Environmental Law Commons^™

Epa's Impending Greenhouse Gas Regulations: Digging Through The Morass Of Litigation, Gregory E. Wannier

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

As the U.S. Congress has failed to pass meaningful climate legislation, the EPA has initiated a series of regulations under the Clean Air Act designed to recognize greenhouse gases as endangering human health and welfare, and set greenhouse gas emission standards for vehicle fleets and for major stationary sources. Unsurprisingly these efforts have been challenged in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. This paper discusses both the substantive and procedural issues surrounding the cases, all of which merit attention: in the absence of viable climate legislation these decisions will have important bearing on the extent to which the United States …

An Environmental Competition Statute, David M. Driesen

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

The next generation of environmental law should use economic incentives to creatively stimulate innovation in environmental technology. This Article proposes an environmental competition statute as a means of stimulating movement toward a more sustainable future. Such a statute would authorize those who achieve low emissions to collect the cost of achieving low emissions plus a premium from competitors with higher emissions.

This Article briefly explains the value of using this mechanism. It then canvasses the problems with the first and second generation of environmental law that an environmental competition statute can help us overcome. A detailed description of an environmental …

Fiftieth Anniversary Note: A Devoted Reader's Appreciation Of The Natural Resources Journal, A. Dan Tarlock

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Saving Lives Or Spreading Fear: The Terroristic Nature Of Eco-Extremism, Kevin R. Grubbs

Animal Law Review

Much debate has surfaced surrounding so-called “eco-terrorism.” Some commentators argue that such activity is not and should not be called terrorism. This Comment analyzes these extremist activities through the lens of federal terrorism laws and argues that, while these activists’ goals are laudable, their methods are often terroristic. Consequently, those activities that go too far are-and should be-classified as terrorism.

Climate Change Under Nepa: Avoiding Cursory Consideration Of Greenhouse Gases, Amy L. Stein

University of Colorado Law Review

Neither the National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA') nor its implementing regulations require consideration of climate change in NEPA documentation. Yet an evergrowing body of NEPA case law related to climate change is making it increasingly difficult for a federal agency to avoid discussing the impacts of those emissions under NEPA in its Environmental Impact Statements ("EISs'). Although consideration of climate change in NEPA documents sounds right in theory, within the current legal framework, the NEPA documents provide only lip service to the goals of NEPA without any meaningful consideration of climate change. An empirical evaluation of two years of selected …

The Market For Treaties, Natasha Affolder

All Faculty Publications

Corporations are consumers of treaty law. In this article, I empirically examine three biodiversity treaty regimes - the Convention on Biological Diversity, Ramsar Convention, and World Heritage Convention - to demonstrate that corporations implement or internalize treaty norms in a variety of ways that are not captured by the dominant model of treaty implementation – national implementation. As an exegetical model, I explore how corporations use biodiversity treaties as a source of private environmental standards. I focus on the interactions between mining and oil and gas companies and biodiversity treaties, as revealed through transactional documents, corporate reports, security law filings, …

Fire And Ice: World Renewable Energy And Carbon Control Mechanisms Confront Constitutional Barriers, Steven Ferrey, Chad Laurent, Cameron Ferrey

Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum

No abstract provided.

Corporate Environmental Social Responsibility: Corporate "Greenwashing" Or A Corporate Culture Game Changer?, Hope M. Babcock

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article focuses on the extent to which unenforceable voluntary initiatives undertaken by corporations can change corporate behavior to make businesses more environmentally responsible, i.e. not only comply with the law, but to do more than the law actually requires of them. These initiatives, loosely gathered under the umbrella of a movement called corporate social responsibility (CSR), are often proposed by the government as a way to fill regulatory and enforcement gaps or by industry, often as an alternative to regulatory requirements. In each case, their goal is to improve the compliance record of businesses and, in some cases, to …

Climate Change Under Nepa: Avoiding Cursory Consideration Of Greenhouse Gases, Amy L. Stein

UF Law Faculty Publications

Neither the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) nor its implementing regulations require consideration of climate change in NEPA documentation. Yet an ever-growing body of NEPA case law related to climate change is making it increasingly difficult for a federal agency to avoid discussing the impacts of those emissions under NEPA in its Environmental Impact Statements (“EISs”). Although consideration of climate change in NEPA documents sounds right in theory, within the current legal framework, the NEPA documents provide only lip service to the goals of NEPA without any meaningful consideration of climate change. An empirical evaluation of two years of selected …

State Fish Stocking Programs At Risk: Takings Under The Endangered Species Act, Amy L. Stein

UF Law Faculty Publications

Part I of this article provides a brief background to fish stocking practices in the United States, including a discussion of beneficial fish stocking practices, as well as some of the allegations surrounding the detrimental effects. Part II of this article provides some necessary background on section 9 of the ESA, the “actual injury” prong, the “significant impairment” prong, and their application to fish stocking. Part III of this article sets forth recommendations for future clarification and increased consistency on these issues. Specifically, this article supports the use of two rules that can help reconcile the uncertain landscape surrounding a …

Canaries In The Coal Mine: The Tactical Use Of The National Labor Relations Act To Aid In The Protection Of Non-Union Workers Exposed To Pollutants, Michael C. Duff

All Faculty Scholarship

Canaries were used in times past to alert miners to the presence of dangerous gases in a mine. A canary would die, and the miners would thereby become aware of deadly, but sometimes odorless, gases. Just as canaries have alerted miners to the presence of dangerous gases in mines, workers exposed to dangerous pollutants and conditions in workplaces may function as societal canaries warning the broader public of environmental dangers; but hopefully without having to die in the process. To perform this role, the workers must live to work (and protest) another day. Section 7 of the National Labor Relations …

The Legal Challenge Of Protecting Animal Migrations As Phenomena Of Abundance, Robert L. Fischman, Jeffrey B. Hyman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Animal migrations are as familiar as geese in the sky on a fall afternoon and as mysterious as the peregrinations of sea turtles across thousands of miles of open ocean. This article discusses the distinguishing attributes of animal migrations, why they are important to biodiversity conservation, and the legal challenges posed by migration conservation. In particular, the article focuses on those aspects of migration conservation that existing law, dominated by imperiled species protection, fails to address. It consequently suggests law reforms that would better conserve animal migrations. A step toward serious legal efforts to protect the process and function of …

Adaptive Management In The Courts, Robert L. Fischman, J. B. Ruhl

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Adaptive management has become the tonic of natural resources policy. With its core idea of “learning while doing,” adaptive management has infused the natural resources policy world to the point of ubiquity, surfacing in everything from mundane agency permits to grand presidential proclamations. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to suggest that these days adaptive management is natural resources policy. But is it working? Does appending “adaptive” in front of “management” somehow make natural resources policy, which has always been about balancing competing claims to nature’s bounty, something more and better? Many legal and policy scholars have asked that question, with …

Hicks V. Dowd, Conservation Easements, And The Charitable Trust Doctrine: Setting The Record Straight, W. William Weeks, Nancy A. Mclaughlin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This is the fourth in an exchange of articles published by the Wyoming Law Review discussing the application of charitable trust principles to conservation easements conveyed as charitable gifts. In 2002, Johnson County, Wyoming, attempted to terminate a conservation easement that had been conveyed to the County as a tax-deductible charitable gift. The County's actions were challenged, first in a suit brought by a resident of the County, Hicks v. Dowd, and then in a suit brought by the Wyoming Attorney General, Salzburg v. Dowd. The over six years of litigation associated with the easement's attempted termination has been the …

Climate Change Law In And Over Time, Richard J. Lazarus

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

The critical lesson for climate change legislation is that the pending lawmaking moment must include the enactment of provisions specifically designed to maintain the legislation’s ability to achieve its long-term objectives over the longer term. For climate change legislation to be successful, the new legal framework must simultaneously be flexible in certain respects and steadfast in others. Flexibility is necessary to allow for the modification of legal requirements over time in light of new information. Steadfastness or “stickiness” is important to maintain the stability of a law’s requirements over time. The need for both is particularly great for climate change …

Adapting To Climate Change With Law That Bends Without Breaking, Holly Doremus

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

Climate change, the key environmental challenge of this century, is a tough problem for law in many ways. The topic of this panel, instrument choice, highlights a particularly difficult, important, and under-recognized aspect of the climate change challenge: the difficulty of devising a system of environmental law that combines the flexibility necessary to deal with a changing world with the rigidity and accountability essential to hold us to the difficult task of environmental protection.

How To Love The One You're With: Changing Tax Policy To Fit Cap-And-Trade, Roberta Mann

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

This paper will begin with an introduction of climate change issues, including a brief history of international mitigation efforts. The next section will give an overview of cap-and-trade systems and describe how a typical cap-and-trade system would interact with the current federal income tax system. The discussion of the interaction of cap-and-trade with the income tax will include both direct and indirect effects. This section will then compare those effects with the potential impact of a carbon tax. The direct impacts of cap-and-trade on the income tax system occur because the “trade” part of cap-and-trade creates a new financial instrument …

Looking Back To Move Forward: Revisiting The Btu In Evaluating Current Policy Alternatives, Walter Wang

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

To evaluate the current policy alternatives, it is necessary to take a step back and revisit the Btu tax proposed by the Clinton Administration. Although seventeen years have passed since the Btu tax was proposed, and the U.S. is at war in theaters that are much different from those in which it was involved during the Clinton Administration, the landscape of the climate change debate has not changed dramatically. The lessons learned from the policies espoused by the Btu tax proposal may be critical in determining how to best approach climate change legislation today.

The Effects Of Brazilian Agricultural Property Policies And International Pressures On The Soybean Industry: Incentives For Amazon Deforestation And How It May Be Reduced, Tyler E. Hazen

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

This Article begins in Part II with an overview of the Amazonian environment and the rise of soybeans as a lucrative export product. Part III discusses how Brazilian property law and land use culture has facilitated transformation of land for cultivation and ultimately, deforestation. Part IV discusses international reaction to Brazil’s sovereignty over the Amazon, including European import practices such as protectionism, desire for hormone-free products, as well as market incentives for soy raised on land that was not deforested. Finally, Part V offers solutions for working within the current system, aggressively supporting the policies against deforestation while respecting the …

Resistance, “Revolution,” And Reassessment 1981 - 1997, Richard J. Finkmoore

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Preemption In Green Marketing: The Case For Uniform Federal Marketing Definitions, Robert B. White

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Beyond Chemicals: The Lessons That Toxic Substance Regulatory Reform Can Learn From Nanotechnology, Scott Bomkamp

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Workers At Risk: Regulatory Dysfunction At Osha, Thomas Mcgarity, Rena I. Steinzor, Sidney A. Shapiro, Matthew Shudtz

Faculty Scholarship

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration was born with a heavy load to bear – the obligation of ensuring that every worker in America has a safe and healthful workplace for his or her entire working life. In its early years, OSHA acted with great vigor, establishing important standards for occupational health and safety that have prevented hundreds of thousands of injuries and illnesses. But the agency has not aged gracefully. Today its enforcement staff is stretched thin and the rulemaking staff struggle to produce health and safety standards that can withstand industry legal challenges. In short, OSHA is a …

Liability For Environmental Harm And Emerging Global Environmental Law, Robert V. Percival

Faculty Scholarship

Environmental law and policy are undergoing rapid change at the global, national, and even local levels. The nations of the world continue to struggle to develop an effective global response to climate change. Transboundary pollution and resource management problems command regional attention even as nations work to upgrade their own environmental standards and their energy, transportation, and land use policies. Surprising environmental initiatives are emerging even from state and local governments.

In my previous work I have argued that globalization is affecting law and legal systems throughout the world in profound new ways. See Robert V. Percival, The Globalization of …

La Responsabilidad Por Daño Ambiental Global Y La Evolución En Las Relaciones Entre El Derecho Público Y Privado [Liability For Global Environmental Harm And The Evolving Relationship Between Public And Private Law], Robert V. Percival

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

An Empirical Survey Of Climate Change Litigation In The United States, David Markell, J. B. Ruhl

Scholarly Publications

A quickly growing number of commentators have suggested that the U.S. courts are already significant drivers of climate change policy, and that their role is likely to increase. In addition to fashioning law on their own, judicial decisions have significant implications for the work of the other branches of government. This Article provides a chronicling of every climate change case filed through December 31, 2009 (more than 130 such cases). It presents basic information about the cases, e.g., the types of cases, where they have been brought, the types of parties involved, and the outcomes. It also analyzes the data …

Can Urban Solar Become A "Disruptive" Technology?: The Case For Solar Utilities, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

After examining the theory of disruptiveness and the inadequacy of current initiatives for renewables, I argue for a disruptive solution to solar. Achieving the kind of deployment that would be required to make a serious down payment on our climate obligations will take something far different than we have seen to date: companies devoted to national (or at least regional), large-scale installations of solar technology, and which are deeply capitalized and willing to take risks to bring solar to many homeowners. I will term these "solar utilities,'' and I propose that one or more of them should take over the …

Ahistorical Indians And Reservation Resources, Ezra Rosser

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The article is an in-depth exploration of the impacts of an Indian tribe's decision to pursue an environmentally destructive form of economic development. The history of Navajo Nation's coal leasing provides the background for the tribe's recent proposal to build a coal-fired power plant and the controversies surrounding the proposal and the environmental review process.

Comments: Recovery Of Epa Oversight Costs From A Broad Reading Of Cercla, Aaron Kelly

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mitigation/Adaptation And Health: Health Policymaking In The Global Response To Climate Change And Implications For Other Upstream Determinants, Lindsay Wiley

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.