Law Commons^™

Climate Change Mitigation And The Global Energy System, Frank A. Felder

Villanova Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Alternative Energy Technologies For Transportation, Ajay K. Prasad

Villanova Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Green Monsters: Examining The Environmental Impact Of Sports Stadiums, Thomas J. Grant Jr.

Villanova Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Power Play: An Examination Of Texas's Anti-Slapp Statute And Its Protection Of Free Speech Through Accelerated Dismissal., Dena M. Richardson

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

Mandamus Review Of The Granting Of The Motion For New Trial: Lost In The Thicket., Richard E. Flint

St. Mary's Law Journal

A trial court’s broad discretion in granting a new trial has been one of the mainstays of Texas jurisprudence since early statehood. Historically, this discretion was not subject to review through the ordinary appellate processes. This principle remains inviolate today, as the granting of a new trial is an interlocutory order from which the appellate courts of Texas do not have jurisdiction. Furthermore, the use of an original mandamus proceeding to compel a trial court to set aside the granting of a new trial has had only limited application. However, in response to the case of In re Columbia Medical …

Holistic Climate Change Governance: Towards Mitigation And Adaptation Synthesis, Katherine Trisolini

University of Colorado Law Review

Climate change already has begun destabilizing natural systems, prompting unprecedented heat waves, droughts, floods, and severe storms. While scientists admonish us that greenhouse gases must be cut deeply and quickly to avoid the worst impacts, past emissions have committed the planet to some further warming. Resulting physical changes will require a legal system that functions amidst extreme weather, rising seas, and scientific uncertainty about the stability of natural systems upon which we relied in designing institutions and infrastructure. An effective response requires both substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to limit the harm ("mitigation') and significant adaptation. Scholars and policymakers …

Avoiding The Catch-22: Reforming The Renewable Fuel Standard To Protect Freshwater Resources And Promote Energy Independence, Leah Stiegler

Law Student Publications

Part I presents background on the ethanol industry and the implementation and development of the RFS. It also gives a brief overview of the non-water-related reasons that have led various sectors of the economy to oppose ethanol. Part II provides an overview of ethanol production (from cornfield to refinery) and the impact each stage of the process has on freshwater resources in the United States. Given the harm that the current RFS has caused by failing to consider the impact of the ethanol production process on our nation's freshwater resources, a policy change needs to happen. Yet there are some …

Climate Change Securities Disclosures In Australia, Amanda Liu

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This working paper looks at the extent to which current securities filings regulations with the Australian securities authorities require (or alternatively, recommend) listed Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) entities to disclose climate change risks on the performance of a listed entity. The paper also reviews what in practice is being reported for the 2013 reporting year.

Banning Lawns, Sarah B. Schindler

Faculty Publications

Recognizing their role in sustainability efforts, many local governments are enacting climate change plans, mandatory green building ordinances, and sustainable procurement policies. But thus far, local governments have largely ignored one of the most pervasive threats to sustainability — lawns. This Article examines the trend toward sustainability mandates by considering the implications of a ban on lawns, the single largest irrigated crop in the United States.

Green yards are deeply seated in the American ethos of the sanctity of the single-family home. However, this psychological attachment to lawns results in significant environmental harms: conventional turfgrass is a non-native monocrop that …

Performance Track’S Postmortem: Lessons From The Rise And Fall Of Epa’S “Flagship” Voluntary Program, Cary Coglianese, Jennifer Nash

All Faculty Scholarship

For nearly a decade, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) considered its National Environmental Performance Track to be its “flagship” voluntary program — even a model for transforming the conventional system of environmental regulation. Since Performance Track’s founding during the Clinton Administration, EPA officials repeatedly claimed that the program’s rewards attracted hundreds of the nation’s “top” environmental performers and induced these businesses to make significant environmental gains beyond legal requirements. Although EPA eventually disbanded Performance Track early in the Obama Administration, the program has been subsequently emulated by a variety of state and federal regulatory authorities. To discern lessons …

An Empirical Analysis Of Cost Recovery In Superfund Cases: Implications For Brownfields And Joint And Several Liability, Howard F. Chang, Hilary Sigman

All Faculty Scholarship

Economic theory developed in the prior literature indicates that under the joint and several liability imposed by the federal Superfund statute, the government should recover more of its costs of cleaning up contaminated sites than it would under nonjoint liability, and the amount recovered should increase with the number of defendants and with the independence among defendants in trial outcomes. We test these predictions empirically using data on outcomes in federal Superfund cases. Theory also suggests that this increase in the amount recovered may discourage the sale and redevelopment of potentially contaminated sites (or “brownfields”). We find the increase to …

Utility Air Regulatory Group V. Epa: A Shot Across The Bow Of The Administrative State, Amanda Leiter

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

The Spending Power And Environmental Law After Sebelius, Erin Ryan

University of Colorado Law Review

In National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, a plurality of the Supreme Court held that portions of the Affordable Care Act exceeded federal authority under the Spending Clause. With that holding, Sebelius became the first Supreme Court decision since the New Deal to limit an act of Congress on spending-power grounds, rounding out the "New Federalism" limits on federal power first initiated by the Rehnquist Court in the 1990s. The new Sebelius doctrine constrains the federal spending power in contexts involving changes to ongoing intergovernmental partnerships with very large federal grants. However, the decision gives little direction for evaluating …

Fracking As A Federalism Case Study, Amanda C. Leiter

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Strengthening The Legal And Institutional Effectiveness For Transboundary Biodiversity Conservation In The ‘Heart Of Borneo’, Michelle Mei Ling Lim

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The Heart of Borneo ('HoB') transboundary initiative spans the territory of Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. In this article I evaluate the HoB against governance criteria for effective transboundary conservation. This approach provides the framework for proposing what complementary reforms may be needed to improve the effectiveness of the initiative. Governance issues and the lack of political buy-in are identified as the most significant impediments to successful transboundary biodiversity conservation in the HoB. A further limitation stems from the failure to develop meaningful legal instruments and supporting institutions. This article recommends improvements to legal instruments and the evaluation and design of …

The Hidden Rise Of Efficient (De)Listing, Zachary A. Bray

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

What is the value of the gray wolf, and what might be the costs of including a tiny desert lizard on the list of endangered species? For decades, Congress has formally excluded questions about the economic value of species and the costs of their protection from agency decisions about whether a species should be listed under the Endangered Species Act. Recently, however, a number of federal legislators have sought to incorporate their own ad hoc views about the value of individual species in peril, and the costs of protecting such species, into listing decisions. This goal has been accomplished through …

The Precautionary Principle And Its Application In The Intellectual Property Context: Towards A Public Domain Impact Assessment, Graham Reynolds

All Faculty Publications

This chapter considers whether the precautionary principle - a central element of contemporary environmental law and policy - can be usefully applied in the intellectual property context as a means through which the public domain can be protected. Assuming the importance of the public domain, and arguing that expansions in intellectual property protection risk harming the public domain, this chapter contends that it is appropriate to apply the precautionary principle in the intellectual property context in order to guard against harm to the public domain; suggests several ways in which a precautionary principle (or a precautionary approach) could be applied …

Sustainability Policy’S Inherent Dilemmas – Exemplified Via Critical Examination Of The Las Vegas Metropolitan Sustainability Campaign, Kathryn A. Zimmerman

All Master's Theses

In response to a dual problem of critical water scarcity and rapid population growth, leaders of metropolitan Las Vegas implemented a region-wide, internationally marketed sustainability campaign. Preliminary studies found that, while sustainability policy attains its rhetorical goals, solutions initiated not only perpetuate but also purposefully expand the original dual problem to justify continuous water resource acquisitions. To examine this sustainability conundrum constructed by leadership—problem-perpetuation rather than problem-resolution—a critical examination in resource management asked two basic questions: what is being sustained and by what means? Via this inquiry, specific processes by which leaders perpetuate problems can be identified; and, so-informed, new …

The Rule-Of-Law Underpinnings Of Endangered Species Protection: Minister Of Fisheries And Oceans V. David Suzuki Foundation, 2012 Fca 40, Jocelyn Stacey

All Faculty Publications

Environmental organizations have experienced a string of recent courtroom successes enforcing the federal Species At Risk Act. This case comment examines one of these cases, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans v. David Suzuki Foundation (“Killer Whales”), to expose the rule-of-law underpinnings of the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision. It argues that, while the decision is on its face an ostensible victory for endangered species protection, the conception of the rule of law on which the court relies is incapable of providing meaningful legal constraints for much environmental decision-making.

Whole-System Agricultural Certification: Using Lessons Learned From Leed To Build A Resilient Agricultural System To Adapt To Climate Change, Mary Jane Angelo, Joanna Reilly-Brown

University of Colorado Law Review

This Article proposes a novel approach to addressing global climate change's impacts on agricultural production and food security. The climate change crisis is the most significant environmental issue facing our planet. The changes predicted to occur as the earth's climate warms include significant impacts to agriculture. At the same time that the planet is undergoing dramatic climatic changes, the global population is increasing, and economic development in many parts of the world is exerting increased demand for a greater and more diverse supply of food. The relationship between climate change and agriculture is a close and complex one, as the …

Importing Energy, Exporting Regulation, James W. Coleman

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This Article identifies and addresses a growing contradiction at the heart of United States energy policy. States are the traditional energy regulators and energy policy innovators — a role that has only grown more important without a settled federal climate policy. But federal regulators and market pressures are increasingly demanding integrated national and international energy markets. Deregulation, the rise of renewable energy, the shale revolution, and new sources of motor fuel precursors like crude and ethanol have all increased interstate energy trade.

The Article shows how integrated national energy markets are driving states to regulate imported fuel and electricity based …

Unilateral Climate Regulation, James W. Coleman

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

It is now plain that decades of negotiation toward a binding global climate treaty have failed. Yet, at the same time, many nations are adopting a range of unilateral policies to address climate change. The existing literature on climate policy neglects these unilateral climate regulations because it focuses on the necessity and possible design of a multilateral climate treaty. But these domestic regulations present a unique puzzle: given that climate outcomes are determined by global emissions, and that unilateral regulations inevitably influence incentives to regulate elsewhere, how can domestic action achieve the greatest marginal reduction in global emissions? In other …

Book Review, David R. Boyd, The Right To A Healthy Environment, Revitalizing Canada's Constitution, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Boyd’s new book, The Right to a Healthy Environment, attempts to prove that Canadians would benefit if they amended their constitution to recognize the right to a healthy environment. Throughout this work, he emphasizes the general benefits of recognizing environmental rights as human rights and the positive impact recognizing these rights in the Canadian constitution would have on the lives of Canadian citizens. He examines the gradual domestic emergence of environmental rights both in Canadian law and from a global perspective. By including both viewpoints, Boyd attempts to identify the complexities and intricate questions that arise regarding various environmental issues …

No Article Iii Standing For Private Plaintiffs Challenging State Greenhouse Gas Regulations: The Ninth Circuit's Decision In Washington Environmental Council V. Bellon, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

In Washington Environmental Council v. Bellon, the Ninth Circuit recently held that private plaintiffs did not have standing to sue in federal court to challenge certain state greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations because the plaintiffs failed to allege that the emissions were significant enough to make a “meaningful contribution” to global GHG levels. By contrast, in Massachusetts v. EPA, the Supreme Court held a state government had standing to sue the federal government for its failure to regulate national GHG emissions because states are “entitled to special solicitude in our standing analysis.” Massachusetts implied but did not decide that private parties …

The Texas Anti-Indemnity Act., Taylor R. Beaver

St. Mary's Law Journal

Owners, general contractors, and subcontractors enter into agreements to ameliorate risk amongst those exercising control. Some of these include hold-harmless agreements, indemnity agreements, releases, and agreements conferring additional insured status to others. Typically, parties enjoy freedom to contract as they wish. Texas has long recognized, as a matter of public policy, a party’s right to draft contracts however it sees fit. Historically, risk-shifting agreements were enforceable if they passed the fair notice requirements, meaning the express negligence rule and the conspicuousness test. The trend in recent years, however, has been to limit exculpatory clauses. In 2011, the Texas Legislature effectively …

The Aftermath Of Mexico's Fuel-Theft Epidemic: Examining The Texas Black Market And The Conspiracy To Trade In Stolen Condensate., Luke B. Reinhart

St. Mary's Law Journal

Organized crime has infiltrated the oil patch, creating a theft network with an annual value of $2–$4 billion. Over the past decade, Mexican drug cartels have plundered mass amounts of natural gas condensate produced by Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex)—the governing Mexican agency for production and export of hydrocarbons. The Mexican government has not sat by idly. Pemex’s production losses have skyrocketed from $300 million, between 2006 and 2011, to an estimated $585 million in 2013 alone. Considering derivative costs associated with these thefts, Pemex’s annual losses reach into the billions. Diversified and driven by profits derived from the United States black …

Staring At The Sun: How Property Tax Incentives And Third Party Ownership Can Stimulate The Residential Solar Energy Market, Dillon Nichols

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

Symposium—Growing, Growing, Gone: Innovative Ideas In Resource Management For A Growing Population: Introduction, Rachael E. Salcido

McGeorge Law Review

No abstract provided.

Virtual Water, Water Scarcity, And International Trade Law, Edith Brown Weiss, Lydia Slobodian

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

We are facing a fresh water crisis during this century. In less than two decades, by 2030, the requirements for fresh water are expected to exceed the currently available and accessible fresh water supplies by 40%. Many countries are expected to be water stressed later in this century; some areas of the world already are. Some people may even lack water to meet basic human needs, such as drinking, washing, and sanitation. In rural areas in certain regions, people may lack water to grow good food crops, even for their own consumption. This has major implications for the welfare of …

From Contract To Legislation: The Logic Of Modern International Lawmaking, Timothy L. Meyer

Scholarly Works

The future of international lawmaking is in peril. Both trade and climate negotiations have failed to produce a multilateral agreement since the mid-1990s, while the U.N. Security Council has been unable to comprehensively respond to the humanitarian crisis in Syria. In response to multilateralism’s retreat, many prominent commentators have called for international institutions to be given the power to bind holdout states — often rising or reluctant powers such as China and the United States — without their consent. In short, these proposals envision international law traveling the road taken by federal systems such as the United States and the …