Law Commons^™

World’S Worst Game Of Telephone: Attempting To Understand The Conversation Between Texas’S Legislature And Courts On Groundwater, Amy Hardberger

Faculty Articles

Texas has flourished in recent years, and its continued growth is predicated on access to groundwater resources. Texans have a long-standing dependence on groundwater, which accounts for 60% of all water withdrawn in the state. The State’s ability to provide sufficient groundwater resources depends on effective groundwater management.

Texas groundwater management has a long history of intertwined court decisions and legislation. The common law of groundwater was established by the Texas Supreme Court in accordance with the English common law right of capture. This rule was subsequently modified by the Legislature through the Conservation Amendment to the Texas Constitution, which …

Qualified Conservation Restrictions: Recollections Of And Reflections On The Origins Of Section 170(H), Theodore S. Sims

Faculty Scholarship

It has been over thirty years since Congress added to the Internal Revenue Code section 170(h), which allows a deduction for contributions to charity of “qualified conservation restrictions,” commonly known as “conservation easements”. That provision was adopted over the objections of the Treasury, who had expressed reservations of both a conceptual and practical nature about the legislation, which the Treasury viewed as more than ordinarily vulnerable to abuse. I was invited to participate in this symposium, not because I have any expertise in working with these restrictions—I don’t—but to provide some perspective on what might have motivated the Treasury thirty-plus …

Powering The Tap Dry: Regulatory Alternatives For The Energy-Water Nexus, Amy Hardberger

Faculty Articles

Water and energy are indivisibly linked and interwoven into every aspect of our culture and lifestyle. Large quantities of water are required to generate energy, and energy is required at all stages of the water supply process. Population growth and corresponding demand create significant community consequences including energy blackouts and water shortages. In order to help avoid these unintended consequences, appropriate planning must be done on the local, state, and federal level.

A critical first step in achieving better sustainability is understanding the quantifying relationship between energy and water. This relationship needs to be recognized by both the power and …

Conservation Easements As Charitable Property: Fiduciary Duties And The Limits Of Charitable Self-Regulation, Melanie B. Leslie

Articles

No abstract provided.

Conservation Easements As Charitable Property: Fiduciary Duties And The Limits Of Charitable Self-Regulation, Melanie B. Leslie

Articles

No abstract provided.

Some Pluralism About Pluralism: A Comment On Hanoch Dagan's "Pluralism And Perfectionism In Private Law", Jedediah S. Purdy

Faculty Scholarship

Hanoch Dagan is among “those who think it advantageous to get as much ethics into the law as they can,” in the phrase of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. His pluralism is a perfectionism for polytheists: There are many human goods, and each has its domain, including some portion of the law of property. Depending on where we stand on the property landscape at any time, we may be community-minded sharers, devoted romantics in marriage, or coolly rational market actors, and the local property law will smooth each of these paths for us. Property law is built on the design of …

Drinking Water Resource Directory, New England Environmental Finance Center

Sustainable Communities Capacity Building

This document is intended to help local and regional planning agencies, and their constituent water utilities, integrate drinking water infrastructure planning and investments into plans for sustainable development. Resources listed here provide guidance on making land use decisions that protect water resources, setting adequate and sustainable drinking water rates, controlling water loss, funding water infrastructure projects, and managing water utilities.

The directory was developed by the Environmental Finance Center Network through the Capacity Building for Sustainable Communities program funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency. Through this program, EFCN is providing capacity …

Agenda: A Low-Carbon Energy Blueprint For The American West, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center, University Of Colorado Boulder. Renewable And Sustainable Energy Institute, Western Resource Advocates, Rocky Mountain Research Station (Fort Collins, Colo.)

A Low-Carbon Energy Blueprint for the American West (Martz Summer Conference, June 6-8)

The future of the planet may depend upon our ability to increase energy supplies even as we reduce carbon emissions. This conference will address how a low-carbon energy program might evolve with a particular focus on the American West. It will focus on the future of energy in the West--on a “managed transition” to a different energy mix, on the need to nest this effort in a framework that acknowledges interconnections, and on identifying the most salient opportunities to consider the legal, political, financial, and technical challenges.

Good For You, Bad For Us: The Financial Disincentive For Net Demand, Jim Rossi, Michael P. Vandenbergh

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article examines a principal barrier to reducing U.S. carbon emissions — electricity distributors’ financial incentives to sell more of their product — and introduces the concept of net demand reduction (“NDR”) as a primary goal for the modern energy regulatory system. Net electricity demand must decrease substantially from projected levels for the United States to achieve widely-endorsed carbon targets by 2050. Although social and behavioral research has identified cost-effective ways to reduce electricity demand, state-of-the-art programs to curtail demand have not been implemented on a widespread basis. We argue that electric distribution utilities are important gatekeepers that can determine …

Good For You, Bad For Us: The Financial Disincentive For Net Demand Reduction, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Jim Rossi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article examines a principal barrier to reducing U.S. carbon emissions — electricity distributors’ financial incentives to sell more of their product — and introduces the concept of net demand reduction (“NDR”) as a primary goal for the modern energy regulatory system. Net electricity demand must decrease substantially from projected levels for the United States to achieve widely-endorsed carbon targets by 2050. Although social and behavioral research has identified cost-effective ways to reduce electricity demand, state-of-the-art programs to curtail demand have not been implemented on a widespread basis. We argue that electric distribution utilities are important gatekeepers that can determine …

Using Conservation Management Agreements To Secure Postrecovery Perpetuation Of Conservation-Reliant Species: The Kirtland's Warbler As A Case Study, Dale Goble

Articles

Kirtland’s warbler is one of many conservation-reliant species listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). This species has met recovery goals, but removing it from the protections of the ESA is problematic because of its reliance on ongoing conservation. We define conservation management agreements (CMAs) and describe how they may provide a mechanism to protect conservation-reliant species after delisting. We suggest that CMAs should include four major elements: (1) a conservation partnership capable of implementing management actions at conservation-relevant scales, (2) a conservation management plan based on the management actions in the species’ successful recovery plan, (3) sufficient financial resources …

Conservation Reliant-Species, Dale Goble

Articles

A species is conservation reliant when the threats that it faces cannot be eliminated, but only managed. There are two forms of conservation reliance: population- and threat-management reliance. We provide an overview of the concept and introduce a series of articles that examine it in the context of a range of taxa, threats, and habitats. If sufficient assurances can be provided that successful population and threat management will continue, conservation-reliant species may be either delisted or kept off the endangered species list. This may be advantageous because unlisted species provide more opportunities for a broader spectrum of federal, state, tribal, …

A State-Based National Network For Effective Wildlife Conservation, Dale Goble

Articles

State wildlife conservation programs provide a strong foundation for biodiversity conservation in the United States, building on state wildlife action plans. However, states may miss the species that are at the most risk at rangewide scales, and threats such as novel diseases and climate change increasingly act at regional and national levels. Regional collaborations among states and their partners have had impressive successes, and several federal programs now incorporate state priorities. However, regional collaborations are uneven across the country, and no national counterpart exists to support efforts at that scale. A national conservation-support program could fill this gap and could …

What A Tangled Net: Unravelling The International Complications Of Tuna Conservation, Quentin Hanich, Glenn Sant

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

The eighth meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission concluded in Guam on Friday 30 March 2012. Five hundred delegates from more than 40 countries argued for a week about how to reduce overfishing in the Western and Central Pacific tuna fisheries and sustainably manage the world’s largest tuna fisheries.

Scientific assessments clearly recommend urgent action to address overfishing and reduce fishing mortality for bigeye tuna, halt any increases in fishing mortality for yellowfin and probably albacore, reduce fishing mortality of juvenile bigeye and yellowfin, and develop precautionary limits for skipjack. If these actions are not taken the …

Who Pays For Conservation In The World's Biggest Tuna Fishery?, Quentin Hanich

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

The world catches too many tuna. Thanks to our high levels of fishing, some tuna species are under threat. Everyone involved in the fishing industry agrees that fishing effort needs to be reduced. But no one can decide who should bear the burden of cutting back their fishery. This week the Scientific Committee to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) meets in Busan, Korea to try once more to reduce over-fishing.

The WCPFC is the globally mandated regional fisheries management organisation for these tuna fisheries. It is required to adopt conservation measures that ensure the long-term conservation of …

Water Rights, Markets, And Changing Ecological Conditions, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

Conventional environmentalist thought is suspicious of private markets and property rights. The prospect of global climate change, and consequent ecological disruptions, has fueled the call for additional limitations on private markets and property rights. This essay, written for the Environmental Law Symposium on 21st Century Water Law, presents an alternative view. Specifically, this essay briefly explains why environmental problems generally, and the prospect of changing environmental conditions such as those brought about by climate change in particular, do not counsel further restrictions on private property rights and markets. To the contrary, the prospect of significant environmental changes strengthens the case …

The Quest For A Sustainable Future And The Dawn Of A New Journal At Michigan Law, David M. Uhlmann

Articles

When I joined the faculty of the University of Michigan Law School in 2007, the first assignment I gave students in my Environmental Law and Policy class was John McPhee's Encounters with the Archdruid. It must have seemed like a curious choice to them, particularly coming from a professor who just three months earlier had been the Chief of the Environmental Crimes Section at the U.S. Department of Justice. The book was not a dramatic tale of courtroom battles. In fact, the book was not even about the law, and the clash of environmental values it depicted pre-dated the environmental …

Legislative Control Of The Menhaden Fishery, Matthew G. Curtis

Law Student Publications

This article aims to highlight the unique stance taken by Virginia’s legislature and explain why this management is better left to the commission responsible for managing every other fishery in the Commonwealth. While there may not be a conclusive link between reduction industry practices and a decline in water quality, Virginia’s legislators should recognize the shift towards an ecosystem-based model as the most effective way to sustainably manage fisheries and all natural resources.

Report Surveys Colorado River Basin Leaders: Collaborative Approaches To Dwindling Supplies Are Highlighted, Sarah Bates, University Of Montana Missoula. Center For Natural Resources And Environmental Policy

Navigating the Future of the Colorado River (Martz Summer Conference, June 8-10)

4 pages.

Press release "April 14, 2011"

"Executive Summary April 2011" of report, Thinking Like a River Basin: Leaders' Perspectives on Options and Opportunities in Colorado River Management

Full report available at:

http://www.carpediemwest.org/wp-content/uploads/Thinking_Like_A_River_Basin_8-20-13.pdf

Proceedings Of The 2011 California Water Law Symposium (Wls). The End Of Paper Water: Natural Limits, Unlimited Demands And Reliable Supply, Paul S. Kibel, Anthony Austin, Melosa Granda, Luthien L. Niland

CUEL - Center for Urban Environmental Law

Proceedings of the 2011 California Water Law Symposium held at Golden Gate University School of Law on January 22, 2011.

Conservation Easements At The Climate Change Crossroads, Jessica Owley

Articles

No abstract provided.

Distributed Graduate Seminars: An Interdisciplinary Approach To Studying Land Conservation, Jessica Owley, Adena R. Rissman

Articles

No abstract provided.

Beyond Trust Species: The Conservation Potential Of The National Wildlife Refuge System In The Wake Of Climate Change, Robert L. Fischman, Robert Adamcik

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Over the last two decades, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWS”) has come to define its conservation mission in the context of species protection. The concept of “trust species” is now a common focal point for the myriad responsibilities of the FWS. This has become problematic for one of the major programs of the agency: management of the world’s largest biodiversity conservation network, the national wildlife refuge system (“NWRS”). A major legislative overhaul of the NWRS charter and the imperatives of climate change adaptation have weakened the concept as a reliable touchstone for NWRS management and expansion. The FWS …

Migratory Connectivity And The Conservation Of Migratory Animals, David Hunter

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Migration Conservation: A View From Above, Robert L. Fischman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The extinction prevention focus of natural resources policy diverts attention from important issues of ecological integrity and adaptation to climate change. Animal migration conservation serves as a bridge from the imperiled species problem to the more spatially and temporally difficult problems surrounding climate change adaptation. Conserving abundant animal migrations both strengthens the resilience of the ecosystems in which they function and tests the resilience of social institutions responsible for adaptation. This essay synthesizes the findings of a two-year, interdisciplinary study of animal migration conservation. It also introduces the articles that follow in a symposium issue of the journal, Environmental Law.

Changing Property In A Changing World: A Call For The End Of Perpetual Conservation Easements, Jessica Owley

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Energy-Water Nexus In Texas, Amy Hardberger, Ashlynn Stillwell, Carey King, Michael Webber, Ian Duncan

Faculty Articles

As we confront the challenges posed by climate change, decisions on supplying energy and water to the world’s growing population should no longer be made in isolation. The challenges facing Texas and the rest of the globe require that we recognize the deep inter‐connections and trade‐offs involved in deciding how to meet power and water needs in an increasingly resource‐constrained world.

This report is the first in a series designed to explore aspects of the energy‐water nexus in Texas. It examines the water requirements for various types of electricity generating facilities, both for typical systems nationwide and here in Texas. …

Improving Antibiotic Markets For Long Term Sustainability, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

The world faces a worsening public health crisis: A growing number of bacteria are resistant to available antibiotics. Yet there are few new antibiotics in the development pipeline to take the place of these increasingly ineffective drugs. We review a number of proposals intended to bolster drug development, including such financial incentives for pharmaceutical manufacturers as extending the effective patent life for new antibiotics. However, such strategies directly conflict with the clear need to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions and could actually increase prescription use. As an alternative, we recommend a two-prong, “integrated” strategy based on prizes administered through the insurance …

Slides: Climate Change Adaptation And The Federal Lands, Robert L. Glicksman

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Presenter: Robert L. Glicksman, J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law, George Washington University Law School (Washington, D.C.)

12 slides

Slides: Grazing On The Public Lands, William G. Myers Iii

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Presenter: William G. Myers III, Partner, Holland & Hart; former Solicitor of the U.S. Department of the Interior (Boise, ID)

8 slides