Law Commons^™

Regulatory Blowout: How Regulatory Failures Made The Bp Disaster Possible, And How The System Can Be Fixed To Avoid A Recurrence, Alyson Flournoy, William Andreen, Rebecca Bratspies, Holly Doremus, Victor Flatt, Robert Glicksman, Joel Mintz, Daniel Rohlf, Amy Sinden, Rena I. Steinzor, Joseph Tomain, Sandra Zellmer, James Goodwin

Holly Doremus

The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is destined to take its place as one of the greatest environmental disasters in the history of the United States, or for that matter, of the entire planet. Like so many other disasters on that list, it was entirely preventable. BP must shoulder its share of the blame, of course. Similarly, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) – since reorganized and rebranded – has come under much deserved criticism for its failure to rein in BP’s avaricious approach to drilling even where it was unable to respond to a worst-case scenario in …

The California Environmental Quality Act (Ceqa) After Two Decades: Relevant Problems And Ideas For Necessary Reform, Sean Stuart Varner

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Smart Growth And Sustainable Development: Threads Of A National Land Use Policy, Patricia E. Salkin

Patricia E. Salkin

No abstract provided.

Pluralism And The Environment Revisted: The Role Of Comment Agencies In Nepa Litigation, Michael Blumm

Michael Blumm

The National Environmental Policy Act suffers from a declining reputation due to high expectations and misunderstood implementation. The U.S. Supreme Court has disappointed environmental advocates by repeatedly ruling that NEPA does not impose substantive obligations to protect the environment that are judicially enforceable. As a result, some critics have characterized NEPA as a mere paperwork statute, imposing only bureaucratic red tape. Nevertheless, some courts have read NEPA to require close judicial scrutiny of federal agency actions with significant environmental consequences and have enjoined agency proposals that do not publicly disclose those consequences. The problem is that the level of judicial …

A Tale Of Two Projects; Nepa’S Eis V. Mitigated Fonsis, K.K. Duvivier, Ian London

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Monsanto Co. V. Geerston Seed Farms: Limiting District Courts' Equitable Discretion To Grant Permanent Injunctions For Nepa Violations, Nicole E. Grimm

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Consideration Of Climate Change In Federal Eiss, 2009-2011, Patrick Woolsey

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

In recent years, climate change has become an increasingly prominent subject of discussion in EISs. A comparison of agency approaches to EIS scope and methodology shows widely varying treatment of climate change impacts. Agencies differ in the methods used to calculate emissions and assess their significance. In addition, the types of indirect impacts addressed and the extent to which the impacts of climate change on the project are included vary.

Encouraging Energy Efficiency Through Nepa Comments, Adam Reidel

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Environmental impact statements (EISs) should analyze the potential for energy efficiency to reduce the adverse impacts of new projects, to make the projects smaller, or to provide more benign alternatives. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and its state counterparts require EISs for major actions, and provide numerous opportunities for public participation in the EIS process. These opportunities can be used to press for greater consideration, and perhaps adoption, of energy efficiency measures. This paper serves as a guide to commenting on and challenging EISs on the basis of insufficient consideration of the issues of energy efficiency and conservation. It …

Obama Reelection Clears Path For Numerous New Epa Regulations, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

The reelection of President Barack Obama means that a long list of new regulations will be issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the coming months. Some had been held up because of their political sensitivity, and others were still in process, but many will soon be ready for further action.

The election results also mean that major new environmental legislation is very unlikely for the next two years. The House of Representatives is still firmly controlled by the Republicans, and their leadership has not signaled any major change from the last Congress’ stance of opposition to many EPA …

A Functional Approach To Risks And Uncertainties Under Nepa, Todd Aagaard

Todd S Aagaard

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) mandates that federal agencies evaluate the environmental impacts of their proposed actions. This requires agencies to make ex ante predictions about environmental consequences that often involve a significant degree of factual risk or uncertainty. Considerable controversy exists regarding how agencies should address such risks and uncertainties. Current NEPA law adopts a largely ad hoc approach that lacks coherence and analytical rigor. Some environmentalists and legal scholars have called for a greater emphasis on worst-case analysis in environmental planning, especially after the recent Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the meltdowns …