Law Commons^™

Who Owns The Sky?, Gerald Torres

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

I argue that the public has a current and continuing interest in the air resource. This commonly held interest requires that where the government has sanctioned the private trading of this asset the government must account for the profits of such trades. In short, it is not the government's property to give away. Ancillary benefits associated with cleaner air do not offset the public's interest in the value of the resource, especially where the regulatory scheme has effectively precluded private action in defense of the resource. This does not discount the government's obligation to protect the resource from predation; it …