Environmental Law Commons^™

Powering The Machine, Draining The Planet: Whether U.S. Environmental Law Is Equipped To Regulate The Energy And Water Demands Of Ai Data Centers, Michael Marcu

Journal of Earth and Life Science

Artificial intelligence (AI) data centers have become one of the United States' fastest-growing and least-regulated sources of environmental stress. In 2024 alone, U.S. data centers consumed 183 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity more than the entire nation of Pakistan and consumed an estimated 17 billion gallons of water (IEA, 2025; Berkeley Lab, 2024). By 2030, electricity demand from these facilities is projected to reach 426 TWh, a 133% increase in six years (Pew Research Center, 2025). This paper examines whether the existing U.S. environmental regulatory framework put by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), and the …

Risk, Reward, And Renewable Collateral: Can Ip Sustain Financing In Green Energy?, Nigel Blake

Marquette Intellectual Property & Innovation Law Review

As the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy accelerates, intellectual property has become one of the most valuable assets held by emerging green technology companies. Patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets often comprise a greater share of these companies' value than tangible assets, making intellectual property an increasingly important source of collateral for commercial financing. At the same time, the renewable energy industry presents unique valuation challenges. Rapid technological innovation, shifting government policies, evolving consumer preferences, and uncertain market demand can significantly affect the value of intellectual property, creating substantial risks for both borrowers and lenders.

This Comment examines …

John Copeland Nagle Award For Student Writing Excellence In Environmental Law, Notre Dame Law School

Student, Faculty, and Staff Awards

John Copeland Nagle, a beloved Notre Dame Law School professor, died suddenly in 2019. His research integrated his lifelong faith in Jesus Christ with his passion for the environment. To honor his memory, his family has endowed the John Copeland Nagle Award for Student Writing in Environmental Law, a $5,000 prize presented each year to the Notre Dame law student author of the best paper written in the field of environmental law.

Model Law? Template Legal Culture And The Global Production Of Environmental Law, Natasha Affolder

All Faculty Publications

Lawyers build from templates. Accounts of how law is made rarely mention them. New legislation tends to present itself as original. It is almost never made from scratch. This article makes the hidden process visible. It does so through a study of the near-global spread of environmental impact assessment (EIA) legislation since 1969, using computer-assisted textual similarity analysis to trace what I expected to be identifiable model laws and clear lines of legal inheritance. The search yielded instead a transnational repertoire of legal fragments, repeatedly recombined into new legislative forms across different legal traditions, languages and decades. EIA's legislative spread …

Rivers Of Sovereignty: The Epa’S New Water Quality Standards Rule As A Potential Channel For Revitalizing Tribal Reserved Water Rights, Mostyn Josty

Cardozo Law Review

This Note explores the federal government’s evolving approach to its obligation to protect tribal reserved water rights through a case study of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2024 Water Quality Standards Regulatory Revisions to Protect Tribal Reserved Rights rule (the “WQS Rule”). It argues that while the WQS Rule represents a step forward in safeguarding tribal water rights, the legal challenge it faces underscores broader issues of federalism, administrative authority, and the country’s fluctuating commitment to tribal sovereignty. The Note examines the WQS Rule’s legal foundation, its potential challenges, and the implications for tribal self-determination, emphasizing the need for a …

Disaster Risk Management During Climate Emergencies In The Dominican Republic And Puerto Rico, Rosleny Ubinas

Dissertations and Theses

This paper analyzes the DRM approach as an effective framework in addressing climate emergencies across the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. These two Caribbean regions, with high hurricane exposure and differing response structures, are deeply shaped by their governments and affiliated international organizations. Disaster Risk Management is the systematic process of using laws, plans, institutions, and community networks to reduce vulnerability to hazards and coordinate effective response when disasters occur. It covers the full cycle, from prevention to reconstruction and rebuilding more resiliently. The Dominican Republic’s law-based intervention led to greater local-level community participation during disasters with its embedded volunteer …

Implementing Climate Remedies, Camila Bustos

Vanderbilt Law Review

Climate change litigation has emerged as a powerful tool for addressing the climate crisis, particularly in the face of executive and legislative inaction. Across jurisdictions, courts have issued landmark decisions mandating stronger mitigation targets and recognizing rights-based claims against governments and corporations. While recent scholarship has examined the trends, legal theories, and broader effects of this relatively new phenomenon, it has primarily focused on bringing and winning legal challenges. Less attention has been paid to a crucial phase: the implementation and enforcement of judicial rulings. A deeper understanding of how climate remedies are implemented can provide valuable insights for climate …

The Idea Of Air, Jonathan Skinner-Thompson

Publications

How we view air, especially clean air, has meaningful normative and practical implications. Today, it is commonly recognized as an exhaustible natural resource. But air was not always thought of as something to be conserved, developed, and used. This Article is the first to explore and interrogate that view.

The shift to seeing air as a resource started in the first part of the twentieth century. Previously, air was characterized by its limitless supply of oxygen: a pure public good. Over time, the quality of that good changed, and a precious resource emerged. That resource—especially its chemical and physical characteristics—inspired …

The Tech-Nuclear Renaissance: A New Critical Juncture For American Nuclear Energy Policy, Henry P. Otte

CMC Senior Theses

Nuclear energy has re-emerged as a central priority in American energy policy. This thesis examines the Trump administration’s efforts to support nuclear energy development and plant restarts, and asks whether today’s nuclear renaissance represents a critical juncture for nuclear energy policy. By analyzing American, French, and Swedish nuclear energy history, this thesis applies a three-variable analytical framework, state autonomy and administrative structure, political permeability, and crisis influence, to identify the institutional conditions necessary for durable policy change and evaluate the structural characteristics of this new environment. The central finding is that today’s push is distinct from prior attempts at expansion, …

The Networked City: City Climate Change Networks And U.S. Climate Governance, Caroline G. Cox

American University Law Review

City climate change networks complicate common narratives about the local role in environmental and climate change governance in the United States. These networks—organizations with three or more member cities or representative city staff that share information and resources—are crucial actors in supporting the increasing interest in local climate change mitigation. Building upon prior scholarship addressing mayor-led networks and municipal collaborations, this Article considers how city climate networks challenge notions of local parochialism and rebut some critiques of local climate action. The Article also evaluates the growing importance of these networks in light of changes in federal climate policy, including the …

Race, Reparative Justice, And Climate Change-Related Migration, Monica Visalam Iyer

FIU Law Review

The question of how to appropriately respond to migration linked to climate change is increasingly being debated in academia, in government and policy circles, and, crucially, in international legal and climate policy forums. These debates often center on data and on understanding the true numbers of people who might migrate in the context of climate change, and how much of this migration can accurately be linked to climate change, or on the security and logistical concerns associated with responding to this “challenge,” or on the appropriate legal box into which people migrating in this context can be shoved. Too often, …

Geographical Indications For Agricultural Products: Inconsistencies And Conflicts In Europe And The Global Arena, Lorenzo Bairati

FIU Law Review

Food systems are regulated by a global and hybrid legal framework. In fact, while supranational and international sources play an increasingly important role, private regulators are also becoming more and more involved alongside traditional public policy-makers. Within this context, Geographical Indications (GIs) serve as the main tool in the European Union and beyond to protect quality agri-food products.

This Article aims to explore these instruments in depth in order to analyze several critical aspects from the perspective of global governance, i.e., the networked, hybrid, and diffuse legal space that develops through the participation, negotiation, and strategic interaction between public and …

State Climate Superfunds, Rachel Rothschild

Articles

The harmful effects of climate change have already arrived in cities and states across America, with disasters increasing markedly in recent years along with more gradual environmental changes like sea-level rise and drought. To protect populations and natural resources, significant funding will be necessary for preventative measures as well as disaster response.

At present, it is states and ordinary taxpayers who must shoulder the enormous costs and planning for climate adaptation. A number of state legislators, however, have recently proposed enacting new laws that would require the companies who have most profited from fossil fuel usage to assist in funding …

The Deregulation Of Cancer, Daniel G. Aaron

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Fifty years ago, the U.S. embarked on a radical new path. Under pressure from the environmental movement, Congress passed an array of statutes aimed at regulating carcinogens out of our world. This regulatory experiment sprawled from air and water to food and consumer products.

Legal scholars have paid scant attention to this wave of cancer regulation despite its size and importance and the public’s apparent interest in avoiding carcinogens. But there is a growing literature finding flaws with individual regimes within the framework, such as the Clean Air Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, and the Tobacco Control Act. In …

The Colorado River: Searching For Solutions In The Face Of Uncertainty: Conference Summary, Emilia Endara, Douglas Kenney

Books, Reports, and Studies

The Colorado River is facing unprecedented change and uncertainty. Average annual flows continue to decline, and negotiations to craft post-2026 guidelines to manage the river have repeatedly bogged down in disagreements about delivery obligations, sharing shortages, and mandatory conservation. While some clarity may emerge in the coming months, the ability to sustain many existing municipal and agricultural water users is already being compromised. Meanwhile, there is growing recognition that a durable resolution must also address the water rights of sovereign Tribal Nations and better integrate environmental values into river management. All sovereigns, stakeholders, and sectors must work together now more …

Thirst For Data: State Responses To Data Center Water Use, Daniel Anderson, Sydney Stellato

Books, Reports, and Studies

No abstract provided.

Brief For Jonathan H. Adler As Amicus Curiae Supporting Respondents And Affirmance, Jonathan Adler

Briefs

Global climate change presents many complex and intractable legal and policy questions. Assuming this Court has jurisdiction, the legal questions in this case are comparatively simple and straightforward. Nothing in federal law, let alone the Constitution, preempts state-law claims seeking relief from injuries allegedly caused or exacerbated by petitioners’ conduct.

At issue in this case is whether allegedly aggrieved parties, including subnational governments, may seek redress under state law from defendants otherwise subject to state court jurisdiction for harms allegedly caused or contributed to by petitioners’ conduct. In order to succeed, respondents will ultimately need to show that the damages …

Climate Preemption And Fossil Fuel Entrenchment, Vincent M. Nolette

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Mitigating the worst impacts of climate change demands a rapid reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and a transition to renewable, low-carbon sources of energy. This requires building thousands of gigawatts of clean energy at an unprecedented rate and expeditiously retiring existing fossil fuel infrastructure. Yet both parts of this task have been obstructed by state legislative efforts over the last decade — particularly in Republican-led states — to block local governments from reducing greenhouse gas emissions while legally mandating continued fossil fuel reliance. These efforts are accomplished through state climate preemption laws. Framed in neutral or positive terms like “energy …

State Aid And The Green Transition: Where Theory Meets (Member States’) Practice, Magdalena Porzeżyńska

internetowy Kwartalnik Antymonopolowy i Regulacyjny (internet Quarterly on Antitrust and Regulation)

The European Green Deal has placed the green transition at the centre of the European Union’s economic, industrial and climate policy, with climate neutrality by 2050 as a binding objective. In this context, State aid has evolved from a narrowly construed exception to the prohibition laid down in Article 107(1) TFEU into a key policy instrument supporting the Union’s climate and industrial ambitions. This article examines how the EU State aid framework has been adapted to facilitate Member States’ support for the green transition and assesses the opportunities and constraints inherent in this framework. The analysis focuses on the main …

Taking Off The “Blindfold”: Exploring Montana’S Public Trust Doctrine And The Right To A Clean And Healthful Environment After Held V. Montana, Lizzy Gazeley

Lewis & Clark Law Review

As global average temperatures continue to rise, the threat of climate change looms closer. To evade climate catastrophe, greenhouse gas emissions will need to be substantially reduced. Despite climate change’s imminent risks, in the United States, both the federal government and states remain resistant to transitioning away from fossil fuel energy sources. To combat this government inaction, some litigants have turned to an ancient doctrine. The public trust doctrine provides that sovereigns must protect natural resources from substantial impairment to ensure the public’s right to use those resources.

In Held v. Montana, youth plaintiffs alleged that the State of Montana …

Truth And Consequences: What Catastrophe Teaches Us About Homeownership And Underinsurance, Kenneth S. Klein

Lewis & Clark Law Review

The firestorms enveloping Los Angeles in January 2025 made yet more inescapable the reality of the increasingly overwhelming impacts that climate change is having on communities. Many thousands of owner-occupied homes were destroyed. Most homes have insurance, but many homeowners will be surprised to find themselves underinsured, meaning their insurance proceeds will be materially less than the insurer-reported, incurred cost of rebuilding their destroyed home. The human consequences on these homeowners, each of whom has lost everything in a single week, are a now sadly all too imaginable tragedy in real time.

How underinsurance happened and what could have been …

Never Cool Enough: Legal And Policy Challenges To Keeping Data Centers And Communities Empowered In A Warming World, Cristina M. Banahan, Diana B. Wilkinson

Lewis & Clark Law Review

In a rapidly evolving world, artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrency are two technologies at the forefront of the future. Although these developments promise many potential societal benefits and revenue, they come with a price. The data processing required to operate these new technologies demands a large amount of energy, using water to cool the systems and enable them to run without overheating. With such high water and energy demands, the benefits from these technological advancements come at a steep environmental cost. Despite the negative environmental impacts of these data centers, the Trump Administration continues to roll back environmental protections. The …

The Sec And Climate Litigation, Lisa Benjamin

Lewis & Clark Law Review

The controversy surrounding the SEC’s climate-related financial disclosure rule continues. This Essay updates my previous work on this issue, where I identified two opportunities and two obstacles to the SEC promulgating final rules on climate-related financial risk disclosures. The two opportunities were a shifting political landscape under the then-Biden Administration (which took a whole-of-government approach to addressing the climate crisis) and rising investor concern over the risks that climate change posed to their investments. The two obstacles I identified were business resistance to disclosure rules, and rising judicial hostility to the SEC. Today, the political landscape has shifted dramatically and …

A Strategic Approach To “E”Sg Reporting, Taylor Nchako

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors have emerged as an important investment tool for the financial sector to address climate change. While the federal government has abandoned ESG disclosure, U.S. firms still face reporting obligations domestically and abroad. States across the country have proposed or passed two types of disclosure laws: greenhouse gas emissions disclosure and climate risk disclosure. These state-level efforts mirror actions in the European Union, Canada, and other jurisdictions in which U.S. firms operate.

As ESG disclosure standards are adopted in jurisdictions around the world, these standards are undergoing various advancements, reductions, and contestations. These shifts in …

A Corporate Accountability “Turn” In International Climate Litigation, Jacqueline Peel

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Corporations are among the most significant emitters of anthropogenic greenhouse gases, which are responsible for the existential threat of climate change. Yet accountability for corporate emitting activities has been difficult to secure, particularly where companies operate across nation-state borders or have global value chains. This Essay looks at recent developments in international law, found in a series of climate-related advisory opinions issued by international courts and tribunals, which may signal greater corporate accountability for climate harms. It argues that the recent advisory opinions of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and …

Corporate Climate Litigation In Europe: Scaffolding From State Obligations And The Rise Of Polluter-Pays, Joana Setzer, Nina Koistinen, Catherine Higham, Lucas Biasetton

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Over the last decade, Europe has been the crucible of path-defining climate cases. Across the region, courts have been asked to define the limits of public and private responsibility. This Essay argues that corporate climate litigation in Europe has developed along two intersecting trajectories that together define an emerging framework of climate accountability. The first extends public-law standards to corporations, translating human rights and carbon-budget principles into private-law duties of care, due diligence, and disclosure that reach across entire value chains. The second trajectory sees the emergence of polluter-pays litigation, which seeks to proportionate damages and adaptation costs from major …

From Chainsaws To Courtrooms: Corporate Climate Litigation And Deforestation In Brazil, Maria Antonia Tigre, Mariana Barbosa Cirne

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Corporate climate litigation has emerged as one of the most dynamic and high-profile tools for addressing the private sector’s role in the climate crisis. While much of the scholarship and public debate has centered on cases in the United States and Europe, litigation targeting corporations in the Global South—particularly Brazil—has grown rapidly, both in volume and significance. Brazil now ranks among the world’s top jurisdictions for corporate climate damage claims. These suits have pioneered methods for quantifying climate damages, often from illegal deforestation, and have tested the reach of the civil liability regime in novel ways. This Article offers the …

Is There Really Too Much Housing?, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

This essay seeks to both explain and critique Lynn Ellsworth’s critique of YIMBYism. Part I of this review focuses on Ellsworth’s primary concern: a fear of the alleged destructive effect of dense neighborhoods and tall buildings. Part II addresses her attempts to deny the link between increased housing construction and lower housing costs. Part III addresses her alternative solutions to New York’s housing crisis.

The Destruction Of The Climate Spending State, Adam D. Orford

Faculty Scholarship

The Biden Administration bet big on spending laws to forward its climate policies, creating a novel “climate spending state”in a field previously approached primarily through regulation. But the second Trump Administration, building on an aggressive theory of Presidential power, with support from bicameral Congressional majorities and a sympathetic Supreme Court, has dismantled the climate spending state with startling ease and speed. Although degradation of the federal workforce and legislative alterations to the tax code have played their part, it is the Trump Administration’s refusal to administer the spending laws enacted by prior Congresses that has had the most disruptive and …

Cobalt's Climate Paradox: Global Ambitions For A Greener Future Rely On Blood-Stained Hands, Ashleigh Wootton

Natural Resources Journal

The global effort to mitigate climate change increasingly relies on widespread electrification, with lithium-ion batteries at its core and the key minerals required for their production concentrated in countries uniquely vulnerable to exploitation. Lithium-ion battery production relies heavily on cobalt, a critical mineral primarily sourced from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which supplies approximately 70 percent of the world’s cobalt. As demand for cobalt is projected to rise sharply, the DRC has become indispensable to the global clean energy transition. Cobalt extraction in the DRC is closely linked to severe human rights abuses, including forced labor, child labor, …