Law Commons^™

A Return To Common Sense: Protecting Health, Safety, And The Environment Through 'Pragmatic Regulatory Impact Analysis', Rena I. Steinzor, Amy Sinden, Sidney A. Shapiro, James Goodwin

Rena I. Steinzor

Health and safety regulations have a more powerful impact on the quality of life in America than any other affirmative decision the government makes, except perhaps decisions to go to war or pull in the social safety net. To a great extent, the purity of the food we eat and all the medicines we take, the quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink, the safety of industrial workplaces, and the preservation of the myriad natural systems that support life as we know it are dependent on how effectively government polices the side effects of manufacturing. Yet …

Myths Of The Reinvented State, Rena I. Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

Climate Change Litigation – Power Point Slides, Chapter Three, David Hodas, Kenneth Kristl, James May

Kenneth T Kristl

No abstract provided.

The Reauthorization Of Superfund: The Public Works Alternative, Rena I. Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

Reinventing Environmental Regulation: Back To The Past By Way Of The Future, Rena I. Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

'You Just Don't Understand!" - The Right And Left In Conversation, Rena Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

Reinventing Environmental Regulation Via The Government Performance And Results Act: Where's The Money?, Rena I. Steinzor, William F. Piermattei

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

Reinventing Environmental Regulation Through The Government Performance And Results Act: Are The States Ready For The Devolution?, Rena I. Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

Regulatory Reinvention And Project Xl: Does The Emperor Have Any Clothes?, Rena I. Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

In Defense Of The Superfund Liability System: Matching The Diagnosis And The Cure, Rena Steinzor, Linda Greer

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

Epa And Its Sisters At 30: Devolution, Revolution, Or Reform?, Rena I. Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

The Reauthorization Of Superfund: Can The Deal Of The Century Be Saved?, Rena I. Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

The Corruption Of Civic Environmentalism, Rena I. Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

Toward Better Bubbles And Future Lives: A Progressive Response To The Conservative Agenda For Reforming Environmental Law, Rena I. Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

The Legacy Of John Graham: Strait-Jacketing Risk Assessment, Rena I. Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

A Perfect Storm: Mercury And The Bush Administration, Part Ii, Rena I. Steinzor, Lisa Heinzerling

Rena I. Steinzor

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 …

Oversight Hearing On The Federal Superfund Program's Activities To Protect Public Health, Rena Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

A Perfect Storm: Mercury And The Bush Administration, Rena Steinzor, Lisa Heinzerling

Rena I. Steinzor

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 …

Spirit Food And Sovereignty: Pathways For Protecting Indigenous Peoples' Subsistence Rights, Allison M. Dussias

Allison M Dussias

Abstract: SPIRIT FOOD AND SOVEREIGNTY: PATHWAYS FOR PROTECTING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ SUBSISTENCE RIGHTS

By Professor Allison M. Dussias

This article examines three pathways recently followed by Native American tribes and other Native communities in seeking protection of their rights to culturally valuable and legally protected subsistence resources – wild, renewable resources on which Native peoples have traditionally relied to sustain themselves. They have pursued their claims not only through litigation in U.S. courts, but also through claims to international bodies and through the regulatory process. The sources of law and rights on which they have relied as they followed these different …

Premature Burial? The Resuscitation Of Public Nuisance Litigation, Richard Faulk, John Gray

Richard Faulk

On Sept. 22, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in Connecticut v. American Electric Power Co., held that federal common-law nuisance suits can proceed against major greenhouse gas emitters. Nine days later, a federal trial court reached the opposite conclusion in another case. In this article, attorneys Richard Faulk and John Gray discuss these rulings, and the revival of public nuisance litigation.

Solar Energy Policy In Canada: An Overview Of Recent Legislative And Community-Based Trends Towards A Coherent Renewable Energy Sustainability Framework, Kamaal Zaidi

Kamaal Zaidi

This paper outlines solar energy policy in Canada, in the hopes of advancing renewable energy policy. More specifically, the most recent advances in public policy relating to renewable energy are examined in selected provinces to show how solar energy is on the rise in Canada. The technology behind solar energy is briefly analyzed, while the legal aspects of solar energy are covered to build upon the discussion in various provinces. Since much of Canadian solar energy policy draws from Germany, Japan, and the United States, these three jurisdictions are mentioned to show their solar energy policies. The paper ends with …

State Authority To Regulate Toxins In Children's Consumer Products, Doug Farquhar

Doug Farquhar

The rapid rise over the last several years in the number of recalled children's toys along with media coverage of foreign-manufactured products containing lead and other toxins created a public groundswell demanding stricter controls on toys and other children's products. In response, lawmakers have tightened existing toy safety standards, increased enforcement capability of state and federal authorities, and expanded the number of regulated substances, first by state lawmakers, followed by Congress with the enactment of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. This article explores the extent to which the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 preempts existing …

The Changing Of The Cattle Guard: Blm's New Approach To Grazing Qualifications, Hillary M. Hoffmann

Hillary M Hoffmann

This article traces the history of the four qualifications requirements for applicants seeking grazing permits on public domain lands under Bureau of Land Management jurisdiction: (1) citizenship/residency, (2) livestock ownership, (3) base property and (4) grazing preference. The article discusses the origins of these four requirements in the common grazing practices on the federal range in the early twentieth century, when grazing was unregulated, then discusses the extent to which they are explicitly or impliedly incorporated into the Taylor Grazing Act, and finally, explains the regulatory history of each requirement from 1934 to the present. The article concludes that BLM’s …

Debunking The "Divine Conception" Myth: Environmental Law Before Nepa, Michael C. Blumm

Michael Blumm

This is a review of Karl Brooks' book, "Before Earth Day: The Origins of American Environmental Law, 1945-70." Brooks challenges the standard account given in most America law school classes that has environmental law bursting onto the legal scene in the "environmental decade" of the 1970's. Like the "miracle in Philadelphia" in the summer of 1787, this "divine conception" theory of the genesis of environmental law is a myth, as Brooks ably demonstrates. He discusses the struggle to pass environmental statutes in the late 1940's like the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, as well as successful block developments like Idaho …

Review Of Mary Doyle And Cynthia A. Drew, Large-Scale Ecosystem Restoration (Island Press, 2008), Joel A. Mintz

Joel A. Mintz

This book review critically examines Mary Doyle and Cynthia A. Drew's, Large-Scale Ecosystem Restoration. The book is a set of case studies of five watershed-wide ecosystem restoration projects, written from the perspectives of institutional/political history, economics, and ecology. This review assays the work's strengths and shortcomings, both as a source of information about the restoration efforts it covers and as a guide to the evaluation of other similar attempts to restore degraded watersheds.

U.S. Supreme Court Environmental Cases 2008-2009: A Year Like No Other, James R. May

James R. May

The author of this article says the last term of the U.S. Supreme Court was in many respects like no other in modern environmental law. During the 2008-2009 term, the Supreme Court ruled on novel and important questions concerning preliminary injunctions under the National Environmental Policy Act; cost-benefit analyses and permitting under the Clean Water Act; arranger and joint and several liability under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act; and environmental standing. At no turn, says the author, did the court favor the environment over other interests. He says the court even reached down to reverse decisions in …

Shifting The Paradigm: Broadening Our Understanding Of Agriculture And Its Impact On Climate Change, Annise Maguire

Annise Maguire

Scientists have determined that the Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate. Governments around the world are in near unanimous agreement about the existence of climate change and the threat it poses. Further, there is a growing consensus within the global scientific community that the primary cause of climate change is increased emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) related to human activities. At best, it appears that human actions are exacerbating the natural heating of the earth; at worst, humans are the primary cause of the rapid rise in temperatures.

Unfortunately, policies enacted to date have failed to take into account …

A Theoretical Justification For Special Solicitude: States And The Administrative State, Matthew Melamed

Matthew S Melamed

In Massachusetts v. EPA, the Court declared that the state of Massachusetts, because it sought to protect a quasi-sovereign interest, was “entitled to special solicitude in our standing analysis.” The discussion of special solicitude consisted of little more than one page in the Court’s opinion. This paper addresses the question of whether a theoretical justification for special solicitude for state standing exists, and finds that it does.

The strongest argument for special solicitude is rooted in federalist concerns, though not the concerns that provide the foundation for originalist states’ rights theories. While traditional states’ rights arguments seek to restrict federal …

Pcbs In Schools And Corporate Responsibility For Remediation: Yorktown Central School District V. Monsanto Company, Valerie J. Watnick

Valerie J. Watnick

From 1950 to 1977, thousands of school buildings in the United States were constructed or renovated using materials containing man-made materials called poly chlorinated bi-phenols, commonly known as “PCBs.” In 1977, Congress banned most uses of PCBs in construction, recognizing the adverse health effects of these man-made compounds. Despite this ban and the now widely held belief that PCBs are known animal carcinogens, probable human carcinogens and have other toxic effects on the human reproductive, immune, endocrine and neurological systems, these compounds are still commonly found in school buildings throughout the United States. This article asserts that just as concerns …

Intergovernmental Coordination Of Power Development And Environmental Protection Act, Garrett Power

Garrett Power

No abstract provided.