Law Commons^™

Individual Carbon Emissions: The Low-Hanging Fruit, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Jack Barkenbus, Jonathan Gilligan

Michael Vandenbergh

The individual and household sector generates roughly 30 to 40 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and is a potential source of prompt and large emissions reductions. Yet the assumption that only extensive government regulation will generate substantial reductions from the sector is a barrier to change, particularly in a political environment hostile to regulation. This Article demonstrates that prompt and large reductions can be achieved without relying predominantly on regulatory measures. The Article identifies seven "low-hanging fruit:" actions that have the potential to achieve large reductions at less than half the cost of the leading current federal legislation, require …

Framing The Global Pact For The Environment: Why It’S Needed, What It Does, And How It Does It, Teresa Parejo Navajas, Nathan Lobel

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

We face a critical environmental crisis. Humanity consumes unsustainably; we use resources at a rate fifty percent faster than they are reproduced by the planet. The population is growing exponentially and climate change, the most important challenge of this century, is already wreaking havoc around the world. Despite numerous existing international environmental treaties, the Earth, and, therefore, human safety and prosperity, is in peril. According to a recent study by scientists from Stanford University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the ongoing “sixth mass extinction” threatens to cause an “assault on the foundations of human civilization.” In November 2017, …

Law School News: Marine Law Symposium At Rwu Law To Focus On Legal Strategies For Climate Adaptation 11/08/2018, Edward Fitzpatrick

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Highway Culverts, Salmon Runs, And The Stevens Treaties: A Century Of Litigating Pacific Northwest Tribal Fishing Rights, Ryan Hickey

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Isaac Stevens, then Superintendent of Indian Affairs and Governor of Washington Territory, negotiated a series of treaties with Indian tribes in the Pacific Northwest during 1854 and 1855. A century and a half later in 2001, the United States joined 21 Indian tribes in filing a Request for Determination in the United States District Court for the District of Washington. Plaintiffs alleged the State of Washington had violated those 150-year-old treaties, which remained in effect, by building and maintaining culverts under roads that prevented salmon passage. This litigation eventually reached the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which held in favor …

Language Matters: Environmental Controversy And The Quest For Common Ground, Scott Slovic

Public Land & Resources Law Review

No abstract provided.

Public Employees For Environmental Responsibility V. United States Epa, F. Aaron Rains

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Prior to 2016, the EPA acknowledged that human activities significantly contribute to climate change. However, on March 9, 2017, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced that significant debate regarding the issue remained in the scientific community. In response to these statements, a nonprofit organization filed a FOIA request with the EPA seeking any documents or records Pruitt may have used when formulating his statements or substantiating his position. The EPA refused to comply with the request, citing undue burden and improper interrogation and this action followed. Upon review, the District Court for the District of Columbia found the plaintiff’s FOIA request …

Governor's Remarks, George Pataki

Pace Law Review

Remarks by Gov. George Pataki on Law Day at Pace University School of Law, May 1, 1996.

Too Little Too Late: The Infeasibility Of Osha's Silica Standards In The Oil Industry, Cali M. Franks

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

Non-Enforcement Takings, Timothy M. Mulvaney

Timothy M. Mulvaney

The non-enforcement of existing property laws is not logically separable from the issue of unfair and unjust state deprivations of property rights at which the Constitution's Takings Clause takes aim. This Article suggests, therefore, that takings law should police allocations resulting from non-enforcement decisions on the same "fairness and justice" grounds that it polices allocations resulting from decisions to enact and enforce new regulations. Rejecting the extant majority position that state decisions not to enforce existing property laws are categorically immune from takings liability is not to advocate that persons impacted by such decisions should be automatically or even regularly …

Constitutional Challenges And Regulatory Opportunities For State Climate Policy Innovation, Felix Mormann

Felix Mormann

This Article explores constitutional limits and regulatory openings for innovative state policies to mitigate climate change by promoting climate-friendly, renewable energy. In the absence of a comprehensive federal policy approach to climate change and clean energy, more and more states are stepping in to fill the policy void. Already, nearly thirty states have adopted renewable portfolio standards that create markets for solar, wind, and other clean electricity. To help populate these markets, a few pioneering states have recently started using feed-in tariffs that offer eligible generators above-market rates for their clean, renewable power.

But renewable portfolio standards, feed-in tariffs, and …

Beyond Tax Credits: Smarter Tax Policy For A Cleaner, More Democratic Energy Future, Felix Mormann

Felix Mormann

Solar, wind, and other renewable energy technologies have the potential to mitigate climate change, secure America’s energy independence, and create millions of green jobs. In the absence of a price on carbon emissions, however, these long-term benefits will not be realized without near-term policy support for renewables. This Article assesses the efficiency of federal tax incentives for renewables and proposes policy reform to more cost-effectively promote renewable energy through capital markets and crowdfunding.

Federal support for renewable energy projects today comes primarily in the form of tax incentives such as accelerated depreciation and, critically, tax credits. Empirical evidence reveals that …

Clean Energy Federalism, Felix Mormann

Felix Mormann

Legal scholarship tends to approach the law and policy of clean energy from an environmental law perspective. As hydraulic fracturing, renewable energy integration, nuclear reactor (re)licensing, transport biofuel mandates, and other energy issues have pushed to the forefront of the environmental law debate, clean energy law has begun to emancipate itself. The emerging literature on clean energy federalism is a symptom of this emancipation. This Article adds to that literature by offering two case studies, a novel model for policy integration, and theoretical insights to elucidate the relationship between environmental federalism and clean energy federalism.

Renewable portfolio standards and feed-in …

Love Of Landfill: Trashing The Maine Constitution To Solve A Garbage Problem, Donald Maurice Kreis

Maine Law Review

The human family is engaged in a noble struggle against the law of entropy, seeking to turn back or at least retard the inexorable process by which all matter in the known universe passes from useful to useless form. The political and legal system generally refers to useless matter as solid waste; in Maine the Legislature has chosen to wage this struggle against entropy and discourage production of entropical by-products through the enactment of the state's first comprehensive waste management law, "An Act to Promote Reduction, Recycling and Integrated Management of Solid Waste and Sound Environmental Regulation" (hereinafter "the Act"). …

The Lights Are On: Shining A Spotlight On The Retail Energy Market Reveals The Need For Enhanced Consumer Protections, Carrie A. Scrufari

Fordham Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Rise Of Rights-Based Climate Litigation And Germany's Susceptibility To Suit, Marc A. R. Zemel

Fordham Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Protecting Cultural Rights In The South Pacific Islands: Using Unesco And Marine Protected Areas To Plan For Climate Change, Elizabeth Thomas

Fordham Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

No Farms No Food? A Response To Baylen Linnekin, Joshua Ulan Galperin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

You have likely seen the bumper sticker, bold white text on a green background, reading “No Farms No Food.” The sticker is a product of, and in fact a tagline for, the American Farmland Trust. On the one hand, the point is obvious: As American Farmland Trust puts it, “[e]very meal on our plates [c]ontains ingredients grown on a farm. We all need farms to survive.” On the other hand, what seems like a plain statement on its face, “no farms no food,” is not so simple. Farms produce affordable food, they produce vast quantities of food, they produce healthy …

Take This Job And Shove It: The Pragmatic Philosophy Of Johnny Paycheck And A Prayer For Strict Liability In Appalachia, Eugene "Trey" Moore Iii

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming

Environmental Issues For The '90s: Golden-Cheeked Warblers And Yellowfin Tuna, Ernest E. Smith

Maine Law Review

Environmental issues have transformed the areas of law that I have taught for the last thirty-one years. A decade ago environmental law went virtually unmentioned in courses in property, domestic oil and gas law, and international transactions. By 1995 environmental concerns had moved from the periphery to center stage in these legal fields. To someone who teaches and writes about these subjects, the clearest manifestation of this development has been that virtually every first-year property casebook, mining or oil and gas law casebook, and international business transactions casebook, written in the last five years now includes segments on environmental law. …

Environmental And Legal Issues Of Waste Management And Recycling (Experience Of Foreign Countries), D.J. Halmuminov

Review of law sciences

The regulatory and legal framework, a review of internationally coordinated standards and recommendations, delicts and responsibilities in the sphere of utilization, recycling and processing of wastes are considered. The ecological and legal issues of utilization and processing waste according to the experience of foreign countries and the European Approach to use of waste were studied. Legal advice on advancing the use of waste in the Republic of Uzbekistan was given.

Il Contributo Delle Compagnie Oil & Gas Nel Raggiungimento Degli Obiettivi Energetici E Climatici (How Oil And Gas Companies Can Help Meet The Global Goals On Energy And Climate Change), Lisa E. Sachs, Nicolas Maennling, Perrine Toledano

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Nel settembre 2015, i governi di tutto il mondo hanno adottato17 Obiettivi di Sviluppo Sostenibile (Sustainable Development Goals – SDG) e, pochi mesi dopo – a dicembre – hanno firmatol’Accordo di Parigi. Queste azioni sono la riprova delrafforzamento del consenso globalecirca la necessità di frenare il cambiamento climatico indotto dalle attività antropiche e dipromuovere uno sviluppo sostenibilesu scala mondiale. I due concetti sono infatti strettamente legati: l’urgenza di affrontare il cambiamento climatico va inquadrata nella cornice degli sforzi globali tesi a ridurre la povertà, promuovere la crescita economica, rispettare i diritti umani e di inclusione sociale.

On September 2015, governments …

Cleaner, Greener, Healthier: A Prescription For Stronger Canadian Environmental Laws And Policies By David R. Boyd, Alex D. Ketchum

The Goose

Review of David R. Boyd's Cleaner, Greener, Healthier: A Prescription for Stronger Canadian Environmental Laws and Policies.

Micro-Housing: Seattle’S Contradictory Approach To Affordable, Sustainable Housing, Nick Quijas

Seattle Journal of Environmental Law

Seattle, along with many other cities, is facing a housing crisis the likes of which it hasn't seen in at least half a century. A lack of affordable housing is exacerbating a homelessness crisis, and is arguably contributing to sprawl. In the face of all of this, Seattle has allowed one of the densest housing options to become economically unfeasible to build at an affordable rate.

Addressing The Prior Appropriation Doctrine In The Shadow Of Climate Change And The Paris Climate Agreement, Kait Schilling

Seattle Journal of Environmental Law

Climate change is the new lens through which the world needs to view water. Such a viewpoint is prudent, as the western United States is in a state of water scarcity that requires a reevaluation of how fresh water resources are being used. Western states have entrenched themselves in a system of prior appropriation that ensures senior water users retain priority over, and protection from the impacts of, new water users. Unfortunately, allocating new water rights under prior appropriation has become difficult as streams are increasingly fully appropriated with no new water rights allocations available. Climate change is exacerbating this …

The Controversy Over Permit-Exempt Wells In Washington, Jean O. Melious

Seattle Journal of Environmental Law

In a groundbreaking 2016 decision commonly referred to as the Hirst decision, the Washington State Supreme Court recognized the interrelationship between land use and water use. The Court held that the state’s Growth Management Act required local governments to protect water resources through measures ensuring that new development would not deprive senior water users of their water rights. The decision focused on development relying on permit-exempt wells. Permit-exempt wells reflect a pioneer mentality that encourages dispersed development by allowing rural property owners and developers to appropriate water without obtaining a permit. Permit-exempt wells are subject to the state law of …

Empowering Consumers And Investors To Choose A Sustainable Future, Olivier Jamin

Seattle Journal of Environmental Law

Compelled commercial disclosures have been an increasingly hot topic over the last few years, as illustrated by the GMO labeling controversy, finally enacted into law in August 2016. Typically, judicial challenges to such disclosure represent a clash between two distinct interests: the consumers’ “right to know” against companies’ freedom of speech under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Establishing a clear test to analyze the constitutionality of compelled commercial disclosures has proven difficult because of the Supreme Court’s confusing jurisprudence with regard to this issue.

This article aims at promoting two ideas. First, it seeks to refine the …

Decarbonizing Light-Duty Vehicles, Amy L. Stein, Joshua P. Fershee

UF Law Faculty Publications

Reducing the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% from 1990 levels by 2050 will require multiple legal pathways for changing its transportation fuel sources. The Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) authors characterize transforming the transportation system as part of a third pillar of fundamental changes required in the U.S. energy system: “fuel switching of end uses to electricity and other low-carbon supplies.” The goal is to shift 80%-95% of the miles driven from gasoline to energy sources like electricity and hydrogen. Relying upon the DDPP analysis, this Article, excerpted from Michael B. Gerrard & John C. Dernbach, …

Non-Enforcement Takings, Timothy M. Mulvaney

Faculty Scholarship

The non-enforcement of existing property laws is not logically separable from the issue of unfair and unjust state deprivations of property rights at which the Constitution's Takings Clause takes aim. This Article suggests, therefore, that takings law should police allocations resulting from non-enforcement decisions on the same "fairness and justice" grounds that it polices allocations resulting from decisions to enact and enforce new regulations. Rejecting the extant majority position that state decisions not to enforce existing property laws are categorically immune from takings liability is not to advocate that persons impacted by such decisions should be automatically or even regularly …