Administrative Law Commons^™

Carbon Dioxide And The Clean Air Act, Eric Schwartz

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The EPA's authority to regulate CO2 under the Clean Air Act is supported by the statute's broad definition of "air pollutant" and judicial interpretations, including the Supreme Court's decision in Massachusetts v. EPA. The agency's initial reluctance to regulate CO2 was based on policy considerations, not legal limitations, and the Chevron doctrine requires courts to defer to the EPA's interpretation when Congress's intent is unclear. The ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA established that states have standing to challenge the EPA's failure to regulate CO2, emphasizing the importance of federal authority in addressing climate change. This decision has significant implications …

Waters Of The United States: Theory, Practice And Integrity At The Supreme Court, Jamison E. Colburn

ExpressO

In the Supreme Court's two wetlands cases this Term, a question of statutory interpretation divided the justices sharply, in part because so much rides on the particular statutory provision at issue. The provision, a cryptic definition within the Clean Water Act (CWA), has now provided three separate occasions at the Court where the justices have confronted (1) the Chevron doctrine and the Court’s own ambivalence toward it, and (2) the CWA's enormous project of restoring the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation's waters. In this essay, I argue that the way the Court went about resolving its differences …

Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

This brief comment suggests where the anti-eminent domain movement might be heading next.

A Modern Disaster: Agricultural Land, Urban Growth, And The Need For A Federally Organized Comprehensive Land Use Planning Model, Jess M. Krannich

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

When Is Two A Crowd? The Impact Of Federal Action On State Environmental Regulation, Jonathan H. Adler

ExpressO

This article seeks to identify the ways in which federal actions can influence state regulatory choices in the context of environmental policy. The federal government may directly influence state policy choices by preempting state policies or by inducing state cooperation through the use of various incentives and penalties for state action. The federal government may indirectly, and perhaps unintentionally, influence state policy choices as well. Federal policies may encourage greater state regulation by reducing the costs of initiating regulatory action or by placing issues on state policy agendas. Federal regulation may also discourage or even “crowd-out” state-level regulatory action by …

Using Capture Theory And Chronology In Eminent Domain Proceedings, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

Capture theory--in which private purpose is substituted for government purpose--sheds light on a technique which is coming into greater use post-Kelo v. New London. That case affirmed that eminent domain use need only be rationally related to a legitimate government purpose. Capture theory focuses litigators' attention on "government purpose." That is a question of fact for the trier of fact. This article shows how to use civil discovery in order to show the Court that private purpose has been substituted for government purpose. If it has, the eminent domain use fails, because the use does not meet minimum scrutiny. This …

Active Water Resource Management: Tools For Better Water Management, John D'Antonio

Publications

No abstract provided.

Water For Energy In The Southwest: Finding Water For Mohave, Stanley M. Pollack

Publications

No abstract provided.

Water For Energy In The Southwest: Where Will It Come From?, Marilyn C. O'Leary

Publications

No abstract provided.

What's Old Is New: The Problem With New Source Review, Shi-Ling Hsu

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Supreme Guidance For Wet Growth: Lessons From The High Court On The Powers And Responsibilities Of Local Governments, Michael Allan Wolf

UF Law Faculty Publications

Before the merger of water law and land use planning can occur, local and state regulators need strong guidance from experts in the field, not only in extra-legal fields such as planning, hydrology, geology, engineering, biology, and transportation, but also in mainstream legal areas including legislation (local, state, and federal), administrative law, and enforcement. The purpose of this article is to identify a somewhat unorthodox source of guidance - the United States Supreme Court, specifically the Rehnquist Court from October, 1984, through June, 2005, a period of remarkable stability for the nation’s highest tribunal.

Regulatory Reform: The New Lochnerism?, David M. Driesen

ExpressO

This article explores the question of whether contemporary regulatory reformers’ attitudes toward government regulation have anything in common with those of the Lochner-era Court. It finds that both groups tend to favor value neutral law guided by cost-benefit analysis over legislative value choices. Their skepticism toward redistributive legislation reflects shared beliefs that regulation often proves counterproductive in terms of its own objectives, fails demanding tests for rationality, and violates the natural order. This parallelism raises fresh questions about claims of neutrality and heightened rationality that serve as important justifications modern regulatory reform.

The Real Problem With New Source Review, Shi-Ling Hsu

Scholarly Publications

Editors’ Summary: When the CAA was amended in 1977, the U.S. Congress imposed pollution control requirements on new stationary sources of air pollution, called new source review (NSR), but exempted existing facilities from such requirements. By creating a more favorable regulatory environment for existing facilities than for new ones, “grandfathering” creates an incentive to keep old facilities up and running. Moreover, as a command-and control program, requiring capital expenditures for pollution control equipment makes the capital sluggishness problem worse. Combined with often confusing EPA policies and a changing political environment, NSR has resulted in a running battle between the regulated …

Florida Court Limits Rule To Red Grouper, Jonathan Lew

Sea Grant Law Fellow Publications

No abstract provided.

In Defense Of Regulatory Peer Review, J.B. Ruhl, James Salzman

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The debate over application of peer review to the regulatory decisions of administrative agencies has heated up in the last year. Part of the larger and controversial sound science movement, mandating peer review for certain types of agency decisions has recently been championed by the White House and proponents in Congress. Indeed, this past January the Office of Management and Budget finalized guidelines requiring peer review for large classes of agency activities. These initiatives have not gone unchallenged, and a fierce debate has resulted between those who claim peer review will strengthen the scientific basis of agency decisions and those …

Commonwealth Of Massachusetts V. Epa: Passing The Buck On Regulation Of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Daniel Baylson

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Shifting Science, Considered Costs, And Static Statutes: The Interpretation Of Expansive Environmental Legislation, Jason J. Czarnezki

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Congress often passes expansive legislation, frequently environmental and public health regulatory statutes, where both the definition of those items being regulated and the mandate have significant breadth. How should these provisions be construed? While it is difficult to establish a model which determines whether to broadly or narrowly construe an expansive statutory provision, factors that impact this choice include the existence of express limitations on the mandate, understandings of congressional intent, the need to avoid regulation that might do more harm than good, the nature of the regulated item, and intervening circumstances such as new understandings in law, policy, or …

Revisiting The Tense Relationship Between The U.S. Supreme Court, Administrative Procedure, And The National Environmental Policy Act, Jason J. Czarnezki

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article addresses the possibility, under the prevailing understanding of NEPA, that an agency might draft a comprehensive report containing information about potential environmental effects and alternate approaches to a proposed plan--and then wholly disregard all of this information in making its final decision. Although an agency may contend that it has “considered” the environmental consequences of alternative courses of action, what if these factors have no actual impact on its final decision? Hypothetically, an agency could simply “steamroll” toward its preferred decision, hurdling NEPA's procedural obstacles without genuinely considering potential environmental harms or the means to avoid them.

This …

An Environmental Pool For The Rio Grande, Kara Gillon

Publications

The Bureau of Reclamation and Corps of Engineers operate a series of dams, reservoirs, and levees along the Middle Rio Grande of New Mexico. The plight of the Rio Grande silvery minnow, an endangered species, and of the river itself demonstrates the need for a change from the emphasis on water development to sustainable river management. Conservation groups invoked the protections of the Endangered Species Act to catalyze this change. Recognizing that flexibility is necessary to meeting competing water needs, the groups also promoted the need for and several approaches to a sustainable and long-term approach to river management and …

Will Paradise Become A Parking Lot: The Debate Over The Bush Administration's Overhaul Of Forest Management Regulations, Katrina M. Kayden

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Is Cost-Benefit Analysis Neutral, David M. Driesen

University of Colorado Law Review

Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) owes much of its appeal to its image as a neutral principle for deciding upon the appropriate stringency of environmental, health, and safety regulation. This Article examines whether CBA is neutral in effect-i.e. whether it sometimes makes regulations more stringent or regularly leads to weaker environmental, health, and safety protection. Using a representative data set from recent Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reviews, an examination of OMB prompt letters, and a literature review, this Article shows that CBA has almost always proven anti-environmental in practice. It also shows that the most common approaches to CBA are …

Statutory Interpretation In The Era Of Oira, Lisa Heinzerling

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In recent years, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has asserted a remarkable degree of authority over administrative agencies' rulemaking processes. One of the ways in which OIRA has exercised power over agencies has been to foist upon them its own views about the requirements of the statutes under which they operate. The most notable trend in this area has been OIRA's insistence on converting technology-based environmental laws into cost-benefit laws. In OIRA's hands, for example, the Clean Water Act ("the Act") is being transformed from a technology- based regime …

Nepa: Lessons Learned And Next Steps: Hearing Before The Task Force On Updating The National Environmental Policy Act Of The H. Comm. On Resources, 109th Cong., Nov. 17, 2005 (Statement Of Professor Robert G. Dreher, Geo. U. L. Center), Robert G. Dreher

Testimony Before Congress

No abstract provided.

The Private Life Of Public Law, Michael P. Vandenbergh

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article proposes a new conception of the administrative regulatory state that accounts for the vast networks of private agreements that shadow public regulations. The traditional account of the administrative state assigns a limited role to private actors: private firms and interest groups seek to influence regulations, and after the regulations are finalized, regulated firms face a comply-or-defy decision. In recent years, scholars have noted that private actors play an increasing role in the traditional government standard setting, implementation and enforcement functions. This Article demonstrates that the private role in each of these regulatory functions is far greater than others …

D.C. Circuit: Nationwide Permits Are "Final Action", Jonathan Lew

Sea Grant Law Fellow Publications

No abstract provided.

Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Facing A Hobson's Choice? The Constitutionality Of The Epa's Administrative Compliance Order Enforcement Scheme Under The Clean Air Act, Christopher M. Wynn

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Day 3: Friday, 19 August 2005: Section 7 Consultation, Susan Linner, Leslie Elwood, Steve Culver

Endangered Species Act Congressional Field Tour (August 17-19)

10 pages (includes color illustrations and map).

Contains references.

Day 3: Friday, 19 August 2005: Habitat Conservation Plans, Susan Linner, Anne Ruggles, Anne Winans

Endangered Species Act Congressional Field Tour (August 17-19)

5 pages (includes illustration).

Contains references.

Day 3: Friday, 19 August 2005: States And The Esa, Pam Inmann, Tom Norton

Endangered Species Act Congressional Field Tour (August 17-19)

1 page.

Contains references.