Natural Resources Law Commons^™

Canada And Transboundary Fisheries Management In Changing Oceans: Taking Stock, Future Scenarios, U.R. Sumaila, David Vanderzwaag

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article is the Introduction to the Special Feature entitled: Canada and Transboundary Fisheries Management in Changing Oceans: Taking Stock, Future Scenarios. We summarize the research context of the four papers in the Special Feature.

Integrating Climate Change Into Environmental Impact Assessments: Key Design Elements, Meinhard Doelle

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This paper explores the integration of climate mitigation into the environmental impact assessment processes. The focus here is on the much neglected mitigation element (which is defined to include GHG emissions as well as impacts on natural sinks such as forests, soils, grasslands and oceans). To this end, the paper considers how to integrate the GHG emission and sinks impacts of projects at five critical stages of the assessment process: triggering, information gathering, analysis, the project decision, and post-approval follow-up.

Regulating Wave, Tidal And Ocean Thermal Energy, Meinhard Doelle, Theodore Nsoe Adimazoya

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Ocean renewable energy sources hold the potential to contribute to the options of low-carbon energy sources and enhance the efforts by the global community to slow down climate change. In this Chapter, we provide a brief background on the current state of technology and development of wave, tidal and ocean thermal energy and consider their potential as forms of renewable energy as well as the potential negative environmental footprints of ocean renewable energy installation and development. Secondly, we examine the relevant international legal and policy framework governing ocean energy, highlighting in particular, the absence of a global legal instrument that …

The Role Of Trust Law Principles In Defining Public Trust Duties For Natural Resources, John C. Dernbach

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Public trusts for natural resources incorporate both limits and duties on governments in their stewardship of those natural resources. They exist in every state in the United States—in constitutional provisions, statutes, and in common law. Yet the law recognizing public trusts for natural resources may contain only the most basic provisions—often just a sentence or two. The purpose and terms of these public trusts certainly answer some questions about the limits and duties of trustees, but they do not answer all questions. When questions arise that the body of law creating or recognizing a public trust for natural resources does …

Best Regulatory Practices For Deep Seabed Mining: Lessons Learned From The U.S. Surface Mining Control And Reclamation Act, Mark S. Squillace

Publications

Mining operations around the globe are responsible for significant environmental problems. These problems often stem from poor planning, inadequate regulatory standards, and a failure of regulatory oversight, particularly with respect to inspection and enforcement regimes. Mining regulators are often hamstrung, however, by inadequate information about potential impacts before operations commence. This problem is particularly daunting when considering mining on ocean floors where information about the environment is limited, and the impacts of mining are poorly understood.

As the International Seabed Authority (ISA) develops a comprehensive regulatory program for deep seabed mining, they should draw on the experience gained in regulating …

Mandating Disclosure Of Climate-Related Financial Risk, Madison Condon, Sarah Ladin, Jack Lienke, Michael Panfil, Alexander Song

Faculty Scholarship

Climate change presents grave risk across the U.S. economy, including to corporations, their investors, the markets in which they operate, and the American public at large. Unlike other financial risks, however, climate risk is not routinely disclosed to the public. Insufficient corporate disclosures have persisted despite the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) issuance of regulatory guidance on the topic, the emergence of voluntary disclosure frameworks and standards, and growing calls from major investors for improved disclosure. Given the inadequacy of the current regime, the SEC should take further action to fulfill its statutory mandate to protect investors and promote efficiency, …

Contracts On The Seabed, Christiana Ochoa

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Four million square kilometers of seabed within the sovereignty of Pacific Island nations are currently under contract for mineral exploration or exploitation. Over a million additional square kilometers of the non-sovereign seafloor are licensed for such use. Historically, these licenses have served to establish “squatters’ rights” in anticipation of a distant future when the industry would develop the machinery to exploit oceanic mineral wealth. That moment has arrived, with the first seafloor mining machines rolling off production lines in 2015-2016. Indeed, but for failed financing, the first seabed mine would now be operating in the territorial ocean waters of Papua …

Presidential Progress On Climate Change: Will The Courts Interfere With What Needs To Be Done To Save Our Planet?, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

The Biden Administration is undertaking numerous actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition away from fossil fuels as part of the fight against climate change. Many of these actions are likely to be challenged in court. This paper describes the various legal theories that are likely to be used in these challenges, assesses their prospects of success given the current composition of the Supreme Court, and suggests ways to minimize the risks.

Salmon And The Clean Water Act: An Unfinished Agenda, Michael Blumm, Michael Benjamin Smith

Faculty Articles

Salmon are perhaps the quintessential indicator species for water quality, as they require both sufficient quality and quantity to migrate and spawn. Columbia Basin salmon have been listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for over a quarter-century in large part due to inadequate water flows and poor water quality. A half-century ago, long before the listings, the modern Clean Water Act promised fishable waters. This article explains that this is a promise largely unkept due to implementing agencies’ evasion and disinterest. Recent litigation, however, offers some hope that the statute may yet provide a viable path towards protecting and …

Collaborative Governance Under The Endangered Species Act: An Empirical Analysis Of Protective Regulations, Robert L. Fischman, Vicky J. Meretsky, Matthew P. Castelli

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Recent conservation and administrative law scholarship emphasizes the need for potential legal adversaries to work together. Stakeholders and regulators can pool their political capital, money, property, expertise, and legal leverage to achieve more than could be accomplished through mere mechanical implementation of statutory commands. Most commentators associate collaboration with programs promoting fuzzy objectives to engage the public and advisory groups.

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is a polarizing statute that imposes seemingly uncompromising mandates. But this Article demonstrates that the ESA actually provides rich opportunities for collaborative governance. In exploring this underappreciated success story, we document how conservation collaboration adapts …

The Blm’S Duty To Incorporate Climate Science Into Permitting Practices And A Proposal For Implementing A Net Zero Requirement Into Oil And Gas Permitting, John C. Ruple, Jamie Gibbs Please, Nada Wolff Culver

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Almost one quarter of all U.S. carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions come from fossil fuels extracted from public lands, and these resources are managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). This article argues that the BLM has a statutory duty to respond to climate change, which includes the duty to avoid exacerbating climate change. The article then moves the legal discussion from aspiration to action by proposing a legal strategy, using the existing legal framework, by which the BLM can achieve net zero emissions from all new mineral development activity. While the article focuses on oil and gas development, the …

The Carbon Price Equivalent: A Metric For Comparing Climate Change Mitigation Efforts Across Jurisdictions, Gabriel Weil

Scholarly Works

Climate change presents a global commons problem: Emissions reductions on the scale needed to meet global targets do not pass a domestic cost-benefit test in most countries. To give national governments ample incentive to pursue deep decarbonization, mutual interstate coercion will be necessary. Many proposed tools of coercive climate diplomacy would require a one-dimensional metric for comparing the stringency of climate change mitigation policy packages across jurisdictions. This article proposes and defends such a metric: the carbon price equivalent. There is substantial variation in the set of climate change mitigation policy instruments implemented by different countries. Nonetheless, the consequences of …

Innovative Regulatory And Financial Parameters For Advancing Carbon Capture And Storage Technologies, Zen Makuch, Slavina Georgieva & Behdeen Oraee-Mirzamani

Fordham Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lessons From Renewable Energy Diffusion For Carbon Dioxide Removal Development, Anthony E. Chavez

Fordham Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Regaining Control Over The Climate Change Narrative: How To Stop Right-Wing Populism From Eroding Rule Of Law In The Climate Struggle In India, Binit Agrawal

Fordham Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Textiles As A Source Of Microfiber Pollution And Potential Solutions, Lea M. Elston

Fordham Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Hallmarks Of A Good Test: A Proposal For Applying The "Functional Equivalent" Rule From County Of Maui V. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, Damien M. Schiff, Glenn E. Roper

Pace Environmental Law Review

The Clean Water Act generally requires a federal permit for the discharge of pollutants “from any point source” to navigable waters. It is undisputed that permits are required for discharges of pollutants from point sources that proceed “directly” to regulated waters. But there is much disagreement over the extent to which indirect point-source discharges are regulated. In an attempt to clarify, the United States Supreme Court in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund ruled that permits are required not just for direct point-source discharges, but also for any point-source discharge that is the “functional equivalent” of a direct point-source …

The Fossil Fuel Industry’S Push To Target Climate Protesters In The U.S., Grace Nosek

Pace Environmental Law Review

At the very moment when the United Nations has called for profound shifts in social and economic systems to avert climate catastrophe, state and non-state actors in the United States (U.S.) are using a series of tactics to target and stifle climate protesters. Although the move to stifle climate protesters is often framed as a government effort, this Article argues it is critical to draw out the role of the fossil fuel industry in initiating, amplifying, and supporting such tactics.

This Article highlights the role the fossil fuel industry has played in supporting the targeting and restricting of climate protesters …

Of Sex Crimes And Fencelines: How Recognition Of Environmental Justice Communities As Crime Victims Under State And Federal Law Can Help Secure Environmental Justice, Joshua Ozymy, Melissa L. Jarrell

Pace Environmental Law Review

Environmental justice communities throughout the United States continue to face disproportionate health burdens from living near industrial sources of pollution. Such burdens were caused by historically racist public policies and continue to be perpetuated by inadequate regulatory responses at the federal and state level. State and federal law has increasingly recognized an emerging set of rights afforded to victims of crime in court proceedings. We argue that members of environmental justice communities should be viewed as crime victims and have the same rights applied as other victims of violent crime. Using case examples under the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act …

Unveiling The “Trojan Horses” Of Gentrification: Studies Of Legal Strategies To Combat Environmental Gentrification In Washington, D.C. And New York, N.Y., Sarena Malsin

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.