Environmental Law Commons^™

Gas, Roads, And Glory: North Dakota And Mha Nation's Struggle Over Flaring Regulation, Erica Beacom

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Effects Of The Craft Beer Boom In Virginia: How Breweries, Regulators, And The Public Can Collaborate To Mitigate Environmental Impacts, Hannah Fish

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Ring-Fencing The Power Envelope Of History's Second Most Important Invention Of All Time, Steven Ferrey

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Big Storms, Big Debt, And Biggery-Waters: Navigating Florida's Uncertain Flood Insurance Future, Loren M. Vasquez

Seattle Journal of Environmental Law

No abstract provided.

Can Sharks Be Saved? A Global Plan Of Action For Shark Conservation In The Regime Of The Convention On Migratory Species, James Kraska, Leo Chan Gaskins

Seattle Journal of Environmental Law

Shark populations throughout the world are at grave risk; some spe-cies have declined by 95 percent. The most recent IUCN (Interna-tional Union for the Conservation of Nature) assessment by the Shark Specialist Group (SSG) found that one-fourth of shark and ray spe-cies face the prospect of extinction. This article proposes an engage-ment plan to accelerate efforts by states and international organiza-tions to conserve and protect sharks worldwide. Sharks are found throughout all of the world’s oceans, and collec-tively they occupy an indispensable niche as apex predators at the top of the ocean trophic ecosystem. These fish function as an im-portant …

Environmental Law—Regulation Of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations—Reducing The Nuisance: How Arkansas Can Use Its Right-To-Farm Statute To Protect Against The Destruction Of Cafos, Kristin Titley

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Big Storms, Big Debt, And Biggert-Waters: Navigating Florida's Uncertain Flood Insurance Future, Loren M. Vazquez

Student Works

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) began with good intentions. It was first enacted for the purpose of making flood insurance reasonably affordable while protecting against losses after disasters. However,

Congress failed to accurately update the program in the face of climate change and new coastal development. Because of this oversight, the overall risk associated with the program outgrew the collection of premiums, which led to an enormous debt to be incurred by the federal government. Once changes did finally come, they led to massive increases in insurance rates and a massive public outrage. Residents of states like Florida faced …

A Response To The Ipcc Fifth Assessment, Sarah Adams-Schoen, Deepa Badrinarayana, Cinnamon Pinon Carlarne, Robin Kundis Craig, John C. Dernbach, Keith H. Hirokawa, Alexandra B. Klass, Katrina Fischer Kuh, Stephen R. Miller, Jessica Owley, Shannon Roesler, Jonathan D. Rosenbloom, Inara K. Scott, David Takacs

Scholarly Works

This collection of essays is the initial product of the second meeting of the Environmental Law Collaborative, a group of environmental law scholars that meet to discuss important and timely environmental issues. Here, the group provides an array of perspectives arising from the Fifth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Each scholar chose one passage from one of the IPCC’s three Summaries for Policymakers as a jumping-off point for exploring climate change issues and responding directly to the reports. The result is a variety of viewpoints on the future of how law relates to climate change, a result …

Why Environmental Laws Fail, Jan G. Laitos, Lauren Joseph Wolongevicz

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Although governments have deployed an array of environmental protection laws, our planet continues to experience unprecedented environmental “crises,” including climate change, resource depletion, species extinction, ecosystem damage, and toxic air-water-land pollution. Despite universal acknowledgment and recognition of these serious environmental issues, and despite a growing list of laws designed to address these issues, the reality is that these adverse Earth-based environmental changes continue, and may even be worsening. Environmental protection laws have often failed because they usually include certain problematic characteristics: they are anthropocentric, in that their goal is to protect and benefit humans, not the environment in which humans …

Managing The Risks Of Shale Gas Development Using Innovative Legal And Regulatory Approaches, Sheila Olmstead, Nathan Richardson

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Booming production of oil and gas from shale enabled by hydraulic fracturing technology has led to tension between hoped-for economic benefits and feared environmental and other costs, with great associated controversy. Studies of how policy can best react to these challenges and how it can balance risk and reward have focused on prescriptive regulatory responses and, to a somewhat lesser extent, voluntary industry best practices. While there is undoubtedly room for improved regulation, innovative tools are relatively understudied. The liability system predates environmental regulation yet still plays an important—and in some senses predominant—role. Changes to that system, including burden-shifting rules …

Billionaires, Birds, And Environmental Brawls: Reconceptualizing Energy Easements, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Sue And Settle: Demonizing The Environmental Citizen Suit, Stephen M. Johnson

Seattle University Law Review

In the spring of 2013, industry groups and states began a concerted lobbying effort to oppose citizen enforcement of the federal environmental laws. The United States Chamber of Commerce and lobbyists for states created a catch-phrase—“sue and settle”—to demonize citizen enforcement and the federal government’s practice of settling lawsuits it is destined to lose in court. The Chamber alleged that the federal government, by settling lawsuits brought by citizens groups rather than defending them in court, was colluding with those non-governmental organizations and excluding other affected parties to reallocate the agencies’ priorities and obligations. Federal environmental laws establish a central …

Calling Foul: Deficiencies In Approaches To Environmental Whistleblowers And Suggested Reforms, Emily Becker

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

Whistleblowers could facilitate the regulation of the environmental sector at little to no cost to the taxpayer. Often, potential whistleblowers have timely access to information that would enable them to avert or minimize environmental damage and to protect our communities. However, existing federal and state regulations fail to adequately protect environmental whistleblowers and to incentivize potential environmental whistleblowers. These failures unjustly penalize whistleblowers and discourage potential whistleblowers. This article uses research findings and a case study to illuminate these failings and to argue for reforms that would better protect and incentivize whistleblowers

Billionaires, Birds, And Environmental Brawls: Reconceptualizing Energy Easements, Nadia B. Ahmad

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

In the substantial power outages associated with Hurricane Sandy and the 2013 Oklahoma tornadoes and Colorado floods, which left millions without power, the United States witnessed the insufficiency of its existing energy infrastructure. The lack of access to reliable energy widens the cleavage between the rich and poor, particularly in times of disaster and crisis. Policymakers and government regulators involved with long distance energy transmission projects have not adequately instituted laws and policies for existing and future energy access. This Article holds that current regulations, practices, and norms for long distance energy transmission may be doomed because of complications with …

Enforcement Activism Of The Eu’S Renewable Energy Directive During The Global Financial Crisis, Jon Truby

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Europe Should Dump Cap-And-Trade In Favor Of Carbon Tax With Reinvestment To Reduce Global Emissions, Stephen Sewalk

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

It is time for the European Union to dump the EU-ETS cap-and trade system, as it is not working. By adopting a carbon tax with reinvestment, the European Union (EU) could reduce its economy-wide emissions by forty-eight percent (and emissions from buildings and utilities by sixty-five percent) within twenty years while automatically putting in place a border tax adjustment. By adopting the carbon tax with reinvestment, the EU's trading partners would be heavily encouraged to adopt the same system, thereby dramatically reducing global emissions. This adoption would occur much like the EU adopting the Value-Added Tax and 150 countries following …

Climate Engineering Field Research: The Favorable Setting Of International Environmental Law, Jesse Reynolds

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

As forecasts for climate change and its impacts have become more dire, climate engineering proposals have come under increasing consideration and are presently moving toward field trials. This article examines the relevant international environmental law, distinguishing between climate engineering research and deployment. It also emphasizes the climate change context of these proposals and the enabling function of law. Extant international environmental law generally favors such field tests, in large part because, even though field trials may present uncertain risks to humans and the environment, climate engineering may reduce the greater risks of climate change. Notably, this favorable legal setting is …

Oil And Gas Law: From Habendum To Patent Law, Emir Crowne, Barbero C. Michael

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

This article outlines and addresses the specific patent issues affecting the oil and gas industry. In so doing, it argues that the business realities of the industry, coupled with its fast-paced environment, make it a perfect example of why the current patent prohibition against professional skills and business methods must be reformed.

The Persistence Of National Peculiarities: Translating Representative, Anna Katharina Mangold

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This paper explores representative environmental action in international, European Union, and German environmental law as an example of '7egal translation." The Aarhus Convention, dating from 1998, requests signatory parties to provide environmental NGOs with wide access to justice so that the protection of the environment can be controlled by the judiciary. Both the European Union and Germany have implemented the provisions of the Aarhus Convention into their respective legal orders. This process of implementation can be considered as "legal translations." The argument of this paper is that a perspective of '7egal translation" provides new vistas on the various intertwined layers …

A Mild Winter: The Status Of Environmental Preliminary Injunctions, Sarah J. Morath

Seattle University Law Review

Since the enactment of environmental legislation in the 1970s, the preliminary injunction standard articulated by the Supreme Court for environmental claims has evolved from general principles to enumerated factors. In Winter v. Natural Resource Defense Council, Inc., the Court’s most recent refinement, the Court endorsed but failed to explain the application of a common four-factor test when it held that the alleged injury to marine mammals was outweighed by the public interest of a well-trained and prepared Navy. While a number of commentators have speculated about Winter’s impact on future environmental preliminary injunctions, this article seeks to more precisely determine …

“Turn On The Lights” -Sustainable Energy Investment And Regulatory Policy: Charting The Hydrokinetic Path For Pakistan, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Environmental Overreach: The Eu’S Carbon Tax On International Aviation, Surya Gablin Gunasekara

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

On November 27, 2012—without the fanfare of a Rose Garden ceremony—President Obama signed into law a bill that forbids United States airlines from participating in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (“EU ETS”). Environmental organizations bemoaned the President’s decision after having urged him to veto the bill. Supporters of the law hailed the passage as a win for American sovereignty, preventing an illegitimate and disingenuous environmental tax on U.S. carriers and passengers. This article addresses the aviation industry’s role in global climate change, and offers an in-depth analysis of the EU ETS and the European Commission’s decision to include international …

Land Ethic Under Attack: Keystone Xl And The War Over Domestic S(Oil), Heather Culp

Environmental and Earth Law Journal (EELJ)

The Keystone XL pipeline has caused recent controversy and renewed the debate over the future of fossil fuels in the United States. The project pits largely conservative groups, who argue that the pipeline will create jobs and decrease America’s dependence on foreign oil, against environmental advocates, indigenous tribes, and private landowners, who are attempting to fend off the project because they believe it will displace them of their own lands as well as disrupt the natural ecosystems that lay in the pipeline’s path. In the wake of a presidential veto of the project and renewed sentiment by the pipeline’s …

Permitting Problems: Environmental Justice And The Miccosukee Indian Tribe, Charles Prior

Environmental and Earth Law Journal (EELJ)

The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians is a federally recognized tribe that works and resides in the Everglades region of the State of Florida. The Miccosukee have been battling lax water quality standards through lawsuits since the 1990’s. Recent rulings in federal court held that the State of Florida has failed to comply with the Clean Water Act and ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to set nutrient criteria for the water bodies in the state of Florida until the Florida Department of Environmental Protection complies with the Clean Water Act.

This article uses the principles of environmental justice to analyze ways …

From Citizen Suits To Conservation Easements: The Increasing Private Role In Public Permit Enforcement, Jessica Owley

Journal Articles

The past 40 years have seen an increase in the involvement of private actors in environmental law. One of the best-known (and arguably best-loved) methods for public involvement is the citizen suit. This popular method of public enforcement of environmental permits (among other things) has been joined by the use of conservation easements. Conservation easements are increasingly used to meet permit mitigation requirements. When private nonprofits hold the exacted conservation easements, they assume the role of permit enforcers. It is their job to ensure that conservation easement terms are complied with, giving them oversight and control over one of the …

An Act Of War: Finding A Meaning For What Congress Has Left Undefined, Desiree Gargano

Touro Law Review

There are often environmental concerns with any new construction project. One often unforeseen aspect of this is the liability that occurs after a building is destroyed. Property owners have generally faced strict liability for the release of hazardous waste under section 107 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act. This Comment examines why the act of war defense has consistently failed and determines if the law places too high of a burden on property owners who assert this defense.

Cutting To The Chase: Corporate Liability For The Environmental Harm Under The Alien Tort Statute, Kiobel, And Congress, Tony Kupersmith

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Immigration Reform's Unintended Consequence: Providing Greater Justification For Border Patrol To Waive Environmental Compliance At The U.S.-Mexico Border, Deena Mueller

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Eitanit Construction Products V. State, Neal Hendel, Asher Grunis, Zvi Zylbertal

Translated Opinions

[This abstract is not part of the Court's opinion and is provided for the reader's convenience. It has been translated from a Hebrew version prepared by Nevo Press Ltd. and is used with its kind permission.]

This is a motion challenging the constitutionality of section 74 of the Prevention of Hazards from Asbestos and Harmful Dust Act, 2011 (“Asbestos Act”). The motion is directed primarily at the obligation of the moving party (“Eitanit”), an asbestos-cement factory in the Nahariya area, to shoulder the cost of half the project’s expenses, up to NIS 150m.

The High Court of Justice (written by …

The Food Safety Modernization Act’S True Implications For Sustainable Agriculture, Emily Walters

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

No abstract provided.