many state, local and regional jurisdictions are passing or proposing measures to curb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The province of British Columbia, Canada, as well as the cities of San Francisco, California and Boulder, Colorado have carbon taxes in place, and similar actions have been proposed in the Oregon and Washington state legislatures. The state of California and the province of Québec have linked together in a joint cap-and-trade system. This Article will examine the fundaments of carbon taxation, including identification of the …

Using International Property Law As A Lever To Evolve Toward Integrative Ocean Governance, Rachael E. Salcido

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 254 II. BACKGROUND ............................................................................................... 255 A. Brief Primer on Ocean Jurisdiction ...................................................... 256 B. Dispute Resolution and International Governance ............................... 257 C. The Power of Property .......................................................................... 259 D. Ocean Governance Support for an International Property Law Thesis ..................................................................................................... 260 III. STATE OF OCEAN HEALTH ........................................................................... 261 A. Overfishing ............................................................................................ 262 B. Climate Change ..................................................................................... 263 C. Pollution ................................................................................................ 264 1. Traditional Pollution ...................................................................... 264 2. Special Growing Plastic Pollution Problem ................................... 265 D. Industrialization .................................................................................... 265 1. Marine Renewable Energy .............................................................. 266 2. Aquaculture ..................................................................................... 268 3. Offshore Oil and Gas ...................................................................... 268 …

Ditching Our Innocence: The Clean Water Act In The Age Of The Anthropocene, Rachael Salcido, Karrigan Bork

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

Humanity has entered the Age of the Anthropocene, a geologic era marked by the emergence of human activity as the single most dominant influence on Earth’s environment. Every ecosystem shows

signs of anthropogenic influence, and the environments we experience everyday are often shaped almost entirely by human actions and decisions. The new discipline of reconciliation ecology recognizes this

reality and suggests that we must manage the new habitats we create in order to protect species diversity and ecosystem services. But the 2015 rule defining the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act explicitly excludes

many manmade environments, including many artificial lakes, …

The Dawning Of Disaster Law, Clifford J. Villa

Faculty Scholarship

What really matters, what unites disasters of all stripes, including earthquakes in Japan, tornadoes in Oklahoma, oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico, and the terrorist attacks on 9/11, is how you respond during the disaster, how you recover from it afterwards, and how you prepare - or better, prevent - the next disaster from happening. This is what disaster theorists, including Professor Dan Farber at Berkeley Law, term the "disaster cycle." In simplest terms: readiness, response, and recovery.

Was The “S” For Silent?: The Maine Indian Land Claims And Senator Edmund S. Muskie, Joseph Hall

Maine History

This article explores the work of one of Maine’s most powerful politicians, U.S. Senator Edmund Muskie, during one of Maine’s most difficult political crises, the Maine Indian Land Claims of the 1970s. In 1972, when Penobscots and Passamaquoddies challenged the legality of land sales conducted from 1794 to 1833, they called into question the legal title of the northern two-thirds of the State of Maine. Tom Tureen, the lawyer for the tribes, and Governor James Longley and State Attorney General Joseph Brennan, the state officials leading the case for Maine, played central roles in the case. Muskie played a crucial, …

Linkages To The Resource Sector: The Role Of Companies, Governments, And International Development Cooperation, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

With support from GIZ, CCSI prepared a report titled "Linkages to the Resource Sector: The Role of Companies, Governments, and International Development Cooperation." It outlines options for how these stakeholders can increase the economic linkages to the extractive industries sector not only in terms of ‘breadth’ (number of linkages) but also in terms of ‘depth’ (local value added). Apart from providing the theoretical framework for linkage creation and an overview of existing literature on this topic, the study highlights successful case study examples. Recommendations are provided for the three types of stakeholders.

International Investment Law And The Extractive Industries Sector, Lise Johnson, Jesse Coleman

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Since the 1990s, international investment law has been rapidly evolving, resulting in a complex web of over 3,000 investment treaties. These treaties have been used to challenge a wide range of host state actions and inactions that have allegedly negatively affected foreign investors or investments. Those challenges, in turn, expose host states to potentially significant financial costs, and can restrict the ability of such states to maximize the benefits, and limit the environmental and social harms, that can result from the exploitation of natural resources. This briefing note provides an introduction to international investment law, with a view to assisting …

Public Laws And Private Lawmakers, Kimberly L. Wehle

All Faculty Scholarship

The Obama Administration's "Clean Power Plan" for addressing industrial carbon emissions is controversial as a matter of environmental policy. It also has important constitutional implications. The rule was initially crafted not by officers or employees of the Environmental Protection Agency, but by two private lawyers and a scientist with industry ties. Private parties operate extra-constitutionally, and no existing legal doctrine tethers constitutional scrutiny to the nature of the power delegated to them. The nondelegation doctrine applies to delegations by Congress-not to agencies' subdelegations of legislative power to private parties. The other doctrinal lens for reviewing rulemaking by entities other than …

Defenders Of Wildlife V. Jewell: Environmentalists Win The Latest Battle In The Fight Over Gray Wolves, But Who Will Win The War?, Rachel Kenigsberg

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Conservation Options: An Argument For Statutory Recognition Of Options To Purchase Conservation Easements (Opces), Federico Cheever, Jessica Owley

Journal Articles

The most dynamic component of the conservation movement in the United States for the past three decades has been land conservation transactions. In the United States, land conservation organizations have protected roughly 40 million acres of land through transactions. Most of these acres have been protected using conservation easements. Climate change threatens the vast conservation edifice created by land conservation transactions. The tools of land conservation transactions are, traditionally, stationary. Climate change means that the resources that land conservation transactions were intended to protect may no longer remain on the land protected. Options to purchase conservation easements (OPCEs) have long …

Agriculture, Drainage Districts, And The Clean Water Act: Does What Happens In Des Moines Stay In Des Moines?, Harrison Pittman, Rusty Rumley

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

Process And Reconciliation: Integrating The Duty To Consult With Environmental Assessment, Neil Craik

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

As the duty to consult Aboriginal peoples is operationalized within the frameworks of government decision making, the relevant agencies are increasingly turning to environmental assessment (EA) processes as one of the principal vehicles for carrying out those consultations. This article explores the practical and theoretical dimensions of using EA processes to implement the duty to consult and accommodate. The relationship between EA and the duty to consult has arisen in a number of cases and a clear picture is emerging of the steps that agencies conducting EAs must carry out in order to discharge their constitutional obligations to Aboriginal peoples. …

Animal Law And Environmental Law: Exploring The Connections And Synergies, Randall S. Abate, Elizabeth Hallinan, Joan E. Schaffner, Bruce Myers

Journal Publications

Environmental law, with its intricate layers of international, federal, state, and local laws, is more established than its animal counterpart. Yet animal law faces many of the same legal and strategic challenges that environmental law faced in seeking to establish a more secure foothold, both in the United States and abroad. In What Can Animal Law Learn From Environmental Law?, editor Randall S. Abate brought together academics, advocates, and legal professionals to examine the very different histories of environmental and animal law, as well as the legal and policy frameworks that bridge the two fields. On November 16, 2015, the …

Changing Winds And Rising Tides On Beach Renourishment In Florida: Short-Term Alternatives And Long-Term Sustainable Solutions Using Law And Policy From Florida And Nearby States, Lewis Van Alstyne Iii

Florida A & M University Law Review

Sandy beaches make up 825 miles of Florida's 1,260 total miles of coastline around the Sunshine State's peninsula. These beaches are changing over time due to the natural erosional forces of wind and water. Coastal engineering attempts to halt natural forces with man-made structures such as buildings, piers, groins, jetties, breakwaters, sea walls, ports, inlets, and in some cases, it creates new sandy beaches and world-class cities where none existed. In an effort to protect the new real estate from the erosion that has always existed, engineers created beach nourishment. This Article focuses on building up beaches through beach nourishment. …

Sinclair's Nightmare: Slapp-Ing Down Ag-Gag Legislation As Content-Based Restrictions Chilling Protected Free Speech, Jeffrey Vizcaino

Student Works

Over a century after its publication, Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel, The Jungle, remains one of the most impactful pieces of investigative literature ever published. During 1904, in an effort to expose the heinous working conditions of Chicago’s meat packing industry, Sinclair went under disguise as a factory worker for seven weeks. While Sinclair’s purpose for The Jungle was to propel federal reform against inhumane work conditions, it was the first-hand depiction of the callous slaughtering and unsanitary processing of meat products which led to national uproar. Gaining the attention of national political leaders, including President Theodore Roosevelt, The Jungle …

Of Life And Limb: The Failure Of Florida's Water Quality Criteria To Test For Vibrio Vulnificus In Coastal Waters And The Need For Enhanced Criteria, Regulation, And Notification To Protect Public Health, Felicia Thomas

Student Works

The nefarious duo of warming oceans and rising sea levels has created a menacing yet lesser-known climate change-induced problem: an increase in sea-borne diseases. For most, the biggest concern when diving into the ocean is a possible, though exceedingly rare, shark encounter; however, it is the unexpected, unseen risk of Vibrio vulnificus that poses the greater danger. Part I of this paper discusses Vibrio vulnificus cases along the coasts of Florida, examining both the illnesses that were contracted through exposure of open wounds to seawater and those contracted through the consumption of raw oysters from the Gulf Coast. Part II …

A Shift In The Wind: Siting More Wind Power Projects Along Texas' 367-Mile Coast Of Gulf Winds, And Mitigating Potential Risk To Migratory Bird Populations, Oscar Burkholder

Student Works

Wind farm development in Texas is surging, making wind power Texas’ hottest energy prospect. Texas currently produces more wind power than any other state by a significant margin, and it keeps blowing through major milestones almost every year. Part II of this paper discusses the relationship between Texas and wind energy, examining the success of onshore wind energy in Texas, the uncertainty and challenges of offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Mexico, and possible room for improvement in Texas’ onshore wind farms. Part III analyzes Texas’ current legal framework, evaluating key federal involvement within Texas’ wind energy industry, and …

How The Public Trust Doctrine's Fiduciary Duty Requirement Requires States' Proactive Response To Promote Offshore Power Generation, Andrew S. Ballentine

Student Works

As the earth continues to warm and the impacts of that warming trend loom larger, the question becomes whether and to what degree do governments have responsibility to respond to that threat. The potential range of threats and impacts from climate change vary greatly and governments’ ability to respond, effectively and efficiently, exceeds that of the individual and therefore must fall on the greater collection of individuals. In the United States, one way that the collection of individuals is represented, albeit with limitations, is by the government that operates for the collective public good. This Article focuses on what responsibility …