Law Commons^™

Measuring Environmental Justice: Analysis Of Progress Under Presidents Bush, Obama, And Trump, Mollie Soloway

Student Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

1-Click Energy: Managing Corporate Demand For Clean Power, Gina S. Warren

Maryland Law Review

Globally, more private businesses, especially Fortune 100 companies are generating their own electricity, investing in renewable energy facilities, and voluntarily purchasing renewable energy credits to cover their carbon footprints. This shift could have a significant impact on the existing energy delivery system. On the one hand, this shift shows positive momentum toward the incorporation of clean energy into a fossil fuel dominated grid. As the negative impacts of climate change accelerate around the globe, decreasing reliance on fossil fuels is certainly an important goal. On the other hand, corporate disruption of what has historically been a highly regulated public service …

Polar Opposites: Assessing The State Of Enviromental Law In The World's Polar Regions, Mark P. Nevitt, Robert Percival

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Climate Exactions, J. Peter Byrne, Kathryn A. Zyla

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Global Environmental Law At A Crossroads: Introduction, Robert V. Percival, Jolene Lin, William Piermattei

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Unnatural Resource Law: Situating Desalination In Coastal Resource And Water Law Doctrines, Michael Pappas

Faculty Scholarship

This Article offers the first legal analysis of desalination, the process of converting saltwater into freshwater. Desalination represents a key climate change adaptation measure because the United States has exploited nearly all of its freshwater resources, freshwater demands continue to grow, and climate change threatens to diminish significantly existing freshwater supplies. However, scholarship has yet to address the legal ambiguities that desalination raises in the context of property, water law, and coastal resource doctrines.

This Article addresses these ambiguities and suggests the legal adaptations necessary to accommodate desalination as a climate change adaptation. Under current legal doctrines, the chain of …

Black Carbon: The Most Important Ignored Contributor To Climate Change, Kate Deangelis

Maryland Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

China's "Green Leap Forward" Toward Global Environmental Leadership, Robert V. Percival

Faculty Scholarship

This article argues that China may be on the verge of a “Green Leap Forward” that could make it a global environmental leader. This article argues that two principal forces have contributed to this development. First, Chinese officials now realize that a global shift away from fossil fuels will create enormous business opportunities on a global scale. Chinese companies are now making enormous strides in the development of green technology, such as solar power, wind energy, and electric cars, with the active assistance of the Chinese government. Second, realizing that climate change severely threatens China, and stung by the criticism …

Multiscalar Governance And Climate Change: Reflections On The Role Of States And Cities At Copenhagen, Hari M. Osofsky

Maryland Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

From The Greenhouse To The Poorhouse: Carbon Emissions Control And The Rules Of Legislative Joinder, David A. Super

Faculty Scholarship

Pending legislation to address carbon emissions would include large subsidies for existing emitters. These subsidies make little sense economically or politically. Worse, they divert resources needed to address two crucial issues that the proposed legislation largely ignores: the impact of raising carbon costs on low-income people and the massive structural federal deficit. A carbon tax or cap-and-trade system would increase costs substantially not only for transportation but for food and housing. With poverty rising even before the current economic downturn, these price increases’ consequences could be dire. The structural deficit will require deflationary tax increases or spending cuts. Combining carbon …

From Bali To Copenhagen: Towards A Shared Vision For A Post-2012 Climate Regime?, Jutta Brunnée

Maryland Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

The News, John Archibald, Carter Beach, Joey Chen, Rama Taib

Student Environmental Law Films/Golden Tree Films

A comic review of environmental issues in the news, featuring an exclusive interview with Shari T. Wilson, Maryland Secretary of the Environmnet.

Massachusetts V Epa: Escaping The Common Law's Growing Shadow, Robert V. Percival

Faculty Scholarship

In its first full Term with its newest member, the U.S. Supreme Court marched decidedly to the right with decisions narrowing abortion rights, striking down affirmative action programs, invalidating campaign finance regulations, and making it more difficult for victims of employment discrimination to seek redress. In the face of this rightward shift the most surprising decision of the Term was the Court’s embrace of claims that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had acted unlawfully by refusing to use the Clean Air Act to combat climate change. In Massachusetts v EPA, the Court held that EPA had the authority to …