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Full-Text Articles in Law
Presidential Progress On Climate Change: Will The Courts Interfere With What Needs To Be Done To Save Our Planet?, Michael B. Gerrard
Presidential Progress On Climate Change: Will The Courts Interfere With What Needs To Be Done To Save Our Planet?, Michael B. Gerrard
Faculty Scholarship
The Biden Administration is undertaking numerous actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition away from fossil fuels as part of the fight against climate change. Many of these actions are likely to be challenged in court. This paper describes the various legal theories that are likely to be used in these challenges, assesses their prospects of success given the current composition of the Supreme Court, and suggests ways to minimize the risks.
Climate Reregulation In A Biden Administration, Michael Burger, Daniel J. Metzger, Hillary Aidun, Susan Biniaz
Climate Reregulation In A Biden Administration, Michael Burger, Daniel J. Metzger, Hillary Aidun, Susan Biniaz
Faculty Scholarship
On January 20, 2017, Inauguration Day, the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School launched the Climate Deregulation Tracker, the first of what would become numerous online trackers, news reports, academic analyses, and other resources designed to spotlight the Trump administration’s use and abuse of executive authority to pursue its agenda to cut back on government regulations and to promote the extraction and use of fossil fuels. The Climate Deregulation Tracker has had a relatively narrow purpose: to keep tabs on the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the federal government’s climate-related regulations and policies and help inform …
Behavioral Public Choice And The Carbon Tax, Gary M. Lucas Jr
Behavioral Public Choice And The Carbon Tax, Gary M. Lucas Jr
Faculty Scholarship
In response to the historic Paris Agreement on climate change and to the Environmental Protection Agency’s recently finalized Clean Power Plan, economists and other climate policy experts have renewed the call for the United States to adopt a carbon tax. Opposition among the public presents a major obstacle. While a majority of the public supports government action on climate change, most people favor the use of “green” subsidies and command-and-control regulations—a fact that frustrates economists of all political stripes who contend that a carbon tax would be much cheaper and more effective. This Article argues that a cognitive bias known …
A Tale Of Two Continents: Environmental Management-Based Regulation In The European Union And The United States, Rachel E. Deming
A Tale Of Two Continents: Environmental Management-Based Regulation In The European Union And The United States, Rachel E. Deming
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Ksfr Interviews Clifford Villa On The Animas River Spill, Clifford J. Villa
Ksfr Interviews Clifford Villa On The Animas River Spill, Clifford J. Villa
Faculty Scholarship
Professor Clifford Villas offers perspective on the Animas River spill in segment entitled, "First News: N.M. Governor, Senators Seek Answers From EPA Over Mine Spill".
Animas River Spill: 0:01-2:40 Professor Villa's quotes appear at 1:27-1:51 and 2:06-2:31; KSFR First News
Cleaning Up Jurisdiction: Divining Congressional Intent Of Clean Air Act Section 307(B), Kevin O. Leske
Cleaning Up Jurisdiction: Divining Congressional Intent Of Clean Air Act Section 307(B), Kevin O. Leske
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
A Primer: Air And Water Environmental Quality Standards In The United State, Jason J. Czarnezki, Siu Tip Lam, Nadia B. Ahmad
A Primer: Air And Water Environmental Quality Standards In The United State, Jason J. Czarnezki, Siu Tip Lam, Nadia B. Ahmad
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
American Natures: The Shape Of Conflict In Environmental Law, Jedediah Purdy
American Natures: The Shape Of Conflict In Environmental Law, Jedediah Purdy
Faculty Scholarship
There is a firestorm of political and cultural conflict around environmental issues,including but running well beyond climate change. Legal scholarship is in a bad position to make sense of this conflict because the field has concentrated on making sound policy recommendations to an idealized lawmaker, neglecting the deeply held and sharply clashing values that drive, or block, environmental lawmaking. This Article sets out a framework for understanding and engaging the clash of values in environmental law and, by extension,approaching the field more generally. Americans have held, and legislated based upon, four distinct ideas about why the natural world matters and …
Evaluating Rules And How We Measure Their Effects, Rena I. Steinzor, Michael Patoka
Evaluating Rules And How We Measure Their Effects, Rena I. Steinzor, Michael Patoka
Faculty Scholarship
The Center for Progressive Reform undertook an empirical study of the Office of Information of Regulatory Affairs, the White House office that reviews every significant regulation issue by Executive Branch agencies. The study assembled an unprecedented portrait of its behavior during the decade from October 16, 2001, when notices of meetings with outside parties were first available on the Internet, until June 1, 2011. OIRA conducted 6,194 separate reviews of regulatory submissions, holding 1,080 meetings that involved 5,759 appearances by outside participants. Both the final report and the database we assembled are available on the CPR website, at progressivereform.org.
OIRA …
What Is The Emperor Wearing? The Secret Lives Of Ecosystem Services, James Salzman
What Is The Emperor Wearing? The Secret Lives Of Ecosystem Services, James Salzman
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Corrective Lenses For Iris: Additional Reforms To Improve Epa's Integrated Risk Information System, Rena I. Steinzor, Wendy E. Wagner, Lena Pons, Matthew Shudtz
Corrective Lenses For Iris: Additional Reforms To Improve Epa's Integrated Risk Information System, Rena I. Steinzor, Wendy E. Wagner, Lena Pons, Matthew Shudtz
Faculty Scholarship
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) is the most important toxicological database in the world. Not only is it the single most comprehensive database of human health information about toxic substances, it also serves as a gateway to regulation, as well as to a range of public and private sector efforts to protect against toxic substances. IRIS “profiles” of individual substances include a number of scientific assessments of the substance’s toxicity to humans by various means of exposure – by inhalation, contact with the skin, and so on. Federal regulators rely on the assessments to do …
Implementing The New Ecosystem Services Mandate Of The Section 404 Compensatory Mitigation Program - A Catalyst For Advancing Science And Policy, James Salzman, J.B. Ruhl, Iris Goodman
Implementing The New Ecosystem Services Mandate Of The Section 404 Compensatory Mitigation Program - A Catalyst For Advancing Science And Policy, James Salzman, J.B. Ruhl, Iris Goodman
Faculty Scholarship
On April 10, 2008, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jointly published final regulations defining standards and procedures for authorizing compensatory mitigation of impacts to aquatic resources the Corps permits under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (Section 404). Prior to the rule, the Section 404 compensatory mitigation program had been administered under a mish-mash of guidances, inter-agency memoranda, and other policy documents issued over the span of 17 years. A growing tide of policy and science scholarship criticized the program's administration as not accounting for the potential redistribution of ecosystem services that …
In Re Annandale And The Disconnections Between Minnesota And Federal Agency Deference Doctrine, Mehmet K. Konar-Steenberg
In Re Annandale And The Disconnections Between Minnesota And Federal Agency Deference Doctrine, Mehmet K. Konar-Steenberg
Faculty Scholarship
This article explores each of these differences between Annandale’s view of deference and comparable federal authority. Part II begins the discussion with an explanation of the somewhat complicated legal and factual background that gave rise to Annandale’s unusually thorny agency deference issues. This section includes an extended discussion of the Annandale administrative record and the reasoning of the Minnesota Court of Appeals and Minnesota Supreme Court. Part III then critically analyzes the Annandale court’s claims to have acted consistently with federal agency deference case law in each of the three areas discussed above. Part IV concludes with some post-Annandale developments …
Foreword: Making Sense Of Information For Environmental Protection, James Salzman, Douglas A. Kysar
Foreword: Making Sense Of Information For Environmental Protection, James Salzman, Douglas A. Kysar
Faculty Scholarship
Despite the ubiquity of information, no one has proposed calling the present era the Knowledge Age. Knowledge depends not only on access to reliable information, but also on sound judgment regarding which information to access and how to situate that information in relation to the values and purposes that comprise the individual's or the social group's larger projects. This is certainly the case for wise and effective environmental governance. A regulator needs accurate information to understand the nature of a problem and the consequences of potential responses. Likewise, the regulated community needs information to decide how best to comply with …
Massachusetts V Epa: Escaping The Common Law's Growing Shadow, Robert V. Percival
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 …
The Legacy Of John Graham: Strait-Jacketing Risk Assessment, Rena I. Steinzor
The Legacy Of John Graham: Strait-Jacketing Risk Assessment, Rena I. Steinzor
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
A Perfect Storm: Mercury And The Bush Administration, Part Ii, Rena I. Steinzor, Lisa Heinzerling
A Perfect Storm: Mercury And The Bush Administration, Part Ii, Rena I. Steinzor, Lisa Heinzerling
Faculty Scholarship
The Environmental Protection Agency's recent proposal to regulate mercury emissions from power plants, and its final rule on mercury emissions from chlor-alkali facilities, suffer from serious scientific, legal, economic, and distributional flaws. The first installment in this series examined the strong scientific basis for regulating mercury emissions and critiqued the agency's decisions from a legal perspective. This second (and final) installment finds that EPA's decisions also fail from the perspectives of economics and environmental justice. EPA and the Office of Management and Budget's economic analysis of the proposal to regulate mercury from power plants was shoddy and one-sided. EPA and …
A Perfect Storm: Mercury And The Bush Administration, Rena I. Steinzor, Lisa Heinzerling
A Perfect Storm: Mercury And The Bush Administration, Rena I. Steinzor, Lisa Heinzerling
Faculty Scholarship
In December 2003, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a rule for mercury emissions from power plants and issued a final rule for mercury emissions from chlor-alkali facilities. Regarding power plants, EPA had previously found that mercury posed the most serious threat among the hazardous air pollutants emitted by power plants, and also that regulation of mercury from power plants was appropriate and necessary under section 112 of the Clean Air Act, which requires stringent technology-based regulation for hazardous air pollutants. Despite section 112's clear rejection of emissions trading as a compliance option, EPA has proposed to allow commercial trading …
Bad Science, Linda Greer, Rena I. Steinzor
Environmental Justice In An Era Of Devolved Collaboration , Sheila R. Foster
Environmental Justice In An Era Of Devolved Collaboration , Sheila R. Foster
Faculty Scholarship
Environmental decision-making is undergoing a profound shift. Traditional forums and processes are being displaced by mechanisms emphasizing local, "place-based" decision-making. These emerging decision-making mechanisms are orchestrated through collaborative processes featuring stakeholders from both the public and private sectors. This transformation is evident in a number of recent governmental initiatives, including those by the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA"), most notably its Community-Based Environmental Protection ("CBEP") initiative. Other federal agencies, particularly those with land or species management responsibilities, have similarly advocated a greater role for local decision-makers and collaborative problem-solving. This Article examines the points of convergence and divergence between devolved collaboration …
Myths Of The Reinvented State, Rena I. Steinzor
Myths Of The Reinvented State, Rena I. Steinzor
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Reinventing Environmental Regulation Through The Government Performance And Results Act: Are The States Ready For The Devolution?, Rena I. Steinzor
Reinventing Environmental Regulation Through The Government Performance And Results Act: Are The States Ready For The Devolution?, Rena I. Steinzor
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Reinventing Environmental Regulation Via The Government Performance And Results Act: Where's The Money?, Rena I. Steinzor, William F. Piermattei
Reinventing Environmental Regulation Via The Government Performance And Results Act: Where's The Money?, Rena I. Steinzor, William F. Piermattei
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Regulatory Reinvention And Project Xl: Does The Emperor Have Any Clothes?, Rena I. Steinzor
Regulatory Reinvention And Project Xl: Does The Emperor Have Any Clothes?, Rena I. Steinzor
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Race(Ial)Matters: The Quest For Environmental Justice Review Essay, Sheila R. Foster
Race(Ial)Matters: The Quest For Environmental Justice Review Essay, Sheila R. Foster
Faculty Scholarship
The essays contained in Race and the Incidence of Environmental Hazards: A Time For Discourse and the recent report by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Environmental Equity: Reducing Risk For All Communities represent what appears to be a remarkable consensus that low-income and minority communities bear a disproportionate share of environmental exposures and health risks. These two works also reflect the synergy of efforts by various elements of both the traditional civil rights and mainstream environmental movements to address issues of "environmental racism." Indeed, the current "environmental justice," or "environmental equity,"' movement is a combined effort of grassroots …
Organizing Themes Of Environmental Law, Marcia R. Gelpe
Organizing Themes Of Environmental Law, Marcia R. Gelpe
Faculty Scholarship
This article is designed to assist students and lawyers in their work in the field of Environmental Law; specifically, in the area of preventing and mitigating the effects of pollution. The article begins with the origins of modern environmental law. It briefly summarizes the reasons we have environmental problems and describes the inadequacies of the common law responses. This is key to understanding modern environmental statutes, which are designed to remedy the shortcomings of the common law. The main part of the article sets out the various approaches to remedying those shortcomings and gives examples of environmental statutes which take …
Penalties In Settlements Of Citizen Suit Enforcement Actions Under The Clean Water Act, Marcia R. Gelpe
Penalties In Settlements Of Citizen Suit Enforcement Actions Under The Clean Water Act, Marcia R. Gelpe
Faculty Scholarship
This article critiques the feminist view Ute Gerhard offers in “Debating Women's Equality: Toward a Feminist Theory of Law from a European Perspective”. Throughout Debating Women's Equality, Gerhard appears to have three ambitious objectives in mind: (1) to decry the paucity of research into women's legal history while beginning to do the needed work, focusing primarily on Germany but also broadly exploring European trends, (2) to demonstrate that German/European women's legal history ultimately vindicates reliance on “equal rights” as a political strategy for women, and (3) to develop an understanding of legal equality that can serve as a meaningful tool …