Digital Commons Network^™

Virtual Energy, Joel B. Eisen, Felix Mormann, Heather E. Payne

Faculty Scholarship

From employment to education, many areas of our daily lives have gone virtual, including the virtual workplace and virtual classes. By comparison, the way we generate, deliver, and consume electricity is an anachronism. And the electric industry’s outdated business model and regulatory framework are failing. For the last century-and-a-half, we have relied on ever larger power plants to generate the electricity we consume, often hundreds of miles away from the point of production. But the outsized carbon footprint of these power plants and the need to transmit their output over long distances threaten the electric grid’s reliability, affordability, and long-term …

Environmental Justice Beyond 2°C, Clifford Villa

Faculty Scholarship

In the last four decades, average temperatures have risen significantly across the United States, with Alaska and New Mexico among the fastest warming states. Since 1970, average temperatures in New Mexico have risen 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit (°F)—or nearly 2 degrees Celsius (°C). The international scientific community has urged world leaders to contain global warming above pre-industrial levels to 1.5°C ideally, and to 2°C at worst. Current trajectories, however, suggest we may shoot past 2°C of global warming this century and enter a world of 3-4°C or beyond... The “trade offs” and “letting go” as we confront the looming 4°C world …

A New Day For Environmental Justice At The U.S. Epa, Clifford Villa

Faculty Scholarship

September 24, 2022, was a big day in the history of the EPA. On this day, EPA Administrator Michael Regan signed an order creating a new Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (“OEJECR”) within the EPA. We’re very excited about our new office of environmental justice at the EPA. However, the EPA takes environmental justice seriously across all the offices, including my own Office of Land and Emergency Management (“OLEM”).

In this lecture, we will begin with some early history of environmental justice, how we realized the existence of environmental injustice in the first place. Then we’ll talk …

The Chicago School’S Coasean Incoherence, Madison Condon

Faculty Scholarship

This comment traces the divergent legal academic interpretations of the Chicago School's Ronald Coase and where their influence lands--revealing the law’s inconsistent conception of just what a corporation is or should be. By following Alyssa Battistoni's investigation of the origin of the "externality," we can see the late 60s and early 1970s as a pivotal era. People were waking up to the collective costs of industrialization and pushing back against corporate power. Against this democratic wave, the writings of the Chicago School worked to separate one human person into her different roles in the economy—consumer, worker, shareholder. They used the …

Historic Redlining And Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review, Noa T. Kraus, Sarah Connor, Krista Shoda, Scott Emory Moore, Elliane Irani

Faculty Scholarship

Objective: The purpose of this systematic review was to synthesize the existing literature on the associations between historic redlining and modern-day health outcomes across the lifespan. Method: This review searched PubMed and CINAHL for peer-reviewed, data-based articles examining the relationship between historic redlining and any health outcome. Articles were appraised using the JBI critical appraisal checklist. The results were synthesized using a narrative summary approach. Results: Thirty-six articles were included and focused on various health outcomes, including cardiovascular outcomes, breast cancer incidence and mortality, firearm injury or death, birth-related outcomes, and asthma outcomes. Most of the included articles (n = …

Indigenous Influence On The Rights Of Nature Movement, Vanessa Racehorse

Faculty Scholarship

The growing recognition of the rights of nature is a blend of both modern conservation efforts and principles reflected in traditional Indigenous stewardship that should be an essential component of the discourse around environmental justice. This article provides an overview of the laws that invoke the rights of nature that Indigenous perspectives and practices regarding environmental preservation have influenced. This discussion pays particular attention to the White Earth Band of Ojibwe's "Rights of Manoomin" law and Manoomin v. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (White Earth Band of Ojibwe Tribal Ct. 2021), the first rights of nature case filed in a …

Prescribed Fire Use Among Black Landowners In The Red Hills Region, Usa, Cynthia Twyford Fowler, La’ Portia J. Perkins, Adam Coates, J. Kevin Hiers, Seth W. Bigelow

Faculty Scholarship

The Red Hills Region of southern Alabama, northern Florida, and southwestern Georgia is one of the most prominent areas in the United States for conducting prescribed fire research and is the birthplace of fire ecology. The culture of prescribed burning in the Red Hills has been influenced by multiple ethnic groups, including the Seminole and Creek nations, Black landowners, and White researchers. Given the distinctive reliance of the region on prescribed fire, it is noteworthy that the combined issues of Black land loss, underrepresentation, and incentives for using prescribed fire on private lands in the southeastern United States have generated …

Federal Environmental Justice Legislation And Regulations, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Establishing A Conditional Driver Permit In Texas, Luz E. Herrera, Taylor Garner, Crystal Hernandez, Lisa Mares

Faculty Scholarship

The article presents supporting data to expand access to state-issued driver permits for Texans who cannot provide the required documents to obtain a driver’s license. Part I examines the unlicensed and uninsured population in Texas that these efforts attempt to address. Part II discusses state jurisdiction to issue driver licenses and permits. It discusses existing Texas statutes that authorize the issuance of driver’s licenses and permits. The section also offers examples of other state statutes that have expanded their right to regulate driving privileges beyond Real ID Act requirements. Part III presents a partial economic analysis illustrating potential economic benefits …

Climate, Health, And Equity Implications Of Large Facility Pollution Sources In New Mexico, Gabriel Pacyniak, Angélica Ruiz, Shannon Sanchez-Youngman, Elena Krieger

Faculty Scholarship

In 2019, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order establishing a goal of cutting New Mexico greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 45 percent by 2030.1 In parallel, the state legislature enacted the 2019 Energy Transition Act (ETA), which requires New Mexico utilities to decarbonize their electricity supply by 2045.2 In keeping with these actions, state agencies issued regulations to reduce GHG emissions from oil and gas and transportation sources and to implement the ETA.

These ambitious policies are essential to address the climate-driven extreme weather events, such as record-breaking wildfires, drought, and heat, which are already impacting New …

Climate Chauvinism: Rethinking Loss & Damage, Nadia B. Ahmad, Victoria Beatty

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Synthesizing Energy Transitions, Nadia Ahmad, Uma Outka, Danielle Stokes, Hannah Jacobs Wiseman

Faculty Scholarship

This Article assesses the growing and cross-disciplinary literature on energy transitions to explore how it can guide law and policy reforms for the energy sector. The modern conception of energy transition centers primarily on clean energy—a shift away from fossil energy dependence. It also, however, incorporates equity as a core principle, as an increasing emphasis on energy justice and just transition seeks to create guiding norms for the energy sector’s current state of change. The concept of energy transition is critical for describing and giving meaning to a fundamental societal shift at the local, regional, national, and global scales, aligned …

Black Liberty In Emergency, Norrinda Brown

Faculty Scholarship

COVID-19 pandemic orders were weaponized by state and local governments in Black neighborhoods, often through violent acts of the police. This revealed an intersection of three centuries-old patterns— criminalizing Black movement, quarantining racial minorities in public health crises, and segregation. The geographic borders of the most restrictive pandemic order enforcement were nearly identical to the borders of highly segregated, historically Black neighborhoods.

The right to free movement is fundamental and, as a rule, cannot be impeded by the state. But the jurisprudence around state power in public health emergencies, deriving from the 1905 case Jacobson v. Massachusetts, has practically resulted …

The Road To Autonomy, Nicole Mcconlogue

Faculty Scholarship

Scholars, activists, and advocates have long identified the “transportation gap” as a significant factor contributing to race- and class-based economic and other disparities. Carlessness correlates closely with race and poverty; meanwhile, widespread disinvestment in public transit results in low-income Black and Brown people suffering a disproportionate lack of access to opportunity and choice in almost every conceivable area of life.

State and local governments most often propose one of three solutions to correct the transportation gap: 1) renewing their investment in public transit; 2) increasing access to shared transit; and 3) making adaptations to the built environment. This Article demonstrates …

The Ultimate Green Playbook For Condos And Coops, Robert B. Sobelman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Environmental Democracy That Was, Then Wasn't, But Could Be Again, Daniel E. Walters

Faculty Scholarship

Over the 50 years since former EPA Administrator William D. Ruckelshaus wrote The Citizen and the Environmental Regulatory Process, much has changed. On the one hand, participation in environmental regulatory decisionmaking has flourished, but on the other, Ruckelshaus's prediction of growing consensus around the environmental movement has proven illusory. In this short essay reflecting on participation in environmental regulatory decisionmaking, I highlight what Ruckelshaus was right about and, just as importantly, where his vision of environmental participatory governance might need some updating. Looking back at the dawn of environmental democracy in the regulatory process and comparing it to the …

Waste And Chemical Management In A 4°C World, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

Many chemicals and hazardous substances are kept in places that can withstand ordinary rain, but not severe storms or floods. If these events occur and the chemicals are released, people and the environment may be endangered. This Article discusses the hazards posed to chemical and waste disposal facilities by extreme weather events that would be worsened as a result of climate change, and how U.S. laws do (or do not) deal with these hazards; and considers how the law would need to change to cope with what would happen to these facilities in a potentially 4°C world. It is adapted …

Keeping All The Lights On: A Roadmap To Affordable, Universal Electricity Service In The Clean Energy Transition, Gabriel Pacyniak

Faculty Scholarship

The COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing reckoning with structural racism, and an emerging focus on justice in the clean energy transition have combined to spotlight utility disconnections and the related issues of energy access, affordability, and security. Recent empirical scholarship has demonstrated that electricity disconnections of lower-income people are relatively common, disproportionately affect people of color, and cause significant harm. This Article describes how a number of U.S. states are fashioning an emerging policy model that makes significant progress toward truly affordable and accessible electricity service for all. It also describes how these state actions are consistent with U.S. utility law …

State Sequestration: Federal Policy Accelerates Carbon Storage, But Leaves Full Climate, Equity Protections To States, Gabriel Pacyniak

Faculty Scholarship

Abstract

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—the UN’s expert science panel—has repeatedly found that limiting climate change to prevent catastrophic harms will require at least some use of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), and may entail substantial deployments of this technology. There is significant uncertainty, however, about the level of lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions achievable in practice from varying CCS applications; some applications could even lead to net increases in emissions. In addition, a number of these applications create or maintain other harms, especially those related to fossil fuel extraction and use. For these reasons, many environmental justice advocates …

Energy Insecurity Mitigation: The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program And Other Low-Income Relief Programs In The Us, Andrea Nishi, Diana Hernández, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

Energy insecurity, defined as the “inability to meet basic household energy needs,” can be both a chronic and an acute problem. Chronic energy insecurity manifests as an inability to access or afford adequate supplies of energy, while acute energy insecurity arises when infrastructural, maintenance, environmental, or other external sources disrupt or impede access to energy. A substantial number of individuals and families across the United States experience energy insecurity, which can lead to a variety of adverse consequences including residential instability and poor health outcomes.

New York Environmental Legislation In 2022, Michael B. Gerrard, Edward Mctiernan

Faculty Scholarship

Several significant environmental bills were enacted by the New York legislature and signed by Gov.Kathy Hochul in 2022, and several others were vetoed. As a result of measures enacted last year, New York will see $4.2 billion invested in environmental protection, restoration, climate resiliency and clean energy projects; potential disproportionate and inequitable impacts on disadvantaged communities will become a key factor in determining whether environmental permits are issued; and apparel containing intentionally added per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) will no longer be sold in the state. In addition, important changes were made to New York’s brownfield and wetlands laws. These …

New York Adopts Nation’S Strongest Environmental Justice Law, Michael B. Gerrard, Edward Mctiernan

Faculty Scholarship

On March 3, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the strongest environmental justice (EJ) law in the United States. While federal guidelines and the laws of some other states — notably California, Massachusetts, and Washington — require analysis, disclosure and consideration of EJ issues, only a New Jersey law adopted in 2020 imposed substantive limitations, as we discussed in our May 12, 2021, column. New York’s new law—building on enactments in 2019 and 2020 — is even more restrictive.

The new law — which we’ll call the EJL — provides that the Department of Environmental Conservation(DEC) “shall not issue an …

Survey Of 2022 Cases Under State Environmental Quality Review Act, Michael B. Gerrard, Edward Mctiernan

Faculty Scholarship

The courts in New York issued 43 opinions in 2022 under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). Of these, the largest number — 27 — upheld agency decisions not to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS), and eight overturned such decisions. Six cases upheld actions that had been the subject of an EIS; none overturned such actions. Two cases can’t be classified in this fashion.

These numbers are in line with the longstanding pattern that a project’s greatest litigation vulnerability under SEQRA is the failure to prepare an EIS; if an EIS has been prepared, very rarely will the …

Inequitable Distribution Of Plastic Benefits And Burdens On Economies And Public Health, Rachel Karasik, Nancy Lauer, Anne-Elisabeth Baker, Niki E. Lisi, Jason A. Somarelli, William C. Eward, Kathinka Fürst, Meagan M. Dunphy-Daly

Faculty Scholarship

Plastic heterogeneously affects social systems – notably human health and local and global economies. Here we discuss illustrative examples of the benefits and burdens of each stage of the plastic lifecycle (e.g., macroplastic production, consumption, recycling). We find the benefits to communities and stakeholders are principally economic, whereas burdens fall largely on human health. Furthermore, the economic benefits of plastic are rarely applied to alleviate or mitigate the health burdens it creates, amplifying the disconnect between who benefits and who is burdened. In some instances, social enterprises in low-wealth areas collect and recycle waste, creating a market for upcycled goods. …

A Planetary Imagination: Responses To Chakrabarty’S Socio-Natural Historiography, Editorial Introduction, Jeremy Bendik-Keymer

Faculty Scholarship

Dipesh Chakrabarty’s 2009 essay in Critical Inquiry, “The Climate of History: Four Theses” sent tremors through the environmentally aware humanities in the 2010s. Last year, he published the book that brought that essay forward into the present, The Climate of History in a Planetary Age. It’s no overstatement to think of this book as having clanged the bell for a new normal in the humanities and social sciences when it comes to telling the story of ourselves, that is, when it comes to human history. Responsible history should today be geological even when recounting the human record. Chakrabarty raised a …

Competency-Based Social Work Education: 25 Years Of Innovation & Leadership, Zoë Breen Wood, Marjorie N. Edguer, David L. Hussey, Mark Chupp, Grover C. Gilmore, Paul M. Kubek

Faculty Scholarship

The white paper chronicles the 25-year history of one graduate school of social work’s efforts in competency-based curriculum innovation. The authors argue that curriculum change is organizational change and share their experiences with a variety of curriculum assessment, design, and delivery efforts. Beginning with the development of the first social work competencies (labeled Abilities), pioneering efforts in assessment and holistic curricular design and delivery are reviewed. A new, one-semester, social work generalist curriculum is introduced. Emphasis is placed on the importance of developing a competency-based curriculum that is integrated both horizontally and vertically and that engages the social work student …

Beyond Bake Sales: Environmental Justice Through Superfund Removal Actions, Clifford Villa

Faculty Scholarship

Few people outside of EPA seem to be aware of the existence of the Superfund removal program, a program through which millions of dollars are allocated through EPA’s ten regional offices each year for cleaning up contaminated sites that are not designated 'Superfund' sites. This essay will provide a basic introduction to the Superfund removal program and particularly encourage consideration of Superfund removals to address growing concerns for environmental justice. Part II examines the legal authorities and limitations of the Superfund removal program. Part III provides examples of removal actions in environmental justice communities across the country. Part IV considers …

Environmental Enforceability, Seema Kakade

Faculty Scholarship

There are great expectations for a resurgence in federal environmental enforcement in a Biden-led federal government. Indeed, federal environmental enforcement suffered serious blows during the Trump administration, particularly at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), including large cuts in the budget for enforcement and reversals of key enforcement policies. Yet, while important to repair the damage, truly strengthening federal environmental enforcement will require more. This Article highlights the need for greater attention to the multiple hurdles that plague environmental enforcement. In doing so, it makes three contributions to the literature. First, it asserts that even though environmental statutes, regulations, and guidance …

Don't Blame The Flint River, Clifford Villa

Faculty Scholarship

Since appearing in modern form fifty years ago, the Clean Water Act has proven a powerful force for environmental justice, helping to clean up urban waterways across the country. Through establishment of water quality standards and enforcement of regulatory requirements, the Clean Water Act has compelled public authorities and private companies to upgrade infrastructure and curtail
discharge of sewage and other industrial effluent. At the same time, urban communities have continued to struggle with water pollution beyond the reaches of the Clean Water Act. This Article briefly examines three such communities: the Anacostia area of Washington, D.C.; the neighborhoods along …

Global Scripts In Transnational Legal Orders And Governance, Susan Block-Lieb

Faculty Scholarship

Global scripts—the rules, norms, and standards in international texts, and the tacit assumptions that surround and give meaning to them—exist on numerous issues (finance, trade, economic development, climate change, education, human rights, and gender equality), at every level of engagement (international, national, local), and at every phase of recursive norm construction and contestation. Case studies involving global scripts appear across a wide range of scholarship—considering sociological, anthropological, or sociolegal perspectives, or on international political economy, international organizations, international relations, or law and development—but because they are focused on one piece of the puzzle at a time, variation exists regarding the …