Environmental Law Commons^™

States Take The Wheel—Green Mountain Chrysler Plymntouth Dodge Jeep V. Crombie Gives States A Chance To Choose The Direction Of Their Automobile Emissions Regulation, Sarah E. Leatherwood

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Massachusetts V Epa: Escaping The Common Law's Growing Shadow, Robert V. Percival

Faculty Scholarship

In its first full Term with its newest member, the U.S. Supreme Court marched decidedly to the right with decisions narrowing abortion rights, striking down affirmative action programs, invalidating campaign finance regulations, and making it more difficult for victims of employment discrimination to seek redress. In the face of this rightward shift the most surprising decision of the Term was the Court’s embrace of claims that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had acted unlawfully by refusing to use the Clean Air Act to combat climate change. In Massachusetts v EPA, the Court held that EPA had the authority to …

Automobile Emissions And Climate Change Impacts: Employing Public Nuisance Doctrine As Part Of A "Global Warming Solution" In California, Randall S. Abate

Journal Publications

The battle against climate change and its impacts in the United States must be waged on many fronts and requires many weapons. Until the federal government provides a comprehensive and mandatory legislative response to the climate change problem, gap-filling efforts such as regional, state, and local legislative initiatives and climate change litigation will be essential to achieve some progress in the ongoing challenge to combat the causes and effects of climate change. This Article focuses on one of those gap-filling efforts: public nuisance suits against power companies and automobile manufacturers for the climate change impacts caused by emissions from those …

The California Greenhouse Gas Waiver Decision And Agency Interpretation: A Response To Galle And Seidenfeld, Nina A. Mendelson

Articles

Professors Brian Galle and Mark Seidenfeld add some important strands to the debate on agency preemption, particularly in their detailed documentation of the potential advantages agencies may possess in deliberating on preemption compared with Congress and the courts. As they note, the quality of agency deliberation matters to two different debates. First, should an agency interpretation of statutory language to preempt state law receive Chevron deference in the courts, as other agency interpretations may, or should some lesser form of deference be given? Second, should a general statutory authorization to an agency to administer a program and to issue rules …

Some Preliminary Thoughts On Contrasts And Convergence In Environmental And Natural Resources Law, Karin P. Sheldon

The Future of Natural Resources Law and Policy (Summer Conference, June 6-8)

16 pages.

Includes bibliographical references

The Ramifications Of The W.H. Sammis Settlement: Why Jobs Are Being Lost, The Air Remains Unclean, And This Landmark Settlement Is Making Progress In The Wrong Direction, Michael Paul Pegman

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

The Evolving Scope Of Significant Effects On The Environment: The National Environmental Policy Act And Climate Change, Chris Mcchesney

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

The Global Warming Case: Massachusetts V. Environmental Protection Agency , Meryl Eschen Mills

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Renewable Portfolio Standards In The Context Of A National Carbon Cap-And-Trade Program, Neal J. Cabral

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Warming Up To Climate Change Litigation, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

The surprise in Massachusetts v. EPA was not that it was a close, hotly contested case. Rather, the surprise was the facility and ease with which the Court majority dispatched opposing arguments and redefined prior precedents. Not content to widen doctrines on the margins, Justice Stevens' majority opinion blazed a new path through the law of standing and unearthed newfound regulatory authority for the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Under the Court's new interpretation, the Clean Air Act ("CAA" or "the Act") provides EPA with roving authority, if not responsibility, to regulate any substance capable of causing or contributing to …

Massachusetts V. Epa Heats Up Climate Policy No Less Than Administrative Law: A Comment On Professors Watts And Wildermuth, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

In their essay Breaking New Ground on Issues Other than Global Warming, Professors Kathryn A. Watts and Amy J. Wildermuth have presented a thoughtful preliminary analysis of the Supreme Court's handiwork in Massachusetts v. EPA. They are correct that the decision potentially paves new ground in administrative law, particularly with regard to state standing. The Court's approach to review of agency decisions to decline rulemaking petitions is also potentially significant, but perhaps less ground-breaking than they suggest. In the context of climate change policy their assessment of the Court's decision is too modest, however, for Massachusetts virtually ensures federal regulation …

Green Mountain Chrysler Plymouth Dodge Jeep V. Crombie, Addie Haughey

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Environmental Law In The "New" Supreme Court, Robert Abrams

Journal Publications

In the 2006 term the United States Supreme Court issued plenary decisions in four environmental cases. As is usually the case, all four environmental cases that reached the Supreme Court presented nuanced questions of statutory interpretation, most of which were intertwined with administrative law issues. The decisions this term are of unusual importance, as all have significant aspects, either practical, precedential, or attitudinal. Additionally, two of the cases exhibit the 5-4 cleavage, so common in this term's decisions, in which Justice Kennedy is the outcome-determinative swing voter. On unusual occasions there are environmental cases decided by the Supreme Court that …

Congress' Pet: Why The Clean Air Act’S Favoritism Of California Is Unconstitutional Under The Equal Footing Doctrine , Valerie Jm Brader

ExpressO

The Clean Air Act gives two regulatory powers to one state – California – that it forbids to all others: the power to regulate fuels, and the power to regulate motor vehicle construction. This paper makes the novel argument that by creating a differential in power between the states, these provisions violate the equal footing doctrine, and are therefore unconstitutional. In doing so, it is the first law review article to provide a complete history of the doctrine, a foundational principle that pre-dates the Constitution and remains the law of the land today. Though the doctrine has been relegated to …

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 …

Emergency Exemptions From Environmental Laws After Disasters, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

Many environmental statutes had their origins in disasters. And when disasters strike, the environmental laws come into play in the response. Some have urged Congress to adopt emergency exemptions so that the environmental laws do not interfere with rescue and recovery.

This article explains how disasters helped create our current statutes, and then describes the role that environmental laws played in the immediate response to the September 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina. It catalogs the multiple exemptions that already exist in the current environmental statutes and regulations and then summarizes the exemptions that were proposed after Hurricane Katrina.

Environmental Justice Since Hammurabi: From Assigning Risk "Eye For An Eye" To Modern-Day Application Of The Responsible Corporate Offcer Doctrine, Peter C. White

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

On The Role Of Cost-Benefit Analysis In Environmental Law: A Book Review Of Frank Ackerman And Lisa Heinzerling's Priceless: On Knowing The Price Of Everything And The Value Of Nothing, Shi-Ling Hsu

Scholarly Publications

Legal scholarship on the role of cost-benefit analysis in environmental law is often stimulating, but does not seem to be changing anybody's mind. The entrenchment of a camp of detractors and a camp of advocates of cost-benefit analysis parallels the impasse that has stymied environmental law for over a decade. Professors Frank Ackerman and Lisa Heinzerling have coauthored a book that captures most of the arguments from the detractor side, and they have done so skillfully and powerfully. However, this Review criticizes the book's contribution to perpetuating this intellectual stalemate. The book does this by focusing on an environmental theory …

A Scrivener's Error Or Greater Protection Of The Public: Does The Epa Have The Authority To Delist Low-Risk Sources Of Carcinogens From Section 112'S Maximum Achievable Control Technology Requirements?, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This article will focus on the scope of the EPA's authority to delist categories and subcategories of sources, especially those emitting carcinogens.

This article concludes that the EPA's creation of a low-risk subcategory of PCWP sources is improper because the plain language of subsection 112(c)(9)(B)(i) limits the Agency's delisting authority to whole categories of carcinogenic sources. The EPA has failed to meet its heavy burden in attempting to demonstrate that Congress made a drafting error when it omitted the term "subcategory" in subsection 112(c)(9)(B)(i) for carcinogenic chemicals. The doctrine of scrivener's error is inapplicable to the plain language of subsection …

Agenda: Introduction To The Legal Foundation Of Federal Land Management, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Introduction to the Legal Foundation of Federal Land Management (December 1-3)

Materials prepared for the course held at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado on December 1-3, 2004

Course instructors: Charles Wilkinson; Sarah Krakoff; Kathryn Mutz; Ann Morgan; Maggie Fox

Contents:

Introduction -- Agenda -- Summaries of laws -- Case studies. Travel management; Oil and gas development; Timber/fuels reduction -- How to influence agency decision makers -- Natural resource related legal and policy resources for the non-legal professional

Introduction To The Legal Foundation Of Federal Land Management, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Introduction to the Legal Foundation of Federal Land Management (December 1-3)

1 v. (various pagings) : ill., maps ; 28 cm

Materials prepared for the course held at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado on December 1-3, 2004

Course instructors: Charles Wilkinson; Sarah Krakoff; Kathryn Mutz; Ann Morgan; Maggie Fox

Contents:

Introduction -- Agenda -- Summaries of laws -- Case studies. Travel management; Oil and gas development; Timber/fuels reduction -- How to influence agency decision makers -- Natural resource related legal and policy resources for the non-legal professional

Environmental Law, Benjamin A. Thorp Iv, William K. Taggart

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Day 4. Thursday, August 14, 2003: Trapper Mine, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Energy Field Tour 2003 (August 11-16)

8 pages (includes some color illustrations).

Contains references.

Regulating Foreign Vessels Under The Clean Air Act: The Case For A Permissible Administrative Interpretation, Dan Lickel

San Diego International Law Journal

This Comment will argue that the EPA may regulate the emissions of large sea-going vessels flying foreign flags that enter the territorial sea, contiguous zone, or Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the United States, under Section 213 of the CAA, notwithstanding conventional and customary Law of the Sea and other international treaties governing vessel source pollution. Part II of the comment presents background material that explains the provisions of the CAA, which mandate the EPA to regulate international shipping vessels. This section also presents the regulatory schemes developed by the IMO and the EPA. Part III evaluates whether the EPA …

Air Quality And Cbm Development, Bob Yuhnke

Coalbed Methane Development in the Intermountain West (April 4-5)

5 pages (includes 1 color map).

Concluding Comments, Ayn Schmit

Coalbed Methane Development in the Intermountain West (April 4-5)

2 pages.

Keynote Address, Rebecca Watson

Coalbed Methane Development in the Intermountain West (April 4-5)

6 pages.

Cost-Benefit Default Principles, Cass R. Sunstein

Michigan Law Review

Courts should be reluctant to apply the literal terms of a statute to mandate pointless expenditures of effort. . .. Unless Congress has been extraordinarily rigid, there is likely a basis for an implication of de minimis authority to provide exemption when the burdens of regulation yield a gain of trivial or no value. It seems bizarre that a statute intended to improve human health would .. . lock the agency into looking at only one half of a substance's health effects in determining the maximum level for that substance. [I]t is only where there is "clear congressional intent to …

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Environmental Law, Eric A. Degroff

University of Richmond Law Review

This article summarizes federal and state environmental developments occurring in, or potentially affecting, the Commonwealth of Virginia during the period of June 1998 to June 2000. Legislative, regulatory, and judicial developments are included.

Is The Clean Air Act Unconstitutional?, Cass R. Sunstein

Michigan Law Review

This Article deals with two linked questions. The first involves the future of the Clean Air Act. The particular concern is how the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") might be encouraged, with help from reviewing courts, to issue better ambient air quality standards, and in the process to shift from some of the anachronisms of 1970s environmentalism to a more fruitful approach to environmental protection. The second question involves the role of the nondelegation doctrine in American public law, a doctrine that shows unmistakable signs of revival. I will suggest that improved performance by EPA and agencies in general, operating in …