Environmental Law Commons^™

Slides: Water And Development Of Unconventional Oil And Gas Resources, Judy Jordan

Shale Plays in the Intermountain West: Legal and Policy Issues (November 12)

Presenter: Judy Jordan, Oil & Gas Liaison, Garfield County, Rifle, CO

21 slides

Slides: Shale And Air Quality: The View From The Other Side, Jeremy Nichols

Shale Plays in the Intermountain West: Legal and Policy Issues (November 12)

Presenter: Jeremy Nichols, Climate & Energy Program Director, WildEarth Guardians, Denver, CO

18 slides

Slides: Evolving Policy On Shale Plays, John Martin

Shale Plays in the Intermountain West: Legal and Policy Issues (November 12)

Presenter: John Martin, Crowell & Moring, LLP, Washington, DC

17 slides

Rationalism In Regulation, Christopher C. Demuth, Douglas H. Ginsburg

Michigan Law Review

Retaking Rationality: How Cost-Benefit Analysis Can Better Protect the Environment and Our Health, by Richard L. Revesz and Michael A. Livermore, aims to convince those who favor more government regulation-in particular environmental groups-that they should embrace cost-benefit analysis and turn it to their purposes. Coauthored by a prominent law school dean and a recent student with a background in environmental advocacy, the book is a jarring combination of roundhouse political polemics and careful academic argument. Sweeping pronouncements are followed by qualifications that leave the sweep of the pronouncements in doubt- rather like the give-and-take of the law school classroom …

Corrective Lenses For Iris: Additional Reforms To Improve Epa's Integrated Risk Information System, Rena I. Steinzor, Wendy E. Wagner, Lena Pons, Matthew Shudtz

Faculty Scholarship

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) is the most important toxicological database in the world. Not only is it the single most comprehensive database of human health information about toxic substances, it also serves as a gateway to regulation, as well as to a range of public and private sector efforts to protect against toxic substances. IRIS “profiles” of individual substances include a number of scientific assessments of the substance’s toxicity to humans by various means of exposure – by inhalation, contact with the skin, and so on. Federal regulators rely on the assessments to do …

An Overview Of Tsca, Its History And Key Underlying Assumptions, And Its Place In Environmental Regulation, David Markell

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Sec Interpretive Guidance For Climate Related Disclosures, Nickolas M. Boecher

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Epa's Definition Of "Solid Waste" Under Subtitle C Of The Resource Conservation And Recovery Act: Is Epa Adequately Protecting Human Health And The Environment While Promoting Recycling?, Steven A.G. Davison

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Industry Cries Foul To Epa’S Attempt To Regulate Ghg Emissions Using The Clean Air Act, William J. Walsh, Mark A. Erman

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Using The Clean Water Act To Protect Our Ocean's Biodiversity, Kate Halloran

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Slides: Rapanos And The Courts: Navigating Through The Fog, Jim Murphy

Western Water Law, Policy and Management: Ripples, Currents, and New Channels for Inquiry (Martz Summer Conference, June 3-5)

Presenter: Jim Murphy, Wetlands and Water Resources Counsel, National Wildlife Federation, VT

25 slides

The Devaluation Of Life, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been the target of two recent controversies involving the devaluation of life: the 2003 use of a senior discount for the value of statistical life for people over age 65, and the 2008 downward reassessment of the value of statistical life by the EPA Air Office. Even though these new values of statistical life were still among the highest used in the Federal government, there was a strong negative public reaction to each. The public outcry over the EPA policies appears to have stemmed from an irrational response to decreases in the value …

Testimony Before The U.S. House Of Representatives, Committee On Science And Technology, Subcommittee On Investigations And Oversight. 111th Congress, 1st Session (2009)., Rena I. Steinzor

Congressional Testimony

No abstract provided.

Untested Waters: The Rise Of Hydraulic Fracturing In Oil And Gas Production And The Need To Revisit Regulation, Hannah J. Wiseman

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Wal-Mart In The Garden District: Does The Arbitrary And Capricious Standard Of Review In Nepa Cases Undermine Citizen Participation?, Dawn E. Jourdan, Kevin Gifford

UF Law Faculty Publications

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), enacted in 1969, requires that agencies of the U.S. government or those seeking to use federal funds to construct projects study the environmental and social impacts of said projects. Under the provisions of NEPA, a first-level review must be conducted for all projects not otherwise exempted. If the entity conducting the review deems that the project will result in a significant impact on humans or the environment, an environmental impact statement (EIS) must be prepared. The decision about whether or not to prepare an EIS can be controversial due to the fact that the …

Standing And Future Generations: Does Massachusetts V. Epa Open Standing For Generations To Come?, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Many issues, especially potential environmental catastrophes caused by climate change, affect not just the living, but also future generations. The bias in our political system against addressing the interests of future generations poses serious obstacles in solving long-term environmental problems such as global warming. Because future generations cannot vote, unelected federal judges are more suited to protect their interests than the political branches.

An important question is whether anyone has standing to sue on behalf of future generations in the federal courts. The Supreme Court's Article III standing test requires plaintiffs to demonstrate that they have personally suffered an injury …

Cleaning Up The Problem Of Post-Combustion Coal Waste, Amanda King

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

The International Court Of Justice’S Treatment Of “Sustainable Development”And Implications For Argentina V. Uruguay, Lauren Trevisan

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Towards A Jurisprudence Of Sustainable Development In South Asia: Litigation In The Public Interest, Shyami Fernando Puvimanasinghe

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Implementing The New Ecosystem Services Mandate Of The Section 404 Compensatory Mitigation Program - A Catalyst For Advancing Science And Policy, James Salzman, J.B. Ruhl, Iris Goodman

Faculty Scholarship

On April 10, 2008, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jointly published final regulations defining standards and procedures for authorizing compensatory mitigation of impacts to aquatic resources the Corps permits under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (Section 404). Prior to the rule, the Section 404 compensatory mitigation program had been administered under a mish-mash of guidances, inter-agency memoranda, and other policy documents issued over the span of 17 years. A growing tide of policy and science scholarship criticized the program's administration as not accounting for the potential redistribution of ecosystem services that …

Toward A Net-Zero Carbon Planet: A Policy Proposal, Matthew J. Kiefer

University of Colorado Law Review

The effort to address climate change is global in scale and increasingly urgent, yet it lacks an effective policy framework. President Obama's determination to elevate clean energy to a national policy priority, Congress's consideration of a federal cap-and-trade regime for greenhouse gases, and the upcoming revisions to the Kyoto Protocol all provide an opportunity to move toward adopting a globally balanced carbon budget. A balanced carbon budget could replace the current, somewhat arbitrary greenhouse gas reduction targets with a scientifically derived calibration limiting global carbon emissions to the rate of carbon absorption. Carbon sub-budgets could then be allocated to each …

First Annual Climate And Energy Law Symposium: Federal Preemption Or State Prerogative: California In The Face Of National Climate Policy: An Introduction, Richard J. Lazarus

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

The University of San Diego School of Law's decision to create a new scholarly law journal dedicated to climate and energy issues could hardly come at a better time. ...
... The resulting debate and discussion, reflected in the following papers that the speakers produced, should be required reading for those lawmakers both in Washington, DC and in state capitals such as Sacramento, as they craft federal and state laws that seek to address this "most pressing environmental challenge."

Slides: "Mitaku Oyasin" Means "We Are All Related", Bob Gough

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: Bob Gough, NativeEnergy, Inc.

72 slides

Using Competition-Based Regulation To Bridge The Toxics Data Gap, Wendy Wagner

Indiana Law Journal

Symposium: Missing Information: The Scientific Data Gap in Conservation and Chemical Regulation, held on March 24, 2006 at Indiana University School of Law- Bloomington.

Massachusetts V. U.S. Epa Part Ii: Implications Of The Supreme Court Decision: Hearing Before The H. Select Comm. On Energy Independence And Global Warming, 110th Cong., Mar. 13, 2008 (Statement Of Professor Lisa Heinzerling, Geo. U. L. Center), Lisa Heinzerling

Testimony Before Congress

No abstract provided.

A Renewed Role For Conservation In Environmental Policy, Amie Medley

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

Not since President Carter's impassioned speeches in the 1970s, which warned Americans that their country's dependence on oil was "likely to get progressively worse through the rest of this century," has there been serious attention to the role conservation should play in addressing environmental issues such as climate change and sustainability. The next presidential administration should highlight the importance of individuals taking action in their homes and communities in order to decrease the unsustainable demand for natural resources.

A Climate Agenda For The New President, Lisa Heinzerling

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

The Bush Administration squandered eight years denying the reality of climate change and delaying action on it. Nevertheless, the president who comes into office in January will face two happy realities. First, whatever the Bush Administration has done (through obstruction or inaction) on climate change can easily be undone due to its legal and scientific flimsiness. And second, statutes now on the books provide plenty of legal authority for swift action on the most important environmental issue of our time.

Foreword: Making Sense Of Information For Environmental Protection, James Salzman, Douglas A. Kysar

Faculty Scholarship

Despite the ubiquity of information, no one has proposed calling the present era the Knowledge Age. Knowledge depends not only on access to reliable information, but also on sound judgment regarding which information to access and how to situate that information in relation to the values and purposes that comprise the individual's or the social group's larger projects. This is certainly the case for wise and effective environmental governance. A regulator needs accurate information to understand the nature of a problem and the consequences of potential responses. Likewise, the regulated community needs information to decide how best to comply with …

New Jersey V. Epa, Nathan Borgford-Parnell

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

In Re Annandale And The Disconnections Between Minnesota And Federal Agency Deference Doctrine, Mehmet K. Konar-Steenberg

Faculty Scholarship

This article explores each of these differences between Annandale’s view of deference and comparable federal authority. Part II begins the discussion with an explanation of the somewhat complicated legal and factual background that gave rise to Annandale’s unusually thorny agency deference issues. This section includes an extended discussion of the Annandale administrative record and the reasoning of the Minnesota Court of Appeals and Minnesota Supreme Court. Part III then critically analyzes the Annandale court’s claims to have acted consistently with federal agency deference case law in each of the three areas discussed above. Part IV concludes with some post-Annandale developments …