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Full-Text Articles in Law

New York Environmental Legislation In 2023, Michael B. Gerrard Jan 2024

New York Environmental Legislation In 2023, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

In 2023, New York enacted laws to aid the state in achieving the renewable energy and greenhouse gas emissions reduction mandates of the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA).The state also now has new laws to reduce exposure to lead in drinking water and paint; to ban natural gas furnaces and stoves in new buildings; to restrict neonicotinoid pesticides; and to encourage “nature-based solutions” for stabilizing tidal coastlines. These and other new and amended environmental and energy laws—as well as notable vetoes—are discussed in this article.


California And Europe Require Scope 3 Climate Disclosures Despite Sec Retreat, Michael B. Gerrard Jan 2024

California And Europe Require Scope 3 Climate Disclosures Despite Sec Retreat, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

In March 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued proposed regulations on disclosure of climate-related information by public companies, including their material Scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This created a firestorm, drawing more than 24,000 comment letters.On March 6, 2024, the SEC issued its final rule, significantly narrowing the requirements and, notably, eliminating the Scope 3 disclosures. Companies that do not want to make Scope 3 disclosures should not rejoice and environmental advocates and others who do want to see such disclosures should not despair, because new requirements from both California and Europe do mandate this information …


New York City Relaxing Environmental Review Rules For Housing Construction, Michael B. Gerrard Jan 2024

New York City Relaxing Environmental Review Rules For Housing Construction, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

Faced with a severe housing shortage, New York City is exempting the construction of much new housing from the environmental review processes and taking many other steps to encourage such construction throughout the city. Several of these moves will also help the transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy.


Climate Chauvinism: Rethinking Loss & Damage, Nadia B. Ahmad, Victoria Beatty Jan 2023

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

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


New York's Green Amendment: The First Decisions, Michael B. Gerrard, Edward Mctiernan Jan 2023

New York's Green Amendment: The First Decisions, Michael B. Gerrard, Edward Mctiernan

Faculty Scholarship

On Nov. 2, 2021, the voters of New York by a margin of more than 2-1 approved an environmental rights amendment to the Bill of Rights in the New York State Constitution. Article I Section 19 reads in its entirety: “Environmental Rights. Each person shall have a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.” In the little more than a year since then, one of the great questions in New York environmental law has been — what does this mean? It looks significant, but just how much? That is left to the courts to decide. We now …


Waste And Chemical Management In A 4°C World, Michael B. Gerrard Jan 2023

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 …


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 Jan 2023

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.


Regulation Of Polyfluoroalkyl Chemicals In New York, Michael B. Gerrard, Edward Mctiernan Jan 2022

Regulation Of Polyfluoroalkyl Chemicals In New York, Michael B. Gerrard, Edward Mctiernan

Faculty Scholarship

Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are two polyfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFAS) – a class of over 7,000 compounds with unique chemical structures that repel lipids and water. As a result, PFOA and PFOS have been used in numerous household products, such as nonstick cookware and stain-resistant carpets, and commercial applications such as firefighting foam. PFOS and PFOA are frequently referred to as “emerging contaminants,” a label with no precise regulatory definition but generally understood to refer to chemicals for which there are few published standards designed to protect human health and the environment from perceived hazards. Many PFAS compounds …


Environmental Law As Segregation, Nadia B. Ahmad, Melissa Bryan Apr 2021

Environmental Law As Segregation, Nadia B. Ahmad, Melissa Bryan

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Climate Cages: Connecting Migration, The Carceral State, Extinction Rebellion, And The Coronavirus Through Cicero And 21 Savage, Nadia B. Ahmad Oct 2020

Climate Cages: Connecting Migration, The Carceral State, Extinction Rebellion, And The Coronavirus Through Cicero And 21 Savage, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Intended Injury: Transferred Intent And Reliance In Climate Change Fraud, Wes Henricksen May 2020

Intended Injury: Transferred Intent And Reliance In Climate Change Fraud, Wes Henricksen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


America's New Covenant With Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Human Rights And Democracy Act Of 2019, Jason Buhi Apr 2020

America's New Covenant With Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Human Rights And Democracy Act Of 2019, Jason Buhi

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Irena At 10: Post Paris Transitions And Energy Diplomacy Beyond Opec, The Energy Charter Treaty, And The Coronavirus, Nadia B. Ahmad Apr 2020

Irena At 10: Post Paris Transitions And Energy Diplomacy Beyond Opec, The Energy Charter Treaty, And The Coronavirus, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Faith-Based Approaches To Ecological Harmony And Environmental Protection, Nadia B. Ahmad Apr 2020

Faith-Based Approaches To Ecological Harmony And Environmental Protection, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


The Second International Conference On Climate, Nature, And Society: Selected Conference Excerpts, Nadia B. Ahmad Oct 2019

The Second International Conference On Climate, Nature, And Society: Selected Conference Excerpts, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Mask Off - The Coloniality Of Environmental Justice, Nadia B. Ahmad Jul 2019

Mask Off - The Coloniality Of Environmental Justice, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Peddling Ignorance: A New Falsity Standard For Scientific Knowledge Fraud Cases, Wes Henricksen Jan 2018

Peddling Ignorance: A New Falsity Standard For Scientific Knowledge Fraud Cases, Wes Henricksen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Regulatory Cooperation In International Trade And Its Transformative Effects On Executive Power, Elizabeth Trujillo Jan 2018

Regulatory Cooperation In International Trade And Its Transformative Effects On Executive Power, Elizabeth Trujillo

Faculty Scholarship

As international trade receives the brunt of local discontent with globalization trends and recent changes by the Trump administration have put into question the viability of such trade arrangements moving forward, there has been a clear trend in using international trade fora for managing regulatory barriers on economic development. This paper will discuss this recent trend in international trade toward increased regulatory cooperation through the creation of formalized transnational regulatory bodies, such as the U.S.-EU Regulatory Cooperation Body that was being discussed in the TTIP negotiations and comparable ones in the Canadian-EU Trade Agreement as well as U.S.-Mexico and U.S.- …


International Environmental Law And The Global South Edited By Shawket Alam, Sumudu Atapattu, Carmen G. Gonzalez, And Jona Razzaque, Nadia B. Ahmad Jul 2016

International Environmental Law And The Global South Edited By Shawket Alam, Sumudu Atapattu, Carmen G. Gonzalez, And Jona Razzaque, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Billionaires, Birds, And Environmental Brawls: Reconceptualizing Energy Easements, Nadia B. Ahmad Oct 2014

Billionaires, Birds, And Environmental Brawls: Reconceptualizing Energy Easements, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


“Turn On The Lights” -Sustainable Energy Investment And Regulatory Policy: Charting The Hydrokinetic Path For Pakistan, Nadia B. Ahmad Oct 2013

“Turn On The Lights” -Sustainable Energy Investment And Regulatory Policy: Charting The Hydrokinetic Path For Pakistan, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Escaping The Sporhase Maze: Protecting State Waters Within The Commerce Clause, Mark S. Davis, Michael Pappas Jan 2013

Escaping The Sporhase Maze: Protecting State Waters Within The Commerce Clause, Mark S. Davis, Michael Pappas

Faculty Scholarship

Eastern states, though they have enjoyed a history of relatively abundant water, increasingly face the need to conserve water, particularly to protect water-dependent ecosystems. At the same time, growing water demands, climate change, and an emerging water-oriented economy have intensified pressure for interstate water transfers. Thus, even traditionally wet states are seeking to protect or secure their water supplies. However, restrictions on water sales and exports risk running afoul of the Dormant Commerce Clause. This Article offers guidance for states, partciularly eastern states concerned with maintaining and improving water-dependent ecosystems, in seeking to restrict water exports while staying within the …


Earth Jurisprudence A Pathfinder, Glen-Peter Ahlers Sr. Oct 2008

Earth Jurisprudence A Pathfinder, Glen-Peter Ahlers Sr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


The (Non)Uniqueness Of Environmental Law, Jay D. Wexler Jan 2005

The (Non)Uniqueness Of Environmental Law, Jay D. Wexler

Faculty Scholarship

In everyday discourse, the label "environmental law" signifies a distinct and unique area of the law. The uniqueness of environmental law stems most obviously from the subject matter of environmental legislation and regulation. But does environmental law also differ from other areas of law with respect to how judges ought to approach deciding cases? Should judges act differently somehow when they are deciding an environmental law case as opposed to, for example, a labor law or banking law case? At least one influential scholar - Richard Lazarus of the Georgetown University Law Center - has argued that the distinctive features …


Territoriality, Risk Perception, And Counterproductive Legal Structures: The Case Of Waste Facility Siting, Michael B. Gerrard Jan 1997

Territoriality, Risk Perception, And Counterproductive Legal Structures: The Case Of Waste Facility Siting, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

The siting of hazardous and nuclear waste facilities has proven to be a task of enormous difficulty in our federal system. In this Article, the Author argues that one of the major causal factors for this difficulty is that the legal regime surrounding waste facility siting decisions is not structured in a manner sensitive to the human factors involved. The siting of a hazardous waste facility is likely to generate a negative community response where the imposition of externally made decisions and externally generated wastes fails to take into account the innate human trait of territoriality. Territoriality is a powerful …