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Environmental Law At Maryland, No. 26, Summer-Fall 2008

Environmental Law at Maryland

No abstract provided.

El Dia De Los Muertos, The Death And Rebirth Of The Environment Movement, Eileen Gauna

Faculty Scholarship

In 2004, in response to an article titled Death of Environmentalism, many in the environmental community engaged in a debate about whether the environmental movement was capable of adequately inspiring the public to effectively respond to climate change. This Article examines the strand of this debate that centered upon responses from environmental justice actors to the larger environmental community. Specifically, the ensuing conversations raised questions about who, precisely, is the environmental community, what is its historical legacy, how should the environment be conceptualized to promote more effective climate policy, the role of technocratic solutions, and the need for transformative coalition …

Slides: "Mitaku Oyasin" Means "We Are All Related", Bob Gough

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: Bob Gough, NativeEnergy, Inc.

72 slides

The Nature Of Legal Education And Its Links To Water Management, Denise D. Fort

Faculty Scholarship

When water decisions are made, water lawyers are central fi gures, and decisions are made within the framework of the governing institutions. In this essay, I discuss legal education and the training of a water lawyer. Students from other disciplines may seek out legal education, so approaches to their education are considered.

Harnessing The Power Of Science In Environmental Law: Why We Should, Why We Don't, And How We Can, Mary Jane Angelo

UF Law Faculty Publications

To illustrate how legal scholars, lawmakers, environmental agencies, and practicing lawyers have attempted to incorporate new scientific developments into environmental law, particularly in the administrative context, this Article traces the journeys of three distinct scientific developments -- risk assessment, adaptive management, and emergy synthesis -- from scientific academia to environmental administrative law. The Article concludes by making observations about what types of scientific developments are most likely to be incorporated into the law and suggesting ways for improving the likelihood that new beneficial developments will be adopted to inform the law.

Native American Forum On Nuclear Issues Agenda

Native American Forum on Nuclear Issues

Conference agenda

Sponsored by: UNLV Department of Environmental Studies, UNLV Libraries, UNLV Department of History, UNLV Department of Sociology and the Native Community Action Council

Environmental Justice: An Analysis, Dennis Bechtel

Native American Forum on Nuclear Issues

Abstract: -Importance of the Environmental Justice -EJ examples -Regulatory backdrop -Stigma effects -Recommendations

Fighting Nuclear Waste At Skull Valley, Margene Bullcreek

Native American Forum on Nuclear Issues

Abstract:

-Reasons We Oppose Nuclear Waste

-Sovereignty

-Traditional values must be protected

-Protect sacredness of our culture, plants,

animals, air, and water

-Affects on community health

-Protect reservation and homeland

-To protect the air and water

-To protect future generations

-Environmental Justice

Native American Forum On Nuclear Issues Agenda

Native American Forum on Nuclear Issues

Conference agenda

Sponsored by: UNLV Department of Environmental Studies, UNLV Libraries, UNLV Department of History, UNLV Department of Sociology and the Native Community Action Council

Just Solutions To Climate Change: A Climate Justice Proposal For A Domestic Clean Development Mechanism, Maxine Burkett

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Environmental Justice For All - The Navy's Recent Failure To Protect North Carolina's Citizens, William S. Eubanks Ii

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.

Climate Change: The Equity Problem, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Brooke A. Ackerly

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

A substantial proportion of the United States population is at or below the poverty level, yet many of the greenhouse gas emissions reduction measures proposed or adopted to date will increase the costs of energy, motor vehicles, and other consumer goods. This essay suggests that although scholarship and policymaking to date have focused on the disproportionate impact of these increased costs on the low-income population, the costs will have two important additional effects. First, the anticipated costs will generate political opposition from social justice groups, reducing the likelihood that aggressive measures will be adopted. Second, to the extent aggressive measures …

Putting Ethics Into Environmental Law: Fiduciary Duties For Ethical Investment, Benjamin J. Richardson

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article argues that environmental law must target the financial sector, which sponsors and profits from environmental pillage. The rise of a system of finance capitalism has made the financial sector a crucial economic sector. A long-standing movement for socially responsible investment (SRI) has recently begun to advocate environmental standards for financiers. While the SRI movement has gained more influence in recent years, it has come at the price of jettisoning its former emphasis on ethical investment in favour of an instrumental, business case approach. Some modest legal reforms to improve the quality and extent of SRI have yet to …

Confronting Chronic Pollution: A Socio-Legal Analysis Of Risk And Precaution, Dayna Nadine Scott

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The central aim of this article is to demonstrate a socio-legal approach to risk and precaution using the example of chronic pollution. Drawing on ongoing empirical work with the Aamjiwnaang First Nation, which is tucked into Sarnia's "Chemical Valley," a secondary aim is to influence and shape how we understand the problem and confront the risks of chronic pollution. This article forwards the argument that the prevailing regulatory approach is incapable of capturing the essence of contemporary pollution harms, because those harms are increasingly linked to continuous, routine, low-dose exposures to contaminants that are within legally sanctioned limits. Community residents …

Bringing Sexy Brac: The Case For Allowing Local Governments To Control Environmental Cleanup In The Military Base Closure And Redevelopment Process, Thomas William "T.W." Bruno

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Environmental Law At Maryland, No. 25, Winter-Spring 2008

Environmental Law at Maryland

No abstract provided.

Ossification’S Demise? An Empirical Analysis Of Epa Rulemaking From 2001-2005,, Stephen M. Johnson

Articles

For more than a decade, academics have suggested agencies are increasingly avoiding notice and comment rulemaking because the process has become “ossified” by procedures imposed by Congress, courts and the Executive Branch, and because the rules ultimately issued by agencies are frequently challenged. This article reviews the rules the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued between 2001 and 2005 to determine the validity of those criticisms. With regard to judicial challenges, 75% of EPA’s most important (“economically significant”) rules issued between 2001 and 2005 were challenged in court. This is consistent with the anecdotal claims of former EPA Administrators …

Communities And Water Markets: A Review Of The Model Water Transfer Act, Santos Gomez, Penn Loh

UC Law Environmental Journal

No abstract provided.

Growth Management And Western Water Law: From Urban Oases To Archipelagos, A. Dan Tarlock, Sarah B. Van De Wetering

UC Law Environmental Journal

No abstract provided.

The Preferential Option For The Poor: An Opportunity And A Challenge For Environmental Decision Making, Lucia A. Silecchia

Scholarly Articles

The doctrine of 'the preferential option for the poor' has deep roots in Catholic social thought. It proposes that the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable be given priority when creating and evaluating public policies, actions, and attitudes. More recently, the obligation to care for natural environment in an ethical way has been gaining more attention both in the secular world as well as among Catholic scholars who seek to explore the scope of human responsibility for the created world. This paper explores the intersection of the preferential option for the poor and environmental ethics. After a general discussion …

Fighting Back Against A Power Plant: Some Lessons From The Legal And Organizing Efforts Of The Bayview-Hunters Point Community, Clifford Rechtschaffen

UC Law Environmental Journal

No abstract provided.

Environmental Justice And The Three Great Myths Of White Americana, Luke W. Cole

UC Law Environmental Journal

No abstract provided.

Litigation's Bounded Effectiveness And The Real Public Trust Doctrine: The Aftermath Of The Mono Lake Case, Craig Anthony Arnold, Leigh A. Jewel

UC Law Environmental Journal

No abstract provided.

Political Externalities, Federalism, And A Proposal For An Interstate Environmental Impact Assessment Policy, Noah D. Hall

Law Faculty Research Publications

Interstate environmental harms, which occur when decisions or actions in one state produce negative environmental impacts in another state, have challenged environmental law and American federalism for over a century. While even the strongest advocates of state primacy in environmental policy concede that interstate environmental harms necessitate federal governance, federal adjudication and regulation have had only modest success in addressing the problem. This is due, in part, to a failure to fully understand the causes of interstate environmental harms. This article provides a newframeworkfor understanding interstate environmental harms as political externalities caused by a combination of inadequate information, public process …

Survey Of Seqra Cases From 2007, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

The courts issued 58 decisions under the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) in 2007.

Typically, plaintiffs have a much greater chance of success in SEQRA cases when no environmental impact statement (EIS) has been prepared: on average, in the cases from 1990 (when this column’s annual survey began) through 2006, plaintiffs won 15.9 percent of the cases where there is an EIS, and 38.6 percent of the cases without an EIS.

But in 2007 the ratio was much different. In the 22 cases with an EIS, plaintiffs won seven, or 31.8 percent. In the 27 cases without …

The Environmental Justice Act: Same Problems With No Solution?, Margaret Egan

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

E-Cemeteries: Where Electronic Waste Never Dies, Jason Lewis

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

The National Environmental Policy Act In The Urban Environment: Oxymoron Or A Useful Tool To Combat The Destruction Of Neighborhoods And Urban Sprawl?, Hope M. Babcock

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

To some, applying the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to decisions affecting land use in an urban or built environment is an oxymoron. Cities have historically not been seen “as natural entities but as foreign impositions upon the native landscape,” places where the physical environment is already largely destroyed or reduced to insignificant remnants. Moreover, detecting the required federal presence to trigger NEPA may initially seem difficult when decisions affecting urban resources appear to be principally made by local or state agencies.

At the Institute for Public Representation (IPR) at the Georgetown University Law Center, the author has learned that …

American Indians, Climate Change, And Ethics For A Warming World, Sarah Krakoff

Publications

Developing a sense of ourselves that would properly balance history and nature and space and time is a more difficult task than we would suspect and involves a radical reevaluation of the way we look at the world around us. Do we continue to exploit the earth or do we preserve it and preserve life? Whether we are prepared to embark on a painful intellectual journey to discover the parameters of reconciling history and nature is the question of this generation.

Environmental Justice In The Tribal Context: A Madness To Epa's Method, Catherine O’Neill

Faculty Articles

Many American Indian tribes and their members are among those most burdened by mercury contamination. When the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set out to regulate mercury emissions from coal-fired utilities, it was aware that mercury contamination and regulation affects tribal rights and resources. EPA's inquiry, therefore ought to have been differently framed, given tribes' unique legal and political status. Specifically, EPA ought to have confronted squarely the impact of its decision on tribes' fishing rights, rather than consider these rights as a mere afterthought. EPA 's process, too, should have been differently conducted EPA should have consulted with tribes from …