Law Commons^™

Coal Pollution And Climate Change, Alan Ramo

Publications

No abstract provided.

The End Of Sustainability, Melinda Harm Benson, Robin Kundis Craig

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No abstract provided.

The End Of Sustainability, Melinda Harm Benson, Robin Kundis Craig

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It is time to move past the concept of sustainability. The realities of the Anthropocene warrant this conclusion. They include unprecedented and irreversible rates of human-induced biodiversity loss, exponential increases in per-capita resource consumption, and global climate change. These factors combine to create an increasing likelihood of rapid, nonlinear, social and ecological regime changes. The recent failure of the Rio +20 provides an opportunity to collectively reexamine--and ultimately move past--the concept of sustainability as an environmental goal. We must face the impossibility of defining--let alone pursuing--a goal of "sustainability" in a world characterized by such extreme complexity, radical uncertainty and …

Managing Complex Water Resource Systems For Ecological Integrity: Evaluating Tradeoffs And Uncertainty, Richard Morrison

Publications

Water resource systems often contain numerous components that are intertwined or even contradictory, such as power production, water delivery, recreation, and environmental needs. This complexity makes it difficult to holistically assess management alternatives. In addition, hydro climatic and ecological uncertainties complicate efforts to evaluate the impacts of management scenarios. We need new tools that are able to inform managers and researchers of the tradeoffs or consequences associated with flow alternatives, while also explicitly incorporating sources of uncertainty. My research addresses this limitation using two modeling approaches: stochastic system dynamics modeling and Bayesian network modeling. I developed a stochastic system dynamics …

Spring 2014 Utton Center Newsletter, Utton Center, University Of New Mexico - School Of Law

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No abstract provided.

Developing The Law Of The River: The Integration Of Law And Policy Into Hydrologic And Socio-Economic Modeling Efforts In The Willamette River Basin, Adell Louise Amos

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A legal and policy infrastructure -- referred to as a "law of the river" -- exists for every river basin in the U.S. an can be as important as natural processes in terms of managing the future of the resource. Because of the way that water law and policy have evolved in the U.S., this infrastructure involves a matrix of state and federal law that governs the choices that policymakers, end users, and agencies make. This "law of the river" provides the context in which decisions are made and not made. It also draws the boundaries within which decision makers …

Jump In Before It's Too Late: Protecting And Increasing Streamflows In New Mexico, Sharon Wirth

Publications

Freshwater ecosystems need adequate streamflow to supply clean water for humans and maintain healthy habitat for wildlife. Over-appropriation, overuse, climate change, and drought plague New Mexico's rivers, taxing many rivers beyond sustainability. Despite the myriad of problems caused by little or no water in our rivers, policies and procedures to protect and increase streamflows in New Mexico are limited. While most Western states have made demonstrable progress in alleviating various legal and technical barriers to protecting and increasing streamflows, New Mexico has made only limited, recent progress towards solutions for our drying rivers. This article takes a critical look at …

Water Governance Challenges In New Mexico's Middle Rio Grande Valley: A Resilience Assessment, Melina Harm Benson, Dagmar Llewellyn, Ryan Morrison, Mark Stone

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No abstract provided.

Interdisciplinary Research And Environmental Law, Caroline L. Noblet, Dave Owen

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This Article considers the involvement of environmental law researchers in interdisciplinary research. Using a survey and a series of unstructured interviews, we explore environmental law professors’ level of interest in such research; the extent of their engagement in it; and the inducements and barriers they perceive to such research. We conclude that levels of engagement in such research are probably lower than they ought to be, and we therefore recommend steps that individuals and institutions could take to facilitate more and better interdisciplinary work. More generally, we conclude that some common critiques of interdisciplinary legal research rest on assumptions that …

A Salmon Eye Lens On Climate Adaption, Paul S. Kibel

Publications

This Article discusses the current gap in climate adaptation law and policy, emphasizing the potential role that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Endangered Species Act (ESA) and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) could play in filling this gap. It focuses on the provisions in these laws that establish that agency planning and decision-making should be based on the best available science, and notes that the best available science now confirms that GHG emission-induced climate change is happening now and will continue to happen during this century. This Article posits that the most appropriate and effective way to factor expected …

The California Offset Game: Who Wins And Who Loses?, Alan Ramo

Publications

California is implementing the most comprehensive global warming regulatory program in the United States. A key part of this program is its cap-and-trade system. Integral to the cap-and-trade requirements are provisions for offsets, whereby companies, to meet their caps, can purchase credits from certain unregulated entities whose activities are deemed to have resulted in real and additional emission reductions. California has attempted to avoid the Kyoto Protocol's project-by-project lengthy and problematic review of offsets with a performance standard approach for domestic offsets and a sector approach for international offsets. Offsets, even if done right. raise serious environmental justice questions as …

U.S. Military Accountability For Extraterritorial Environmental Impacts: An Examination Of Okinawa, Environmental Justice, And Judicial Militarism, Alan Ramo

Publications

Local resistance to the relocation of a U.S. military base to a Bay threatening an endangered sea mammal off the coast of the island of Okinawa raises important issues regarding the extraterritoriality of U.S. environmental laws, the role of the courts in reviewing military operations and ultimately environmental justice. Federal courts continue inconsistently to sort out the extraterritoriality of U.S. laws, including environmental laws. Strong arguments remain that the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act should also apply to the U.S. military’s actions in Okinawa. Although the modern U.S. Supreme Court has reversed earlier cases and given …

Transitioning A Community Away From Fossil-Fuel Generation To A Green Economy: An Approach Using State Utility Commission Authority, Alan Ramo, Deborah N. Behles

Publications

A transition is starting throughout the nation as renewable energy resources are developed and older fossil-fuel facilities retire. The communities that bear the brunt of fossil-fuel pollution will also likely bear this transition’s economic impacts. Yet, there is no guarantee that these communities will share in the transition’s economic benefits—in particular, the building, operation, and ownership of new renewable energy resources. Renewable energy laws generally do not consider these types of impacts when determining where to site new resources.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), in a case involving Native Americans in Arizona affected by the operations and closure of …

Introductory Remarks, James Anaya

Publications

These remarks were delivered at a Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights panel held on Wednesday, April 9, 2014.

Grazing In Wilderness Areas, Mark Squillace

Publications

Domestic livestock grazing is naturally in tension with wilderness. Wilderness areas are not truly "untrammeled by man" when they host managed livestock grazing. Yet the compromise that allowed livestock grazing in wilderness areas was surely one of the greatest in the history of the conservation movement. Without it, Congress might never have passed a wilderness bill or designated countless wilderness areas throughout the country. The grazing exception--and the Congressional Grazing Guidelines that afford specific protections for grazers--made it possible to secure bipartisan support for wilderness bills in even the most conservative western states.

Notwithstanding this success, the ecology of some …