Law Commons^™

Not A Ceqa Question, Alan Ramo

Publications

Until the California Supreme Court speaks, the environment's impact on a project is not subject to environmental review.

Federal Air Pollution Requirements, Helen Kang

Publications

The Clean Air Act is notoriously difficult to navigate and enforce. The difficulty is in part due to the act's regulatory scheme, which is inferior in critical ways to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act). Unlike the Waste Discharge Requirements covering discharges of pollution into water bodies issued by the Regional Water Quality Control Board, which contain both federal and state requirements in a single permit, the Clean Air Act does not require a single permit for all facilities that pollute the air. Also significant, the Clean Air Act does not require self-reporting …

A Renewable Future: Jerry Brown's Environmental Agenda, Clifford Rechtschaffen, Ken Alex

Publications

The Environmental Law Section was honored to welcome Cliff Rechtschaffen and Ken Alex, two prominent Senior Advisors to Governor Jerry Brown, as its featured speakers for the first plenary session at the 2011 Environmental Law Conference at Yosemite® last October. Messrs. Rechtschaffen and Alex led a lively discussion of energy and environmental issues in the Brown administration, which touched on topics ranging from the Governor's agenda for addressing climate change to the Office of Planning and Research's approaches to CEQA to the administration's vision for a California with 50 million people, among others. They have adapted the following article from …

An Integrated Green Urban Electrical Grid, Deborah N. Behles

Publications

This Article will discuss the vision of a new green urban grid that relies on decentralized generation and storage, energy efficiency, and demand response. Much of the literature focuses on the development of aspects of the green grid, such as energy efficiency, without consideration of how these resources should be integrated to effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollution, maintain reliability, and create economic opportunity. After discussing the components of the green urban grid, this Article will discuss why integrating these components is essential to meeting renewable policy goals, and finally, this Article will discuss steps that regulators and policymakers …

Air Pollution & Environmental Inequity In The San Francisco Bay Area, Ken Kloc

Publications

Environmental justice advocates have long been concerned about the health impact of elevated air pollution levels found in disadvantaged communities across the country. Sustained public pressure on this issue has motivated regulators to initiate a variety of programs to better characterize the combined or “cumulative” air pollution exposure in localities with multiple pollution sources. In the last decade, local and state agencies have completed a number of relevant San Francisco Bay Area studies and the results are now being used to develop new pollution control policies. The goal of the present paper is to review this air quality research and …

Why California Failed To Meet Its Rps Target, Deborah N. Behles

Publications

Congress and states are developing and implementing plans to mitigate the impact of climate change through measures that reduce greenhouse gases. Many of these efforts are focused on the electrical generation industry since approximately 40% of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States are created from burning fossil fuels to generate electricity. To reduce the greenhouse gases produced by the electrical industry sector, many greenhouse reduction plans have required increased generation of electricity through renewable, less-polluting, resources which mandates electric utilities to obtain a percentage of their power from renewable resources. Congress has attempted to follow suit by proposing several …

Fighting For Environmental Justice Takes Long-Lasting Coalitions, Helen Kang

Publications

“It’s official!” read Theresa Mueller’s long-awaited February 2011 e-mail to community activists. A veteran deputy city attorney with the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, Mueller was referring to a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission decision that finally allowed the Potrero power plant, the second of the two dirtiest fossil fuel power plants in the most polluted area of San Francisco, to close.

Power plants do not typically close. Although power plants are designed to operate for thirty to forty years, most power plants continue to operate long beyond their planned life spans. The last step in a long list of agency, …

Navigating Environmental Regulations, Helen Kang

Publications

When compliance with federal and local laws is at issue, knowing where to look is key to ensuring not running afoul of either, explains Helen Kang of Golden Gate University School of Law.

Failure To Launch, Alan Ramo

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No abstract provided.

The Public Trust Navigates California's Bay Delta, Paul Stanton Kibel

Publications

California's Bay Delta, where freshwater from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers meets the saltwater from San Francisco Bay, has been mired in litigation and political controversy for decades. In the 2009 Delta Reform Act, the California State Water Board was ordered to conduct hearings to establish flow criteria to protect public trust resources in the Bay Delta. This article examines how the statutory deployment of the public trust in the 2009 Delta Reform Act built on the California Supreme Court's 1983 National Audubon decision, and details the California State Water Board proceedings leading up to the public trust Delta …

Instream Flow And The Public Trust: Statutory Innovation In California's 2009 Delta Reform Act, Paul S. Kibel

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No abstract provided.

Environmental Benefits And The Notion Of Positive Environmental Justice, Colin Crawford

Publications

Following the introductory section, the Article is divided into three parts. The first portion of Part 1 will chart the relatively thin case made in the U.S. literature for what this Article labels "positive environmental justice." The second section in Part 1 then looks outside the United States and analyzes an important and relatively recent decision of the Colombian Constitutional Court. The Colombian decision, which affirmed the constitutional and other international and domestic law rights of native and Afro- Colombian peoples in that country to make decisions regarding the use and exploitation of the nation's abundant forests," provides a nuanced …

Examining The Air We Breathe: Epa Should Evaluate Cumulative Impacts When It Promulgates National Ambient Air Quality Standards, Deborah N. Behles

Publications

Inhaling air pollutants can lead to a variety of adverse respiratory and cardiovascular health effects. This potential risk for health impacts is likely greater when the mixture of pollutants that exists in ambient air, rather than isolated pollutants, are inhaled. Despite the evidence of potential cumulative impacts, EPA has continued to focus its analysis of health impacts on isolated pollutants instead of the actual mixture we breathe. This article proposes that EPA should evaluate and consider cumulative health impacts when it sets national ambient air quality standards under the Clean Air Act. EPA is considering two pollutants together to determine …

Climate Adaptation Policy At The Continental Level: Natural Resources In North America And Europe, Paul Stanton Kibel

Publications

This article assesses the extent to which the concepts of climate proofing and climate policy coherence have found expression in continental natural resource regimes established in North America and Europe. The article first examines the recognition of these concepts within three North American crossborder regimes directly impacted by climate change: the Waters Treaty between Mexico and the United States; the Pacific Salmon Treaty between Canada and the United States; and the North American Waterfowl Management Plan between Canada, Mexico and the United States. Next it considers the extent to which these concepts are reflected in recent European initiatives related to …

Green Warfare: An American Grand Strategy For The 21st Century, Colin Crawford

Publications

This Comment advocates an Apollo Program-type mentality in terms of "greening" American society from the top down-beginning with the military-in order to break the country's addiction to fossil fuels. In embracing a broad-based "green" strategy, the United States can weave together a number of priorities heretofore thought irreconcilable: national security, environmental protection, and economic growth. In defining a clear "enemy" - our dependence on fossil fuels - the U.S. can unite various segments of society around a value-neutral and universally beneficial policy objective. By calling upon the resources of academia, the military, and the business community, the government can harness …

Wastewater Resources: Rethinking Centralized Wastewater Treatment Systems, Land Use Planning And Water Conservation, Colin Crawford

Publications

This article aims to contribute to the debate about the legal and regulatory failure to search for imaginative-and immediate-solutions to questions of wastewater management. Following this introductory section, Part I examines the existing, highly centralized models of wastewater treatment in the United States. To do so, Part I first examines federal environmental law and regulation relating to wastewater treatment. In addition, Part I briefly looks at a sampling of state laws affecting wastewater treatment and concludes that neither federal law nor typical state laws express a preference for centralized wastewater treatment-the dominant and default method for wastewater treatment in the …

The Challenges Of Climate Change Regulation For Governments On The Political Left: A Comparison Of Brazilian And United States Promises And Actions, Colin Crawford, Solange Teles Da Silva, Kevin Morris

Publications

At the December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, as is now well known, the parties failed to agree on any detailed course of action, much less enter into a binding agreement to control carbon emissions. However, four developing countries, Brazil, China, India and South Africa, formed a working group now known as "BASIC," and promised to try and resolve at least one key sticking point. Specifically, the BASIC countries brokered an accord with the United States under which both developing and more developed nations would later submit carbon emissions target cuts.

Rain Follows The Plow: An Introduction To The Issue, Paul Stanton Kibel, Philip D. Batchelder

Publications

No abstract provided.

A Case Study Of Environmental Justice Work In West Oakland, Helen H. Kang

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No abstract provided.

Pursuing Environmental Justice: Obstacles And Opportunities - Lessons From The Field, Helen H. Kang

Publications

This article argues that the clinic‘s clients and similarly situated grassroots groups pursue litigation because the laws do not adequately protect them from pollution at the neighborhood level. Environmental lawsuits filed by such groups result from the conclusion that there is "too much" pollution in the neighborhood—there is elevated background pollution, violations of environmental laws contribute to excess pollution, and litigation is one of the few ways to redress the distributive injustice resulting from pollution created by multiple sources.

Why Ceqa Exemption Decisions Need Additional Notice Requirements, Deborah N. Behles

Publications

This article will initially describe CEQA, its exemptions, and the lack of notice requirements for exemption decisions. Next, this article will set forth the reasons why additional notice provisions are necessary to protect communities from agencies erroneously exempting projects that adversely impact the environment from environmental review. Lastly, this article will propose guidelines for projects that should require additional notice, explain how to implement them, and outline the information the notice should contain.

Learning From Bogota: An Introduction To The Study Space Articles, Colin Crawford

Publications

STUDY SPACE SYMPOSIUM ARTICLES: Learning from Bogota: An Introduction to the Study Space Articles.

The Study Space project of which this volume is the second iteration strives to create a forum to focus on the positive and negative effects of human activity as it changes physical and built environments-in the broadest sense of the term "environment," or what the Study. Space subtitle characterizes as the "human habits and habitats in, the 21st century." This volume endeavors to provide some such explorations and reflections for Bogota.

Our Bandit Future - Cities, Shantytowns, And Climate Change Governance, Colin Crawford

Publications

This Article seeks, to begin to define a role for cities and their inhabitants in climate change governance. Part I argues that if we fail to take into account global urbanization and its defining characteristics, namely extreme squalor and associated social ills, as a central feature of climate change policy, we face, as a Rio de Janeiro taxi driver said to me during the hot, dry, violent winter of 2006 in that city, 13 "urn futuro bandido," literally "a bandit future." That is, we face a future where cities, the places where most of the world's population lives, will experience …

Response To Professor Mcallister's Reply To My Review Of Making Law Matter, Colin Crawford

Publications

No abstract provided.

Defending Public Prosecutors And Defining Brazil's Environmental Public Interest: A Review Of Lesley Mcallister's Making Law Matter: Environmental Protection And Legal Institutions In Brazil, Colin Crawford

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No abstract provided.

The New Race: Speeding Up Climate Change Innovation, Deborah N. Behles

Publications

This article will initially summarize the current climate change regulatory environment and the need for innovation. It will then discuss why current intellectual property policies fail to encourage innovation to the extent needed. Finally, this article will examine various proposals for improving our intellectual property system in the area of climate change and recommend initial steps the U.S. could take to encourage the development and disclosure of climate change innovations by balancing economic incentives for innovation with the need to quickly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Instruments Not Monuments: An Introduction To The Issue, Paul Stanton Kibel, C. Danny Wang

Publications

No abstract provided.

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

Publications

Although the environmental justice movement catapulted into national consciousness during the 1990s, as reflected most notably in President Clinton's 1994 Executive Order on Environmental Justice, communities of color still face an uphill struggle fighting specific siting decisions. One community in the midst of such a battle is Bayview-Hunters Point, a low and middle-income community in San Francisco, overwhelmingly comprised of people of color. It is home to San Francisco's two existing power plants, and is burdened with a very high concentration of the City's dirty industries. In 1994, the San Francisco Energy Company proposed siting yet another power plant in …

Foreword And Acknowledgments: About The Study Space Project, Colin Crawford

Publications

Study Space: Evaluations of Human Habitats and Habits in the 21st Century, is an intensive series of workshops, held at diverse locations around the world, the goal of which is to acquire a deeper understanding of the legal, policy and human challenges posed by the global growth of megacities. Study Space intends, at various times and in different places, to provide a vehicle for progressive scholars and graduate students from varied backgrounds and disciplines to study, learn and seek to understand experientially this trend in all of its implications - for identity and self-determination, for participatory democracy, for equality and …

Saving Biodiversity At The Crossroads Of The Americas, Colin Crawford

Publications

This paper will examine the ecological status and prospects of Panama's reverted areas, meaning those areas returned to the country with the reversion of sovereignty over the Panama Canal lands. Following an introductory Part I that highlights Panama's biological diversity, Part II will isolate some of the development pressures facing the reverted areas and those closest to central Panama City in particular. In addition, Part II will describe the extent of the reverted areas and identify their biological, environmental, social and economic value both to Panama City and the Republic. Part III will discuss the importance of protecting the reverted …