Environmental Law Commons^™

An Ecofeminist Comparative Analysis Of American Environmental Laws From 2019 To 2021, Mary Kelly

Conspectus Borealis

No abstract provided.

Nature Deserves Rights, Too: The Case For A ‘Rights Of Nature’ Constitutional Amendment, Michelle Mandler

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Picture this: Every day, millions of Americans enjoy the great outdoors. People of all ages dive into cool, blue oceans and babbling rivers across the United States. Others visit local and National parks, hiking steep mountains and running through green fields sprinkled with tall trees and sweet-smelling flowers in every color. They pick and snack on apples and berries along their paths, breathing in the crisp outdoor air. Birds soar overhead. Insects buzz and flutter through the breeze. Sunshine gleams down upon the earth.

Now, picture this: The surrounding environment is actually deteriorating— silently suffering—and harming these people all …

Upper Missouri Waterkeeper V. Epa, Clare Ols

Public Land & Resources Law Review

State water quality standards developed under the Clean Water Act play a key role in curtailing the negative environmental, economic, and human health impacts of water pollution. Under the state water quality regulatory framework, EPA may grant variances to state standards should the state demonstrate the compliance with its standards is infeasible for a certain pollutant discharger or waterbody. Montana DEQ developed a variance for nutrients based on evidence that compliance with those standards would cause economic harm. EPA approved Montana's nutrient pollutant variance, and Upper Missouri Waterkeeper challenged EPA's approval on the grounds that the variance violates the Clean …

Cle Working Paper No. 2/2022--Mexican Salsa And Mexican Farm Workers: How International Agricultural Development Marginalizes Farm Labour, Celia White

Transnational Business Governance Interactions Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Pricing Plastics Pollution: Lessons From Three Decades Of Climate Policy, Jonas J. Monast, John Virdin

Connecticut Law Review

Plastic is now the most widely used human-made substance on the planet, and plastics pollution impacts marine and coastal ecosystems, local economies, and human health. Local and national governments are increasingly responding by banning plastic bags and other specific plastic products, taxing the use of certain plastics, and improving waste management and recycling. These are important steps, but alone they will not result in a meaningful reduction in cumulative plastics pollution or encourage development of sufficient alternatives to plastic. Additional policy measures are necessary.

This Article argues that climate change and plastic pollution share numerous similarities, and these similarities allow …

Pandemics And Housing Insecurity: A Blueprint For Land Use Law Reform, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

COVID-19, racial inequity, housing insecurity, and climate change have come together to create widespread, large-scale crises. This Article introduces these four pandemics and describes in detail what local governments are doing to combat one of them: housing insecurity. It reviews recent progress with traditional inclusionary zoning requirements, discusses the move toward greater density in single-family zoning, lists strategies being used to remediate distressed housing, and notes the importance of affordable housing as a necessary strategy for preventing lower-income household displacement caused by gentrification. The reciprocal impacts of these four pandemics are clear; local land use leaders should examine how mitigating …

Informational Regulation, The Environment, And The Public, Katrina Fischer Kuh

Marquette Law Review

Informational Regulation, the Environment, and the Public generates a typology to analyze how public disclosure functions in informational regulation. In the environmental context, informational regulation compels the public disclosure of environmental information without mandating substantive environmental outcomes in the expectation that disclosure itself will prompt beneficial change in the environmental context. Application of the Article’s typology reveals that the emperor has no clothes: Communication of environmental information to the public is considered central to policies employing informational regulation, but the information produced pursuant to these measures largely fails to reach or be understood by lay individuals. For example, empirical data …

Making Net Zero Matter, Albert C. Lin

Washington and Lee Law Review

In recent months, dozens of countries and thousands of businesses have pledged to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions. However, net zero often means different things to different entities, and it is often uncertain how net zero pledges—which set targets years or decades from the present—will be met. This Article considers the motivations behind net zero pledges, highlights the underappreciated role of carbon removal in net zero efforts, and identifies mechanisms for encouraging the accomplishment of net zero goals. Two key strategies are essential to making net zero targets matter. First, society should develop and implement accountability and enforcement mechanisms …

Exploring The Bedrock For Earth Jurisprudence, Maria Antonia Tigre

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This article calls for a reassessment of our core beliefs on how we relate to the environment through a deep dive into the philosophical foundations of environmental protection. With this purpose, it shows how Earth-centered discourses have existed in human societies and civilizations for millennia. Different religious and philosophical underpinnings all share a view of humanity as an integral part of an organic whole, revering all living things. While recent developments in jurisprudence may appear novel, they are somewhat latent and emergent. Theories of land ethics, rights of nature, Earth-centered environmental ethics, wild law, and Earth jurisprudence all build on …

Feasibility Assessment Of Special Management Areas To Enhance Recreational Fisheries And Habitat, Savanna Barry, Thomas T. Ankersen, Edward Camp, Mark Clark, Lauren Griffiths, Micheal Allen

UF Law Faculty Publications

Nearshore recreational fisheries provide tremendous value to the Florida economy. These fisheries are dependent on the availability of high-quality habitat, and sound fisheries management. Habitat can be degraded by several factors, including damage to seagrass flats by propellers of power boats operating in shallow waters (prop scarring). The current fisheries management framework employs regulations limiting harvest by season, fish length, and bag limit (number of fish harvestable per angler per day). Regulations often vary due to regional differences in fishery stocks and population dynamics.

Our team’s overall goal in undertaking this work was to assess the feasibility of creating special …

Hidden In Plain Sight: The Dangers Of Environmental Protections Waivers, Olivia Stevens

Indiana Law Journal

When enacting both statutory and regulatory environmental protections, Congress and various agencies have recognized that emergency situations could arise that would require flexibility in the application and enforcement of those protections. Incorporating waivers into such protections provides that flexibility. However, the current state of waivers leaves them vulnerable to abuse. In this Note, I explore how a lack of procedural and substantive safeguards allows the inappropriate use of waivers to further administrative agendas in a way that poses serious risks to both environmental and human health. I then suggest remedial measures available to Congress that would strengthen environmental protections while …

Trust Issues: Using States' Public Trust Doctrines To Advance Environmental Justice Claims, Alicia Muir

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

The primary purpose of this Note is to evaluate a new method one could use to bring an environmental justice claim. This Note suggests that the solution can be found within the reinvigorated public trust doctrine. Instead of pursuing environmental justice claims on the federal level, plaintiffs could utilize the sleeping giant that is states’ public trust doctrines. Pennsylvania courts, the pioneers of this new path, held that its public trust should be evaluated using private trust law principles. By interpreting state-created public trusts through the lens of private trust concepts, citizens in a number of states are capable of …

Expanding Renewable Energy Tax Credits To Tribal Governments: How Current Legislative Proposals Will Benefit Tribes And Their Members In Their Continued Efforts To Address Climate Change, Ben Reiter

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Part I of this Article will review the history of renewable energy tax credits in this country and how they have played such a prominent role in the United States’ efforts to address climate change. Part II of this Article will describe BBBA’s [Build Back Better Act] proposal to broaden the scope of entities— including Tribes—that can take advantage of renewable energy tax credits. Finally, Part III of this Article will argue that Tribes are uniquely positioned to take advantage of BBBA’s renewable energy tax credit direct pay proposal based on their demonstrated leadership in combating climate change, the significant …

Racism And Toxic Burden In Rural Dixie, Mary Finley-Brook, Environmental Justice Researchers

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Rural pollution hotspots receive inadequate attention during impact assessments: low population density is strategically used to suggest rural areas lack critical importance. Local resistance led to a legal victory for Union Hill, Virginia, where a door-to-door household study of demographics and family heritage exposed data inequities and biases in state practices, establishing a precedent for attention to environmental injustice and disproportionate cumulative impacts on rural majority Black communities. Critical legal geographies of cases from Buckingham, Pittsylvania, and Charles City Counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia document patterns in the ways fossil fuel ‘sacrifice zones’ intersect with historic colonialism in rural …

Inclusion Of Incentive And Punitive Measures In Multilateral Environmental Agreement: A Suggestion On How The United Nations Framework Convention On Climate Change Can Be Utilized To Influence The Reduction Of Gas Flaring In The Oil And Gas Exploration Fields Of Nigeria, Temiloluwa Elijah Olanrewaju

Dissertations & Theses

Gas flaring is categorized as one of the important contributors to greenhouse gases, which increases the risk of global warming and climate change. The overdependence of the modern economy and most industrial technologies on fossil fuels has created a situation in countries where fossil fuels are exploited. The governments rely majorly on the revenue from exporting oil. The IOCs that are engaged in the mining of oil and gas have been able to influence policy and law enforcement on gas flaring to such an extent that the National laws are not enforced, or the stipulated fines are abysmally low that …

Recommendations For Strengthening The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia's Management Of Non-Hazardous Solid Waste Informed By A Comparative Assessment Of The Management Of Non-Hazardous Solid Waste In The United Arab Emirates, Saud Hani Arab

Dissertations & Theses

Despite significant changes in the category and volume of waste, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) still manages refuse the same way it did decades ago. Before 1975, waste generators were responsible for collecting and disposing of nonhazardous solid waste (NSW). The KSA later set up the Ministry of Municipalities and Rural Affairs (MOMRA) in 1975 as a result of the oil boom. One of the initial tasks of MOMRA was to manage and develop NSW system. In addition to management, MOMRA also distributed waste bins throughout the KSA and hired waste haulers to be responsible for NSW. As I …

Table Of Contents And Masthead (V. 46, No. 3)

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Quality Control: Potomac Riverkeeper V. Wheeler & Standards For Qualitative Citizen Water Quality Data In Virginia, Jacqueline Goodrum

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Article explores the issue of quality of citizen data through the lens of Potomac Riverkeeper v. Wheeler, a recent impaired waters listing case concerning the Shenandoah River in Virginia. Part I of this Article provides a brief overview of citizen science data in regulation and policymaking under the CWA. Part II discusses Potomac Riverkeeper v. Wheeler, examining Virginia’s water quality-related data standards and DEQ’s use (and non-use) of citizen water quality-related data and information in that case. Finally, Part III argues that Virginia should establish clear, reasonable, and specific data quality standards for qualitative citizen data so …

Stuck In The Net: Promoting Global Shark And Ray Populations Through National Sustainability Import Laws, Kelsey Peden

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Shark and ray populations are crucial to a healthy oceanic ecosystem, but regulation of harm is difficult to manage for these highly migratory species. The massive decline of shark and ray populations has triggered an international response, including collaborative protections against the overharvest and sale of endangered groups. However, recent studies show that protections must extend past direct harvest because an estimated thirty to fifty percent of population kills occur through “accidental by-catch” in the fishing process. The United States has attempted to fill some of the missing protections for sharks in national waters, as well as to implement bans …

The Promise And Perils Of Textualism For Environmental Advocacy, Canaan Suitt

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Note argues that a reliance on textualist arguments to win environmental victories from conservative judges in the new judicial landscape involves a simplistic view of judicial decision-making, according to which a method of constitutional or statutory interpretation is dispositive of a given ruling. Methods of interpretation interact with other factors, including judges’ ideological and institutional commitments, in determining cases. Textualism is a method of constitutional interpretation favored by conservative judges, but it is also part of a broader suite of conservative commitments and attitudes that complicate the role of textualism and may counteract textualism’s perceived benefit for environmental causes. …

Incidental Take Under The Migratory Bird Treaty Act And How To Share The Skies, Erika Bosack

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Note will focus on one piece of legislation that can protect birds from wind turbines: the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 (“MBTA” or “the Act”). The MBTA makes it illegal to hunt, kill, capture, import, export, sell, buy, pursue, possess, transport, or take a bird on the list of protected species, which covers hundreds of types of birds as well as their nests and eggs. The law forbids these acts in any manner, by any means, and at any time. The text itself does not explicitly state whether intentional and unintentional acts should both carry liability, which has …

Casting Pearls Before Swine: Why The Public's Darling Right To Pollute Should Have Been Overturned In Recent Scova Decision, Thummim Park

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Note calls for the Virginia Supreme Court to recognize that a city’s right to freely pollute the public waterways is no longer valid under the Virginia Constitution, and to recognize that the line of Darling cases granting municipalities the public right to pollute waterways should have been overturned.

Part I will set out the foundation for this Note. It will discuss the background of Johnson v. City of Suffolk, laying the context for this Note’s discussion. Part II will engage in an analysis of the rationale for Darling. It will contextualize and compare it to current understandings …

Encouraging Sustainable Innovation: Is There Room For A Post-Grant Environmental Challenge In American Patent Law?, Samuel Habein

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Note examines potential changes within the American patenting system that might renew the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (“USPTO”) dedication to the promotion of progress through a post-grant environmental challenge to patents. There are many ways to encourage “green” innovation by challenging practices that harm the environment, but the patent system has a unique ability to discourage environmentally harmful innovation by refusing to grant exclusionary rights—rights that many industries require to thrive. However, a post-grant environmental challenge would undoubtedly disrupt the American patent system in severe ways that this Note does not address. Therefore, this Note is not arguing …

In-Lieu Fee Program Case Studies: Lessons Learned For Potentially Expanding In-Lieu Fee Habitat Coverage In Virginia, Erika Bosack, Luke Miller

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

This white paper contains case studies of coastal ILF [in-lieu fee] programs across the United States: Maine Natural Resources Conservation Program (“MNRCP”), Northwest Florida Water Management District (“NWFWMD”) ILF Program, Keys Restoration Fund (“KRF”), Sacramento District California ILF Program, Maryland Department of the Environment ILF Program, and Virginia Aquatic Resources Trust Fund (“VARTF”). The Conclusion will provide general recommendations and questions to consider in deciding whether and how to implement an in-lieu fee program for wildlife habitats in Virginia. Each program has a unique regulatory structure and method for selecting projects on which to spend their funds. The programs do …

Groundwater Policy And Planning, Jenny Grönwall, Marianne Kjellén, Gabriel Eckstein, Kerstin Danert, Lesha Witmer, Rebecca Welling, Viviana Re, Katharina Davis, Lulu Zhang

Faculty Scholarship

Groundwater policy defines objectives, ambitions and priorities for managing groundwater resources, for the benefit of society. Planning translates policy into programmes of action. Both are often part of a wider water resource policy and planning framework, but the specific challenges pertaining to groundwater have traditionally received less attention than surface water.

The terms ‘policy,’ ‘strategy’ and ‘plans’ are used interchangeably in many countries and contexts.

Informational Regulation, The Environment, And The Public, Katrina F. Kuh

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Informational Regulation, the Environment, and the Public generates a typology to analyze how public disclosure functions in informational regulation. In the environmental context, informational regulation compels the public disclosure of environmental information without mandating substantive environmental outcomes in the expectation that disclosure itself will prompt beneficial change in the environmental context. Application of the Article's typology reveals that the emperor has no clothes: Communication of environmental information to the public is considered central to policies employing informational regulation, but the information produced pursuant to these measures largely fails to reach or be understood by lay individuals. For example, empirical data …

Disclosure Of Private Climate Transition Risks, Michael P. Vandenbergh

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article identifies a gap in the securities disclosure regime for climate change and demonstrates how filling the gap can improve fi nancial disclosures and accelerate climate change mitigation. Private climate initiatives have proliferated in the last decade. Often led by advocacy groups, these private initiatives have used naming and shaming campaigns and other means to induce investors, lenders, insurers, retail customers, supply chain customers, and employees to pressure firms to engage in climate change mitigation. Based on an empirical assessment of the annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by Fortune 100 firms and the largest …

Disclosure Of Private Climate Transition Risks, Michael P. Vandenbergh

William & Mary Law Review

This Article identifies a gap in the securities disclosure regime for climate change and demonstrates how filling the gap can improve financial disclosures and accelerate climate change mitigation. Private climate initiatives have proliferated in the last decade. Often led by advocacy groups, these private initiatives have used naming and shaming campaigns and other means to induce investors, lenders, insurers, retail customers, supply chain customers, and employees to pressure firms to engage in climate change mitigation. Based on an empirical assessment of the annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by Fortune 100 firms and the largest firms …

Abandoned And Derelict Vessels In The Commonwealth: How To Improve Virginia's Adv Program, Anthony Cusato

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

Vessels abandoned or lost by their owners can get stuck on a shoreline or in a marsh, aimlessly float adrift, or sink in a waterway. As the number of ADVs [abandoned and derelict vessels] increases, efforts to address them similarly intensify. Typically, state government agencies handle most ADVs, and their approaches to ADV control and removal vary widely across jurisdictions. Virginia faces an increasing number of ADVs and can learn from other states to improve its approach. This paper examines the current Virginia ADV program and considers how it can be amended to make it more effective. It then identifies …

Protecting Terrapins With Teds In Virginia: Lessons From Other States, Bridget Verrekia, Shelby Fuchs

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

This paper highlights case studies about other states' efforts to require or incentivize the use of TEDs [terrapin excluder devices] and recommends policies for Virginia to adopt that have proven successful elsewhere. First, it outlines the threats to terrapins at large, as well as the threat posed by commercial and recreational crabbing, specifically. Next, it details the efforts that other East Coast states have made to combat the problem, including policies that require or incentivize the use of TEDs on crab pots, and discusses the regulatory framework currently in place in Virginia. Finally, this paper concludes by analyzing the approaches …