Environmental Law Commons^™

Climate Change, Zoning And Transportation Planning: Urbanization As A Response To Carbon Loading, John R. Nolon, Jessica A. Bacher

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article explores the relationship among zoning, transportation planning, and climate change. It discusses the relationship between land use densities and transportation choices, reviews the trend toward transit oriented development in higher density communities and transportation efficient development in lower density areas, presents several case studies where land use and transportation planning are beginning to intersect, and ends with a strategic approach for communities to consider.

Real Estate Law Review: Creating A Local Environmental Law Program, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Local governments are adopting with increasing frequency local laws to facilitate low-impact development, ensure the construction of green buildings, and coordinate land use and transportation planning to lower greenhouse gas emissions. This builds on their progress over the past two decades in adopting an impressive number of local laws to protect natural resources. These include ordinances designed to protect trees, stands of timber, hillsides, viewsheds, ridgelines, stream beds, wetlands, watersheds, aquifers and water bodies, and wildlife habitat. At the same time, provisions designed to protect environmental features from the adverse impacts of development have been added to basic land use …

Disaster Mitigation Through Land Use Strategies, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The persistent question this book raises is who should decide whether and how to mitigate the damages caused by natural disasters. Our understandable preoccupation with response, recovery, and rebuilding makes it hard to focus on this question as a central, even relevant, one. But it persists, nonetheless. The high-profile “blame game” played following Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of the Gulf Coast is emblematic. In pointing fingers first at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), then at the city of New Orleans, and then at the state of Louisiana, public officials exhibited an appalling lack of understanding of the roles that each …

Advancing The Rebirth Of Environmental Common Law, Jason J. Czarnezki

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Federal law often fails to mitigate environmental harm. An alternative litigation response when federal avenues prove ineffective is reliance on state common law doctrines, especially public and private nuisance. A rebirth of the common law is occurring. This Article provides examples of the rebirth of environmental common law and suggests how common law claims and remedies in the environmental context can mitigate environmental harm.

Environmentalism And The Wisconsin Constitution, Jason J. Czarnezki

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

With its abundance of natural resources and due to the state's strong environmental policies, Wisconsin has “enjoyed a reputation as a state rich in natural beauty and recreational opportunities.” Yet, despite the state's strong environmental protections, some based upon constitutional principles, this Article addresses whether Wisconsin's environmental constitutional provisions can be improved upon. This Article attempts to evaluate the existing environmental provisions in the Wisconsin Constitution, and considers, looking at a variety of options and sources, whether the state should proceed forward with any changes, minor or major, to environmental law in the Wisconsin Constitution. This Article considers expansion of …

Regulating Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems, Alexandra Dapolito Dunn

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Multilateral Climate Change Mitigation, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

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 …

Katrina's Lament: Reconstructing Federalism, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The subject of stormwater management raises threshold questions about the federal system. Is the regulation of stormwater runoff and the environmental pollution it causes within the federal government's legal jurisdiction? Is it a matter reserved to the states under the Tenth Amendment? Or is it a joint responsibility and, if so, precisely how is federal and state authority shared? How does the delegation of power by states to local governments to regulate the use of privately owned land affect the federal-state division of power? What limits should there be on local control of land uses that cause “nonpoint source” pollution, …

The Emergence Of Exacted Conservation Easements, Jessica Owley Lippmann

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Training Manual On International Environmental Law, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Without analyzing each of the hundreds of agreements and instruments in the field, this Training Manual seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of the current body of environmental law. It is aimed at legal stakeholders from all backgrounds including government representatives, judges, university professors and students from both developed and developing countries, to enable them to more effectively participate in the global, regional and national efforts to preserve our Earth for future generations. Specific topics are first presented at the international level and then followed by extracts of national legislation showcasing real life examples of how national law today reflects …

A Strategy For Developing Stationary Biodiesel Generation, Karl R. Rábago

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This paper discusses the drivers of change in the electricity system and the opportunities presented for biodiesel electric generation in this context. This paper also introduces the primary issues facing increased utilization of biodiesel—both those that challenge increased use of the fuel and those that support this use. Finally, the paper presents key elements of a strategy for realizing the potential of an electric generation infrastructure that incorporates more distributed biodiesel generation in the near term and even more distributed energy resources over the longer term.

Energy Efficiency: The Best Immediate Option For A Secure, Clean, Healthy Future, Richard L. Ottinger

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The imperatives for reducing the world’s dependence on fossil and nuclear fuels have multiplied manifold in recent years with the advent of worldwide terrorism. These new dangers come in addition to the imperatives of addressing the dire consequences of global warming and devastating pollution that accompany the use of these fossil fuels. Reducing dependence on these unsafe and unreliable energy resources should be a top global priority. Implementation of proven energy efficiency technologies offers the world the fastest, safest, most economic and most environmentally benign way to alleviate these threats. This article outlines available efficiency measures, their economic advantages and …

Crimes Against Nature, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

It is a pleasure for me to be here at St. Thomas and to see so many great legal heroes ensconced in this university, including the president and so many others. As I was signing some copies of my book Crimes Against Nature, it occurred to me that the word “environment” does not appear in the book. I thought I would talk about that today. To me, the environment is the most critical battle because it is the most critical issue in our democracy. Democracy, really all government, is about how we distribute the goods of the land. The best …

Connecticut Nitrogen Credit Exchange Program, Ann Powers

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Long Island Sound is a cherished national natural resource, surrounded by some of the most densely populated land in the country. It has long provided sustenance, economic opportunities and comfort to the spirit for those who inhabit or visit its shores and waters. Like many of our Nation's water bodies, it drains a substantial and diverse watershed, and suffers a broad range of environmental insults. The problem of most concern is the severe shortage of oxygen in the deep waters of the western part of the Sound during summer months. This hypoxia is attributable to excess nitrogen that fuels the …

Of Zombie Permits And Greenwash Renewal Strategies: Ten Years Of New York's So-Called "Environmental Benefit Permitting Strategy", Karl S. Coplan

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article analyzes the CWA's provisions ensuring public participation in the permitting process and the history of EPA regulations implementing the public participation requirements. The article then examines the EBPS authorizing legislation, DEC's Technical Guidance concerning its implementation of the EBPS, and some instances of DEC's actual practice implementing the EBPS, and compares these procedures with the public participation requirements contemplated by both the CWA and New York State's own clean water implementing legislation, Environmental Conservation Law Article 17. The article concludes that the procedures adopted by the DEC are inconsistent with both the CWA's public participation requirements, as well …

Iucn As Catalyst For A Law Of The Biosphere: Acting Globally And Locally, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Unique among international organizations, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) operates at the global, regional, and national levels to build governmental capacity to protect the environment. With a membership of over 75 sovereign states and 800 nongovernmental organizations, IUCN functions as an intergovernmental organization at the transnational level while operationally embodying the maxim "think globally, act locally." IUCN acts as a consortium of environmental scientists and professionals, including environmental lawyers who have proposed and secured adoption of significant environmental treaties such as the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and their …

Doing Water Quality Credit Trading Right, Alexandra Dapolito Dunn

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Paradigms Of Positive Change: Reordering The Nation's Land Use System, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article begins with a brief look at the system’s familiar dysfunctions, continues with a lengthier examination of positive examples of reform, emphasizes the importance of coalition building in the reform process, and ends with the observation that reform efforts should be organized by the task of creating essential connections among the governments involved.

Energy-Efficiency: The Best Option For A Secure, Clean, Healthy Future, Richard L. Ottinger

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The risks of dependence on traditional fuels have never been greater or more obvious. Modern civilization and the world economy are facing imminent and clear threats of worldwide terrorism. The oil producing countries of the Middle East are increasingly unstable, confronting the world with potentially calamitous energy and economic disruptions. Domestically, our limited refining capacity creates shortages when demand is high and increases prices even when petroleum supplies are plentiful. Yet most of the world is in a state of denial, happy to bask in the illusory security of temporary Saudi oil production increases. Moreover, these new dangers sit on …

Comparative Land Use Law: Patterns Of Sustainability, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Land use scholars and practitioners in the United States trace the development of domestic land use law to 1916, when the City of New York adopted the nation's first comprehensive zoning law, and then on to 1926 when the U.S. Supreme Court declared zoning constitutional in Euclid v. Ambler Realty. Some have studied European influences stemming from late nineteenth century regulations and the urban design principles imported from the great cities of the era. Others know about the catastrophic London fire of 1666 and how it transformed society's understanding of why individual property rights, to some degree, must be subject …

Theme And Variations In Statutory Preclusions Against Successive Environmental Enforcement Actions By Epa And Citizens, Part Two: Statutory Preclusions On Epa Enforcement, Jeffrey G. Miller

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This is the second half of a two-part Article focusing on preclusions against successive enforcement of the environmental statutes. Part One of the Article, printed in Volume 28 of this Journal, examined preclusions against citizen suits and argued that because of the theme-and-variations nature of the preclusion language, that language should be read in accordance with its plain meaning. Part Two, published in this issue, studies the restrictions on enforcement actions by the EPA and reaches the same conclusion.

The Supreme Court's Water Pollution Jurisprudence: Is The Court All Wet?, Jeffrey G. Miller

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Part I of this article sets the stage with a brief survey of federal water pollution control, focusing on the CWA. Part II examines statistical conclusions and inferences from a cursory review of the Court's CWA opinions. Part III examines some of the opinions in a more qualitative manner to determine whether the statistical conclusions withstand analysis and whether the Court understands the CWA. The latter determination requires examining the nature and severity of the Court's misinterpretations of the statute. Part IV examines the Court's decisions with anti-environmental results to determine whether they reflect an anti-environmental bias or the other …

Is Voting Necessary? Organization Standing And Non-Voting Members Of Environmental Advocacy Organizations, Karl S. Coplan

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article will examine the law of standing, and specifically, the conflicting decisions concerning the importance of voting rights in order to establish organizational standing. The article concludes that voting rights should not be essential to the assertion of representational standing. Nevertheless, the article will also consider alternate forms of organization that will improve an organization's chances of establishing representational standing, while addressing the concerns that lead organizations to avoid a voting membership in the first place.

The Iucn Academy Of Environmental Law: Seeking Legal Underpinnings For Sustainable Development, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

An article describing a “work in progress” can provide only a sketch of the initial plans for the new IUCN Academy of Environmental Law. As the Academy establishes its administrative secretariat, builds its research program, and fashions its collaborative teaching undertakings, the details of this further work will become clear. Their analysis must await the events. Nonetheless, the precedents to date portend a promising future, as illustrated by the launch in Shanghai, and the Academy's initial research into the environmental sustainability of contemporary energy law.

Tribal Sovereignty Over Water Quality, Jessica Owley Lippmann

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Law Of Words: Standing, Environment, And Other Contested Terms, David N. Cassuto

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services (TOC), Inc., 528 U.S. 167 (2000), exposes fundamental incoherencies within environmental standing doctrine, even while it ostensibly makes standing easier to prove for plaintiffs in environmental citizen suits. According to Laidlaw, an environmental plaintiff needs only to show personal injury to satisfy Article III's standing requirement; she need not show that the alleged statutory violation actually harms the environment. This Article argues that Laidlaw's distinction between injury to the plaintiff and harm to the environment is nonsensical. Both the majority and dissent in Laidlaw incorrectly assume that there exists an objective …

Theme And Variations In Statutory Preclusions Against Successive Environmental Enforcement Actions By Epa And Citizens, Part One: Statutory Bars In Citizen Suit Provisions, Jeffrey G. Miller

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This two-part Article examines the preclusion device, its legislative history, and the decisions interpreting it. Part One examines the device in citizen suit provisions. Part Two, to be published subsequently, will examine the device in EPA enforcement provisions. The two parts develop a unified interpretation of the device in both sets of enforcement provisions to resolve the tension between achieving compliance and protecting prosecutorial discretion. The Article concludes that Congress meant exactly what it wrote and enacted: the device solely precludes the successive enforcement it actually addresses. Several of the most common canons of statutory interpretation lead inexorably to this …

Harnessing The Treaty Power In Support Of Environmental Regulation Of Activities That Don't "Substantially Affect Interstate Commerce", Katrina Fischer Kuh

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article proposes a framework for applying the treaty power that would accomplish the goal of environmental regulation. This framework would be applied where the President has signed, and Congress has ratified, a treaty and Congress has enacted domestic legislation in some way satisfying the goals or requirements of the treaty. Under this framework, the inquiry into whether the treaty power could appropriately be used by Congress in excess of its Article I, Commerce Clause powers would be indexed to the strength of (1) the contract-like nexus between the necessarily reciprocal requirements and the goals of the treaty and the …