Law Commons^™

Moonshine To Motorfuel: Tax Incentives For Fuel Ethanol, Roberta F. Mann, Mona L. Hymel

Roberta F Mann

Abstract: Biofuels have been embraced by supporters from President George W. Bush to the Natural Resources Defense Council. Before 1930, the U.S. Treasury focused on shutting down small alcohol producers. After 1978, U.S. energy policy sought to encourage ethanol production to reduce dependence on foreign oil. Federal and state incentives have been credited with increasing ethanol production from 175 million gallons in 1980 to 3.9 billion gallons in 2005. The Internal Revenue Code contains three income tax credits designed to encourage ethanol use: the alcohol mixture credit, the pure alcohol credit, and the small ethanol producer’s credit. The credits, together …

Changing Course Towards An Energy-Efficient Future, David R. Hodas

David R. Hodas

No abstract provided.

Mississippi River Stories: Lessons From A Century Of Floods And Hurricanes, Sandra Zellmer, Christine Klein

Sandi Zellmer

n the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the nation pondered how a relatively weak Category 3 storm could have destroyed an entire region. Few appreciated the extent to which a flawed federal water development policy transformed this apparently natural disaster into a “manmade” disaster; fewer still appreciated how the disaster was the predictable, and indeed predicted, sequel to almost a century of similar disasters. This article focuses upon three such stories: the Great Flood of 1927, the Midwest Flood of 1993, and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita of 2005. Taken together, the stories reveal important lessons, including the inadequacy of engineered flood …

Intermittent Currents: The Failure Of Renewable Electricity Requirements, Robert J. Michaels

Robert J. Michaels

Concern over emissions and climate change has led over half of the states to enact “renewable portfolio standard” legislation requiring regulated electric utilities to obtain some fraction of their power requirements from sources defined as “renewable.” Legislation to institute a federal RPS may follow. In reality RPS is a policy in search of a rationale, at odds with principles of efficient environmental regulation and poorly suited to promote other policies favored by its supporters. The actual record of state implementations has been largely symbolic. Only one state with a binding RPS requirement is currently in compliance with its own program, …

Blanco V. Burton: What Did We Learn From Louisiana's Recent Ocs Challenge?, Ryan M. Seidemann, James G. Wilkins

Ryan M Seidemann

In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the State of Louisiana set out to ensure greater protection of its coast. Among the approaches taken by the State was an ambitious law suit against the federal government that aimed to force more meaningful scientific studies of the impacts of Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas activities in federal waters. For years, the State had decried the damaging impacts of these activities on its coast, from oil spills to increased vessel wakes to the cutting of navigation canals through the wetlands. The State believed that the federal government could, and indeed …

Capitalization Of The Nile, Arthur M. Ortegon

Arthur M. Ortegon

No abstract provided.

Re-Examining Natural Resource Damages Under Cercla: Failures, Lessons Learned, And Alternatives, Patrick E. Tolan

Patrick E. Tolan Jr.

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) imposed widespread liability on responsible parties to clean up hazardous releases. In addition to cleanup liability, Congress also included important natural resource damages (NRD) provisions in CERCLA, to restore natural resources that had been injured or destroyed due to a release of hazardous substances.

This article examines lessons learned from NRD litigation to date to explain why a tool with so much potential to benefit the environment has remained underutilized. It also explores the bigger picture, including May, 2007, federal advisory committee proposals to make Natural Resource Damage Assessment …

Background Principles And The Rule Of Law: Fifteen Years After Lucas, James L. Huffman

James L. Huffman

The Supreme Court’s 1992 decision in Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council was welcomed by property right advocates. Justice Scalia’s opinion for the Court established a categorical taking where all economic value is lost as a result of regulation. Not surprisingly, advocates of unconstrained environmental and land use regulation were dismayed, although many were quick to suggest (hopefully) that Lucas’s impacts would be minimal since most regulations do not destroy all economic value.

Fifteen years later some who saw only dark clouds on the regulatory horizon as a consequence of Lucas now see a rainbow with a pot of gold …

Climate Change, Regulatory Fragmentation, And Water Triage, Robin K. Craig

Robin K. Craig

Fresh water is a regulatorily fragmented resource – that is, water is subject to multiple assertions of regulatory authority and to multiple types of use right claims that those authorities regulate. As fresh water supplies become increasingly unequal to task of meeting the multiple demands for both consumptive and in situ use, and as consumptive and in situ uses of water come increasingly into irreconcilable conflict, the various regulatory schemes governing water have also increasingly come into legal conflict. These courtroom battles have revealed many tensions, overlaps, and gaps in the overall governance of water as a natural resource, especially …

Background Principles And The Rule Of Law: Fifteen Years After Lucas, James L. Huffman

James L. Huffman

Abstract

The Supreme Court’s 1992 decision in Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council was welcomed by property right advocates. Justice Scalia’s opinion for the Court established a categorical taking where all economic value is lost as a result of regulation. Not surprisingly, advocates of unconstrained environmental and land use regulation were dismayed, although many were quick to suggest (hopefully) that Lucas’s impacts would be minimal since most regulations do not destroy all economic value.

Fifteen years later some who saw only dark clouds on the regulatory horizon as a consequence of Lucas now see a rainbow with a pot of …

Making The Sale On Contingent Valuation, Sameer H. Doshi

Sameer H Doshi

Scholarship and jurisprudence have not seriously considered the question of whether the contingent valuation (CV) technique of monetizing preferences for non-tradeable public goods is consistent with the Daubert standards for scientific evidence. The greatest difficulty is in establishing that CV is testable and has measurable error rates; this problem is consonant with criticisms that economists have leveled at the CV method more generally. Additionally, the “state of the art” of contingent valuation practice has recommended the use of the willingness-to-pay question format for CV, rather than willingness-to-accept. This is misplaced in many cases, particularly in calculating damages in environmental tort …

Litigating Canada-U.S. Transboundary Pollution: International Environmental Lawmaking And The Threat Of Extraterritorial Reciprocity, Shi-Ling Hsu, Austen Parrish

Shi-Ling Hsu

This Article joins a spirited debate ongoing among international law scholars. Numerous articles have debated the changing nature of interna-tional law and relations: the impact of globalization, the decline of territorial-sovereignty, the ever important role that non-state actors play, and the growing use of domestic laws to solve transboundary problems. That scholarship, however, often speaks only in general theoretical terms, and has largely ignored how these changes are playing out in countries outside the United States in ways that impact American interests.

This Article picks up where that scholarship leaves off. It examines one of the perennial challenges for international …

The Benchmark Of Expectations: Regulatory Takings And Surface Coal Mining, Darren Botello-Samson

Darren Botello-Samson

In 2006, the United States Court of Federal Claims issued a decision in BENCHMARK RESOURCES CORPORATION v. UNITED STATES, a case involving a regulatory takings challenge to enforcement of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA), a federal law regulating the environmental effects of surface coal mining. Such cases are not rare, as the Claims Court has visited this question on a number of occasions. The ruling in BENCHMARK did not depart from the federal judiciary's doctrine on SMCRA takings cases. The ruling is worth noting, however, for the ways in which it highlights the key aspects of a …

An Empirical Investigation Of Judicial Decisionmaking, Statutory Interpretation & The Chevron Doctrine In Environmental Law, Jason J. Czarnezki

Jason J. Czarnezki

How do the United States Courts of Appeals decide environmental cases? More specifically, how do courts evaluate decisions of statutory interpretation made by government agencies that deal in environmental law? While research on judicial decisionmaking in environmental law has primarily focused on the D.C. Circuit, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the influence of ideology, only recently have legal scholars begun to consider the role of legal factors in judicial decisionmaking in environmental law. Yet, more can be learned about environmental jurisprudence outside the District of Columbia, the “other” environmental agencies, and the influence of legal interpretive approaches and legal doctrine—as …

A Comparative Guide To The Eastern Public Trust Doctrines: Classifications Of States, Property Rights, And State Summaries, Robin K. Craig

Robin K. Craig

Public trust doctrine literature to date has displayed two distinct tendencies, both of which limit comprehensive discussion of the American public trust doctrines. At one end of the spectrum, articles focused on broader legal principles tend to discuss the public trust doctrine, as though a single public trust doctrine pervaded the United States. At the other end, articles focus on how one particular state implements its particular state public trust doctrine. Few articles have grappled with the richness and complexity of public trust philosophies that more comparative approaches to the nation’s public trust doctrines – emphasis on the plural – …

Depletion-Safe Tuna: Has The Unclos Tribunal Usurped Its Members’ Democracy?, Etan M. Basseri

Etan M Basseri

In 1999 the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea heard a complaint of fishing violations, with Australia and New Zealand alleging that Japan had exploited the delicate southern bluefin tuna fisheries in violation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Japan responded, and eventually prevailed, with the argument that the dispute was governed by a separate multilateral treaty concerning the tuna species. The issue of jurisdiction was a major issue in the case.

This paper argues that the Tribunal’s formation and operation was and is consistent with democracy. It applies four different critiques of …

Money Or Nothing: The Adverse Environmental Consequences Of Uncompensated Land-Use Controls, Jonathan H. Adler

Jonathan H Adler

The conventional wisdom holds that requiring compensation for environmental land-use controls would severely limit environmental protection efforts. There are increasing reasons to question this assumption. Both economic theory and recent empirical research demonstrate that failing to compensate private landowners for the costs of environmental regulations discourages voluntary conservation efforts and can encourage the destruction of environmental resources. The lack of a compensation requirement also means that land-use regulation is “underpriced” as compared to other environmental protection measures for which government agencies must pay. This results in the “overconsumption” of land-use regulations relative to other environmental protection measures that could be …

Five Myths About Sprawl , Michael E Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

In Sprawl: A Compact History, Robert Bruegmann, an art historian, has painted a superficially convincing case for the status quo, asserting that sprawl is “a natural result of affluence that occurs in all urbanized societies.” Bruegmann's book has generated glowing media publicity. This article suggests that Bruegmann overestimates the universality of sprawl, by overlooking the differences between pedestrian-friendly cities with some sprawling development and cities in which automobile-dependent sprawl is the only choice available to most consumers. In addition, Bruegmann understates the harmful social effects of sprawl, especially the effect of automobile-dependent development upon non-drivers. Bruegmann also consistently underestimates the …

Virtual Consumption: A Second Life For Earth?, Albert C. Lin

Albert C Lin

Consumption is at the root of many of the world’s greatest environmental challenges, yet laws or policies that directly address consumption are rare. Virtual worlds such as Second Life offer the intriguing prospect of displacing a substantial amount of real-world consumption without running afoul of the political and economic obstacles that proposals to reduce consumption often face. In the interactive online reality of virtual worlds, players adopt an “avatar” and participate in an electronic world that mirrors the real world in striking ways. As this Article explains, virtual worlds offer opportunities, experiences, and pleasures that satisfy many of the basic …

The Frontier Of Eminent Domain, Alexandra B. Klass

Alexandra B. Klass

The Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London brought the issues of takings and public use into the national spotlight. A groundswell of opposition to government-initiated “economic development takings” the Court deemed a public use under the Fifth Amendment led to eminent domain reform legislation in over 30 states. Many people are surprised to learn, however, that another type of economic development taking is alive and well in many western states that are rich in natural resources. In those states, oil, gas, and mining companies have the power of eminent domain under state constitutions or state …

All Sprawled Out: How The Federal Regulatory System Has Driven Unsustainable Growth, Chad Emerson

Chad Emerson

No abstract provided.

How Environmentalism Changed Urban Planning: English Green Belts To Washington Wetlands, Simma M. Asher

Simma M. Asher

Urban planning preserves green space to achieve three primary goals: to enhance quality of life, to encourage rural-based industries, and to protect the environment. The environmental goal is unique among those because it seeks to protect natural areas from human interference rather than shaping them to serve particular community purposes, such as to form a city boundary or build a farm or park. This paper examines how the addition of the environmental goal to urban planning conservation programs alters their structures. It compares an urban planning regime established before the environmental movement with a recent, environmentally oriented program and finds …

The Killing Fields: Reducing The Casualties In The Battle Between U.S. Species Protection Law And U.S. Pesticide Law, Mary Jane Angelo

Mary Jane Angelo

ABSTRACT

The Killing Fields:

Reducing the Casualties in the Battle Between

U.S. Species Protection Law and U.S. Pesticide Law

Mary Jane Angelo, University of Florida Levin College of Law

For the past 35 years a battle has raged due to the conflicting goals, standards, focus, and methods among the U.S. species protection laws and U.S. pesticide law. The unwitting casualties of this battle are the literally millions of birds, fish, and other wildlife species that have been killed and the hundreds of legally-protected species that have been put at risk of extinction. In the past several years the battle has …

Science Before Law: American Exceptionalism In The Kyoto Protocol And The Development Of A Global Norm Of Environmental Compliance, Elizabeth L. Chalecki

Elizabeth L Chalecki

This article will argue that a new norm of compliance with agreements is becoming customary with regard to the global environmental commons, particularly in the case of climate change and U.S. behavior towards the Kyoto Protocol. While the United States’ repudiation of its signature on the Protocol in 2001 was legal under the practice of traditional international law, this same practice is no longer sufficient in scope or in time to keep pace with the rapid advances in our scientific understanding of global environmental processes. Because every member of the international community can suffer significant harm from climate change, the …

Access To Parkland: Environmental Justice At East Bay Parks, A Report By Golden Gate University School Of Law, Paul Stanton Kibel

Paul Stanton Kibel

No abstract provided.

Unpacking The Packaging Problem: An International Solution For The Environmental Impacts Of Packaging Waste, Billy B. Hwang

Billy B Hwang

From the vinyl tube that contains toothpaste, to the paper box breakfast cereal comes in, to the plastic bag groceries are placed in, packaging plays an innate and important role in the lives of most every human on earth. All materials used for packaging good are derived from natural resources such as oil, metal ores, sand, and trees, which are processed and converted into plastic, aluminum, metal, glass, wood and paper for both our health and convenience. Once the goods within the packaging have been consumed, the packaging ceases to be useful and is discarded as waste, headed towards a …

Beware Of Greens In Praise Of The Common Law, James L. Huffman

James L. Huffman

Beware of Greens in Praise of the Common Law

James L. Huffman

ABSTRACT

After several decades of general agreement among environmental law scholars and environmentalists that the common law is inadequate to meet the challenges of environmental protection, a few scholars have taken a second look at common law remedies in recent years. Simple pragmatism explains some of this newborn interest in the common law, while for others there has been at least some acceptance of the efficiency arguments made by free market environmentalists since the 1970s. But for the most part the fledgling environmentalist case for revival of common …

The Evolving Role Of Citizens In United States-Canadian International Environmental Law Compliance, Noah D. Hall

Noah D Hall

Citizen participation is critical in environmental law compliance. While citizens often have a major role in advancing compliance with domestic environmental law, citizens have historically had a much more limited role in international environmental law. However, a new model is emerging North America. The role of citizens in United States-Canadian international environmental law compliance has expanded greatly over the past several decades. Beginning in the 1970’s with increased public participation in binational governance agreements and expanding in the past two decades to formal roles in monitoring implementation of international environmental agreements, citizen participation is now central in the United States-Canadian …

Transboundary Pollution: Harmonizing International And Domestic Law, Noah D. Hall

Noah D Hall

Addressing transnational pollution requires both international and domestic law. Transnational pollution is an international problem that demands and deserves the attention of international legal mechanisms such as treaties, agreements, arbitration, and international management and governance. At the same time, transnational pollution problems can often be addressed more effectively and efficiently through the domestic legal system. An ideal approach is to harmonize transnational pollution management and dispute resolution under international and domestic law. This article seeks to provide pragmatic, feasible, and politically realistic solutions to transnational pollution by harmonizing international and domestic law. However, given the diversity in geography, domestic legal …

Creating An Emissions Trading System For Greenhouse Gases: Recommendations To The California Air Resources Board, Justin Kirk

Justin Kirk

This past September, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which directs the state’s Air Resources Board to adopt regulations to reduce the state’s total greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. My comment argues that due to an executive order signed by the governor, the Board must necessarily adopt a cap-and-trade system as part of its regulations. The success of any cap-and-trade system, however, depends upon a series of design choices. Thus, my comment analyzes several other cap-and-trade systems to glean relevant lessons for the design of California’s system, and …