Law Commons^™

Fears, Faith, And Facts In Environmental Law, William W. Buzbee

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Environmental law has long been shaped by both the particular nature of environmental harms and by the actors and institutions that cause such harms or can address them. This nation’s environmental statutes remain far from perfect, and a comprehensive law tailored to the challenges of climate change is still elusive. Nonetheless, America’s environmental laws provide lofty, express protective purposes and findings about reasons for their enactment. They also clearly state health and environmental goals, provide tailored criteria for action, and utilize procedures and diverse regulatory tools that reflect nuanced choices.

But the news is far from good. Despite the ambitious …

A Balanced Prescription For More Effective Environmental Regulations, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Government agencies increasingly base the structure and approval of environmental regulations on a benefit-cost test. For regulations that pass this test, total benefits exceed total costs. Under a benefit-cost framework, the degree of regulatory stringency is set at an economically efficient level whereby the tightness of the regulation is increased up to the point where the incremental benefits equal the incremental costs. Setting regulatory standards to achieve the efficient degree of pollution control does not fully discourage entry into polluting industries, provide compensation to those harmed by pollution, or establish meaningful incentives for effective enforcement. This article proposes that the …

Preventing Emissions From Slipping Through The Cracks: How Collaboration On New Technologies To Detect Violations And Minimize Emissions Can Efficiently Enforce Existing Clean Air Act Regulations, Kathryn Caballero

Journal Articles

The link between air pollution and poor public health is well known and has been farther documented during the COVID-19 pandemic, 1 but EPA has outdated methods and rules to detect air emissions. Enforcing existing environmental regulations presents challenges because the detection and monitoring technologies identified in the regulations, or the regulation language itself, may not sufficiently identify environmental pollution, let alone complex environmental fraud. How can EPA best use new technologies and concepts to detect violations, with the intent of minimizing emissions, to improve human health and environmental outcomes during the lengthy process of drafting and publishing new regulations? …

Sensitive Species Data In Colorado’S State And Local Government Decision-Making, Kevin J. Lynch, Marissa Hoffman, Katherine Klein, John Molera, Merrily Newcomb, Sarah Matsumoto, Wyatt Sassman, Natalie Norcutt

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This report addresses the use of sensitive species data in Colorado at both the state and local levels. At the state level, this research focuses on environmental statutes and regulations, permitting authority in various state agencies, and processes for identifying and dealing with sensitive species. At the local level, the focus is on the role of sensitive species data in development proposals, as well as the varying level of detail required for considering sensitive species data in in local government decision-making.

Principally, this report identifies: (1) areas where statutes and regulations require the consideration of sensitive species data; (2) areas …

The Missing Element Of Environmental Cost-Benefit Analysis: Compensation For The Loss Of Regulatory Benefits, Karl S. Coplan

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Despite its critics, cost-benefit analysis remains a fixture of the environmental regulation calculus. Most criticisms of cost-benefit analysis focus on the impossibility of monetizing environmental and health amenities protected by regulations. Less attention has been paid to the regressive wealth-transfer effects of regulations foregone based on cost-benefit analysis. This regressive effect occurs as long as downwind communities that suffer health and harms from environmental contamination are generally less wealthy than the owners of pollution sources that avoid regulatory-compliance costs. The availability of compensation to pollution-victims has the potential to ameliorate this regressive effect. This Article recommends that the availability of …

A Tale Of Two Continents: Environmental Management-Based Regulation In The European Union And The United States, Rachel E. Deming

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

New York City Rules! Regulatory Models For Environmental And Public Health, Jason J. Czarnezki

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Scholars have become increasingly interested in facilitating improvement in environmental and public health at the local level. Over the last few years, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Council have proposed and adopted numerous environmental and public health initiatives, providing a useful case study for analyzing the development and success (or failure) of various regulatory tools, and offering larger lessons about regulation that can be extrapolated to other substantive areas. This Article, first, seeks to categorize and evaluate these “New York Rules,” creating a new taxonomy to understand different types of regulation. These “New …

Leveraging Mining Investments In Water Infrastructure For Broad Economic Development: Models, Opportunities And Challenges, Perrine Toledano, Clara Roorda

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The initial phase of the Leveraging Mining-Related Infrastructure Investments for Development project consisted of a worldwide survey of regulatory, commercial and operating case studies of shared use of mining-related infrastructure. This Policy Paper delivers the findings for water infrastructure.

Regulatory Impact Analyses Of Environmental Justice Effects, Spencer Banzhaf

ECON Publications

Recently, the US EPA has pledged to incorporate environmental justice considerations "into the fabric" of its rulemaking procedures. But finding an appropriate way to incorporate environmental justice considerations into policy-making has been a procedural challenge since President Clinton issued Executive Order 12898 over 15 years ago. In particular, environmental justice concerns tend to be overshadowed by efficiency considerations as embodied in benefit-cost analysis. Yet at the same time, both Presidents Obama and Clinton have issued orders to incorporate distributional and equity considerations into benefit-cost analysis, as well as the standard efficiency considerations.

This article argues that the environmental justice and …

Slides: Integrated Policy, Planning, And Management Of Water Resources, Robert Wilkinson

Western Water Law, Policy and Management: Ripples, Currents, and New Channels for Inquiry (Martz Summer Conference, June 3-5)

Presenter: Robert Wilkinson, Ph.D., Director of the Water Policy Program, Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California-- Santa Barbara

60 slides

The Taming Of The Precautionary Principle, John S. Applegate

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Environmental Instrument Choice In A Second-Best World: A Comment On Professor Richards, Daniel H. Cole

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

15th Annual Environmental Law Institute, Office Of Continuing Legal Education At The University Of Kentucky College Of Law, W. Blaine Early Iii, Timothy J. Hagerty, E. Allen Kyle, Lee Colten, Tom C. Van Arsdall, John R. Leathers, Clinton J. Elliott, Thomas J. Fitzgerald, Jeffrey M. Sanders, Richard H. Underwood, Bradley E. Diillon, Henry L. Stephens, Lauren Anderson, David A. Smart

Continuing Legal Education Materials

Materials from the 15th Annual Environmental Law Institute held by UK/CLE in March 1999.

When Is Command-And-Control Efficient? Institutions, Technology, And The Comparative Efficiency Of Alternative Regulatory Regimes For Environmental Protection, Daniel H. Cole, Peter Z. Grossman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Contrary to the conventional wisdom among economists and legal scholars, command-and-control (CAC) environmental regulations are not inherently inefficient or invariably less efficient than alternative "economic" instruments (EI). In fact, CAC regimes can be and have been efficient (producing net social benefits), even more efficient in some cases that alternative EI regimes.

Standard economic accounts of CAC are insensitive to the historical, technological, and institutional contexts that can influence (and sometimes determine) the efficiency of alternative regulatory regimes. A regime that is nominally or relatively efficient in one set of circumstances may be nominally or relatively inefficient in another. In some …

Clearing The Air: Four Propositions About Property Rights And Environmental Protection, Daniel H. Cole

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Failure Of Federal Land Planning, Steven P. Quarles

The National Forest Management Act in a Changing Society, 1976-1996: How Well Has It Worked in the Past 20 Years?: Will It Work in the 21st Century? (September 16-18)

26 pages.

Water Rights And The Commonwealth, Eric T. Freyfogle

Sustainable Use of the West's Water (Summer Conference, June 12-14)

20 pages.

The Perils Of Unreasonable Risk: Information, Regulatory Policy, And Toxic Substances Control, John S. Applegate

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Legal Devices For Enhancing Water Diversion Opportunities Within The Appropriation System, David C. Hallford

Moving the West's Water to New Uses: Winners and Losers (Summer Conference, June 6-8)

28 pages.

Water Development And Acquisition For A Municipal Supply, Tom Griswold

Western Water: Expanding Uses/Finite Supplies (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

18 pages.

Book Review. Federal Environmental Law (E. Dolgin And T. Guilbert, Eds.), A. Dan Tarlock

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Application Of The National Environmental Policy Act Of 1969 To The Darien Gap Highway Project, A. Dan Tarlock

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Environmental Regulation Of Power Plant Siting: Existing And Proposed Institutions, A. Dan Tarlock, Roger Tippy, Frances Enseki Francis

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Air Pollution Control In Indiana In 1968: A Comment, Julian Conrad Juergensmeyer, Anita L. Morris

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Control Of Air Pollution Through The Assertion Of Private Rights, Julian Conrad Juergensmeyer

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Air pollution is clearly one of the major social problems confronting contemporary American society. Yet the United States is still without an effective federal pollution control program, and those state and local control programs that do exist are largely ineffective. Until government regulation is able to keep the expulsion of air contaminants within tolerable limits, it will be necessary for those seeking to control air pollution to rely upon the assertion of private rights. In this article the author discusses the principal causes of action available to the private pollution controller, and concludes that, although traditional legal concepts may provide …