Law Commons^™

Community Empowerment In Decarbonization: Nepa’S Role, Wyatt G. Sassman

Washington Law Review

This Article addresses a potential tension between two ambitions for the transition to clean energy: reducing regulatory red-tape to quickly build out renewable energy, and leveraging that build-out to empower low-income communities and communities of color. Each ambition carries a different view of communities’ role in decarbonization. To those focused on rapid build-out of renewable energy infrastructure, communities are a potential threat who could slow or derail renewable energy projects through opposition during the regulatory process. To those focused on leveraging the transition to clean energy to advance racial and economic justice, communities are necessary partners in the key decisions …

Reconsidering Nepa, Brigham Daniels, Andrew P. Follett, James Salzman

Indiana Law Journal

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) ushered in the modern era of environmental law. Thanks to its environmental impact statement (EIS) provision, it remains, by far, the most litigated environmental statute. Many administrations have sought to weaken the law. The Trump administration, for example, put into place regulations that strictly limit the EIS process, which the Biden administration seems poised to roll back. For the most part, however, NEPA has shown remarkable staying power and resilience since its passage just over fifty years ago. As a result, its legislative history remains relevant. But the accepted history of NEPA is deeply …

Implementing Nepa In The Age Of Climate Change, Jayni Foley Hein, Natalie Jacewicz

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

The national government has a crucial role to play in combating climate change, yet federal projects continue to constitute a major source of United States greenhouse gas emissions. Under the National Environmental Policy Act, agencies must consider the environmental impacts of major federal actions before they can move forward. But agencies frequently downplay or ignore the climate change impacts of their projects in NEPA analyses, citing a slew of technical difficulties and uncertainties. This Article analyzes a suite of the most common analytical failures on the part of agencies with respect to climate change: failure to account for a project’s …

Wilderness, Luck & Love: A Memoir And A Tribute, Neil Kagan

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

In 1984, Congress preserved 8.2 million acres of roadless federal lands as "wilderness," nearly matching the acreage set aside in the Wilderness Act of 1964. Congress also created the most new wilderness areas ever in a single year, by far. Wilderness Connect, Number of Wilderness Areas Designated by Year, https://wilderness.net/practitioners/wilderness-areas/summary-reports/wilderness-areas-designated-by-year.php.

I brought two lawsuits in 1983 that proved to be the catalyst responsible for breaking the years-long impasse that had previously stymied the protection of these pristine wildlands. The lawsuits also pushed Congress to preserve more wildlands as wilderness than it would have otherwise.

This article describes the lawsuits, …

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

Making Bureaucracies Think Distributively: Reforming The Administrative State With Action-Forcing Distributional Review, Kenta Tsuda

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

This Article proposes that agencies analyze the distributional impacts of major regulatory actions, subject to notice-and-comment procedures and judicial review. The proposal responds to the legitimacy crisis that the administrative state currently faces in a period of widening economic inequality. Other progressive reform proposals emphasize the need for democratization of agencies. But these reforms fail to address the two fundamental pitfalls of bureaucratic governance: the “knowledge problem”—epistemic limitations on centrally coordinated decision making—and the “incentives problem”—the challenge of aligning the incentives of administrative agents and their political principals.

A successful administrative reform must address both problems. Looking to the environmental …

A Functional Approach To Risks And Uncertainties Under Nepa , Todd S. Aagaard

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) mandates that federal agencies evaluate the environmental impacts of their proposed actions. This requires agencies to make ex ante predictions about environmental consequences that often involve a significant degree of factual risk or uncertainty. Considerable controversy exists regarding how agencies should address such risks and uncertainties. Current NEPA law adopts a largely ad hoc approach that lacks coherence and analytical rigor. Some environmentalists and legal scholars have called for a greater emphasis on worst-case analysis in environmental planning, especially after the recent Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the meltdowns …

Nepa In The Hot Seat: A Proposal For An Office Of Environmental Analysis, Aliza M. Cohen

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Judicial deference under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) can be problematic. It is a well-established rule of administrative law that courts will grant a high degree of deference to agency decisions. They do this out of respect for agency expertise and policy judgment. This deference is applied to NEPA lawsuits without acknowledging the special pressures that agencies face while assessing the environmental impacts of their own projects. Though there is a strong argument that these pressures undermine the reasons for deferential review, neither the statute nor the courts have provided plaintiffs with adequate means to remedy this problem. Agency …

Summary Of Presentation: Climate Of Environmental Justice Conference, Michael B. Gerrard

The Climate of Environmental Justice: Taking Stock (March 16-17)

Presenter: Michael B. Gerrard, Partner, Arnold & Porter LLP, New York, NY

2 pages.

Slides: The Centennial Of The Antiquities Act: A Cause For Celebration?, James R. Rasband

Celebrating the Centennial of the Antiquities Act (October 9)

Presenter: Professor James R. Rasband, Brigham Young University School of Law

20 slides

The Strategic Alternative: How State Takings Statutes May Resolve The Unanswered Questions Of Palazzolo, Michael A. Culpepper

University of Richmond Law Review

In a world of "Hobbesian stick[s]" and "Lockean bundle[s]," analytical confusion should be expected. Indeed, critics describe the world of federal takings jurisprudence as "an unworkable muddle," as "a jumble of confusing holdings," and as a body of law existing in "doctrinal and conceptual disarray." Since the United States Supreme Court first considered the regulatory takings issue in Mugler v. Kansas, the Court's inconsistent application of the doctrine has largely conformed to criticism. Governed by abstruse metaphors' and ad hoc analysis, the Court acknowledges its imprecision 9 and often relies upon it.

The Gap Between Informational Goals And The Duty To Gather Information: Challenging Piecemealed Review Under The Washington State Environmental Policy Act, Keith H. Hirokawa

Seattle University Law Review

In 1971, Washington enacted the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA), which requires agencies to make a threshold determination of whether a project is likely to significantly affect the environment and, where such impacts are likely, to produce an environmental impact statement (EIS). One problem faced in implementing the goals of SEPA is the practice of "piecemealing." Part I of this Article introduces the piecemeal problem by describing three common piecemeal situations. The first situation occurs when a project proposal is divided into such small parts that the environmental impacts from each individual part appear insignificant and the impact from the …

Learning From Nepa: Some Guidelines For Responsible Federal Risk Legislation, John S. Applegate, Celia Campbell-Mohn

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The past three or more Congresses have seen substantial efforts to enact "risk reform" legislation that would require environmental, health, and safety regulations to be adopted following the performance of risk assessments modeled on quantitative risk assessment methods for carcinogens. While such a requirement has potentially beneficial effects on the quality of the resulting rules, there is also a substantial potential for mischief by reorienting substantive environmental, health, and safety regulation, and by introducing substantial new costs and delays into the regulatory process. This article, which is derived from a report by the authors to support an American Bar Association …

Legal Issues In Outdoor Recreation: Trends In Litigation, Ted Zukoski

Outdoor Recreation: Promise and Peril in the New West (Summer Conference, June 8-10)

17 pages.

Reflections From The Seventh American Forest Congress: Some Thoughts For National Forest Management, William R. Bentley

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)

21 pages.

Contains endnotes and references.

Framework For Understanding Nfma In A Legal Context, David H. Getches

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)

8 pages.

Contains references.

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.

Understanding The Interplay Among Many Laws: 1970 To 2000, Perry R. Hagenstein

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)

3 pages.

Page 1 is missing.

Federal Lands And Watershed Based Management Approaches, Teresa Rice

Challenging Federal Ownership and Management: Public Lands and Public Benefits (October 11-13)

12 pages.

Contains 1 footnote and 1 page of references.

The Role Of The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission In Protecting Non-Consumptive Water Uses, Peter J. Kirsch, J. Barton Seitz

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

55 pages.

Agenda: New Challenges For Environmental Protection: Second Sino-American Conference On Environmental Law, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

New Challenges for Environmental Protection: Second Sino-American Conference on Environmental Law (October 12-13)

Workshop held Sept. 18-19, 1989; conference held Oct. 12-13, 1989, in Boulder, Colorado.

Conference speakers included University of Colorado School of Law professors Daniel Barstow Magraw and Lawrence J. MacDonnell.

Contents of papers from workshop and conference:

To protect developing city by the enactment of local laws and regulations / Wu Zilin -- Legislative control of air pollution & water pollution of the P.R.China / Xiao Longan -- The law of natural conservation in China / Ma Xiang-cong -- 'Weighing environmental risks : EPA's unfinished business', Environment, vol. 30, no. 6, July/August 1988, p. 14-17, 34-39 / Richard Morgenstern, Stuart …

Integrating Thoughtways: Re-Opening Of The Environmental Mind?, Lakshman Guruswamy

Publications

The implementation of environmental law and policy has assumed that pollution could be contained, corralled and interdicted within the medium (air, land, or water) in which unpleasant effects are encountered. Sweeping, but piecemeal, federal legislation in the 1970s aspired to create healthy air, together with fishable, swimmable and drinkable waters. Despite impressive gains, these goals have not been achieved. There have been painful failures, compounded by the mounting costs of environmental protection. While the need for environmental protection is generally accepted, the effectiveness and efficiency of regulation based on the legislation of the 1970s has been questioned in the 1980s. …

Section 404: The Nasty Business Of The Clean Water Act, Oliver A. Houck

Water Quality Control: Integrating Beneficial Use and Environmental Protection (Summer Conference, June 1-3)

9 pages.

Contains references.

Federal Agency Treatment Of Uncertainty In Environmental Impact Statements Under The Ceq's Amended Nepa Regulation § 1502.22: Worst Case Analysis Or Risk Threshold, Charles F. Weiss

Michigan Law Review

This Note traces the judicial and administrative treatment of uncertainty under NEPA and supports the CEQ's replacement of worst case analysis with a qualitative probability threshold. Part I discusses the development of reasonableness standards in NEPA common law to define agency obligations prior to promulgation of the worst case analysis regulation. Part II reviews the worst case analysis regulation and its judicial construction. Finally, Part III outlines the amended regulation, which replaces worst case analysis with a probability threshold employing the rule of reason to limit EIS discussion to environmental effects shown through credible scientific evidence to be reasonably foreseeable. …

The Law Of Wildlife Protection In The United States, David H. Getches

Proceedings of the Sino-American Conference on Environmental Law (August 16)

27 pages.

Contains 12 pages of endnotes.

Wilderness And Natural Area Preservation In The United States: A Survey Of National Laws, George W. Pring, Stephen Miller

Proceedings of the Sino-American Conference on Environmental Law (August 16)

32 pages.

Contains 5 pages of endnotes.

Wilderness Protection On Forest Service Lands: Badger-Two Medicine, Arnold W. Bolle

The Public Lands During the Remainder of the 20th Century: Planning, Law, and Policy in the Federal Land Agencies (Summer Conference, June 8-10)

22 pages.

Livestock Grazing On Public Lands: Procedures And Issues, E. T. Bartlett

The Public Lands During the Remainder of the 20th Century: Planning, Law, and Policy in the Federal Land Agencies (Summer Conference, June 8-10)

17 pages.

Contains references.

Changes In Altering Land Classifications And Blm Land Use Planning: The National Wildlife Federation V. Burford Case, Constance E. Brooks

The Public Lands During the Remainder of the 20th Century: Planning, Law, and Policy in the Federal Land Agencies (Summer Conference, June 8-10)

28 pages.

Planning As A Major Tool Of Public Land Management, John D. Leshy

The Public Lands During the Remainder of the 20th Century: Planning, Law, and Policy in the Federal Land Agencies (Summer Conference, June 8-10)

25 pages.