Environmental Law Commons^™

Incorporating Third Party Green Building Rating Systems Into Municipal Building And Zoning Codes, Edward Teyber

Pace Environmental Law Review

The role of green buildings in mitigating climate change has thus become a hot topic. This literature has begun to elicit change within corporations pursuing third party certification of their corporate buildings and campuses. Perhaps the success of discrete green building projects in mitigating climate change compared to the failure of international regulatory bodies to reach consensus for meaningful change is due to the publicity and, in turn, profits associated with certification by a third party green building rating system. In addition to reduced GHG emissions, reduced runoff, reduced maintenance costs, and positive publicity of green buildings for the project …

Executive Power And Regional Climate Change Agreements, Conor J. Walline

Pace Environmental Law Review

This Article explores the potential for such agreements to address climate change on a regional level by analyzing the parallels between the agreements, the nature and limits of the executive power used to create them, and the scope of enforcement available under them. Section II briefly examines the present state of climate warming and its attendant impacts, while Section III highlights the relative failure of current national and international approaches to mitigating climate change. Section IV focuses on the recent rise of environmental regional agreements in the United States, specifically those agreements to which the State of New York has …

Beef Products, Inc. V. Abc News: (Pink) Slimy Enough To Determine The Constitutionality Of Agricultural Disparagement Laws?, Nicole C. Sasaki

Pace Environmental Law Review

This Comment analyzes the likelihood of whether BPI’s case against ABC News will be decided on the merits, whether South Dakota’s agricultural disparagement statute will be upheld as constitutional, and thus the likelihood that other states’ statutes will be struck down, thereby preserving the public’s freedom to question and criticize the safety of our food system. First, Part I offers a brief introduction to agricultural disparagement laws, their historical application, and BPI’s pending lawsuit. Next, Part II reviews the context of the enactment of agricultural disparagement laws, summarizes the common elements of these laws, and discusses Texas Beef Group v. …

The Executive And The Environment: A Look At The Last Five Governors In New York, Patricia E. Salkin

Pace Environmental Law Review

Gubernatorial leadership is the single most important indicator of how sustainable New York will be when it comes to issues of environmental protection and conservation. In preparing for the Kerlin Lecture, one of the things that struck me is that New York governors for at least the last thirty years have consistently identified the critical economic, social, and environmental challenges facing this state. Is it simply political rhetoric to decry that the state is in terrible fiscal shape, that programs need to be funded to help those is need, and that we must pay attention to stewarding the environment today …

Innovations In Energy And Climate Policy: Lessons From Vermont, Benjamin K. Sovacool, Alex Gilbert, Brian Thomson

Pace Environmental Law Review

We ask in this article: how can planners and policymakers replicate Vermont’s energy and climate policies? We begin by explaining the research methods utilized for this article—mainly research interviews with a pool of experts, coupled with a targeted literature review. We then analyze the success of Vermont energy policy across four areas: energy efficiency, renewable energy, the smart grid, and energy governance. The following sections first explain how Vermont accomplished these successes, next identify a number of remaining barriers and elements of Vermont’s approach that may not be replicable, and finally present the article’s conclusions.

The Missing Link: U.S. Regulation Of Consumer Cosmetic Products To Protect Human Health And The Environment, Valerie J. Watnick

Pace Environmental Law Review

This article explores these lax regulatory efforts and their connection to risk assessment, and proposes changes to our current toxics regulatory paradigm. Part I of this article explores our current regulatory approach for consumer cosmetics. Part II discusses the specific and dire concerns regarding chemicals that are suspected carcinogens and those suspected of disrupting the human endocrine system. The article argues in Part III that because the framework for our current regulation of consumer cosmetic products is not designed to be protective of human health, our regulatory paradigm must shift dramatically in the future if this is to become our …

Fraud And First Amendment Protections Of False Speech: How United States V. Alvarez Impacts Constitutional Challenges To Ag-Gag Laws, Larissa U. Liebmann

Pace Environmental Law Review

This article first explains the background and functions of undercover investigations of agricultural production facilities, and explains the bases upon which states pass laws intended to prevent these investigations. It then gives a background of research already conducted on the constitutionality of Ag-Gag laws, and examines the relevance of the Supreme Court case Alvarez. Based on the analysis provided in Alvarez, the article demonstrates that Ag-Gag laws would not be exempt from heightened First Amendment scrutiny as fraud statutes. Moreover, it demonstrates that, in particular, the Iowa and Utah Ag-Gag laws would not survive the heightened scrutiny outlined in Alvarez.

Animal Agriculture Laws On The Chopping Block: Comparing United States And Brazil, Elizabeth Bennett

Pace Environmental Law Review

Brazil and the United States are among the largest producers and exporters of livestock in the world. This raises important animal rights and environmental concerns. While many of the impacts of industrial animal agriculture are similar in Brazil and the United States, there are key differences in the effects on animals and the environment. The variations between Brazil and the United States are due to ecological, production method, and regulatory differences between the countries. Despite their dissimilarities, however, Brazil and the United States both largely fail to adequately protect farm animals and the environment from the impacts of large-scale animal …

Origins And Development Of Teaching Animal Law In Brazil, Tagore Trajano De Almeida Silva

Pace Environmental Law Review

This paper examines the strategies utilized on each continent and shows the path made for these scholars to build a framework to discuss animal law within law schools. The conclusion is that this movement produced by such scholars has changed the way law schools are teaching law and is affording new opportunities to solve animal concerns, and likewise, social problems in Brazil and around the world.

Therefore, this article first discusses the philosophical Brazilian background to teach animal law, and how the animal rights movement creates a framework for professors and students working in this field. It then summarily explores …

Using Emerging Pollution Tracking Methods To Address The Downstream Impacts Of Factory Farm Animal Welfare Abuse, Tarah Heinzen, Abel Russ

Pace Environmental Law Review

CAFOs present numerous interconnected ethical, environmental, and public health threats, and this article will discuss opportunities to address the multiple adverse impacts of factory farming through advances in pollution tracking methodologies. The first section will introduce the factory farm issue, and the relationship between its environmental and welfare consequences. We then review approaches to establishing liability for surface and groundwater contamination under existing pollution control laws and describe the unique challenges of using these approaches in the context of CAFO pollution. We then discuss techniques that have been used to more precisely identify sources of pollution, including measurements of a …

Cultural Solipsism, Cultural Lenses, Universal Principles, And Animal Advocacy, Thomas G. Kelch

Pace Environmental Law Review

Given the potpourri of human cultures and the need to take a global view of animal rights advocacy, how can animal rights advocates most efficiently and successfully advocate for animals? This article will address this issue.

First, I will describe and analyze views of the human/animal relationship from five example cultural traditions: Western culture, represented generally by Europe and North America, Indian culture, Chinese culture, South African culture, and Islamic culture, exemplified primarily here by Turkey. It is not asserted here that any of these cultures or countries are homogenous; they are not. Although Western culture is primarily constructed on …

Foreword, David N. Cassuto

Pace Environmental Law Review

The overlap between animal law and environmental law arises because the two disciplines are fundamentally linked. One cannot talk about the environment without also discussing the nonhuman sentient beings that populate it. Indeed, as I shall discuss shortly, one of the most vexing issues for me— as a scholar working in both fields—involves my ongoing attempt to address the historical tension between the two disciplines. This volume of the Pace Environmental Law Review (PELR) marks an important step on the path toward resolving those tensions and moving environmental law forward. That path will not always be smooth, nor will it …

Rural Wind Windfalls, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Wind power can provide rural communities with unexpected gains or “windfalls.” As one North Dakota farmer put it, “Who could have guessed that the air above our land might be worth money someday?” According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the amount of installed wind electricity capacity in the United States increased by a factor of 25 between 2000 and 2012. The United States is second, behind only China, for the most wind electricity capacity in the world. In 2012, Kansas more than doubled its installed wind capacity by adding 1,441 MW to the 1,272 MW installed before that …

The Political Economy Of Oil Spill Damage Assessment: Nrda And Deepwater Horizon, Matt Nichols, Judith T. Kildow Dr

Working Papers

The federal effort to quantify and capture non-market damages to coastal ecosystems from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Phase II of United States of America v. BP Exploration and Production, centers on the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) process. This paper makes the case that the current NRDA process has done a poor job protecting the public interest and resolving the issues surrounding oil spills from deep water drilling activities. After 5 years, the findings of the NRDA still remain sealed from both affected maritime communities and academic researchers until litigation is settled with civil and criminal fines …

Putting A Price Tag On An Ocean View: The Impact Of Borough Of Harvey Cedars V. Karan On Partial-Taking Valuations, Bianca Iozzia

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

The Battle May Be Over, But What About The War? Examining The Esa In The Crusade Against Global Warming After In Re Polar Bear Endangered Species Act Listing And Section 4(D) Rule Litigation, Alanna Kearney

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Control Thy Neighbor: The Third Circuit Upholds Direct Federal Control Of Interstate Air Polluters In Genon Rema Llc V. Epa, Eric D. Miller

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Ehb Review - An Electrifying Change: The Ehb Begins Digging Away From Strict Interpretation Of The Bituminous Coal Mine Safety Act In Cumberland Coal V. Dep, Danielle Quinn

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Taking Climate Change By Storm: Theorizing Global And Local Policy-Making In Response To Extreme Weather Events, Sonia E. Rolland, Amy Pimentel, Auroop Ganguly

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

An Open Access Distribution Tariff: Removing Barriers To Innovation On The Smart Grid, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

This Article proposes that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) consider promulgating an Open Access Distribution Tariff (OADT) to open the nation's electric grid to new products and services at the consumer (distribution) level. Design of the OADT would be comparable to the Open Access Transmission Tariff that the FERC has used previously to open the nation's transmission wires. This Article argues that an OADT is necessary to create a smart electricity network that would be national, multimodal, and interactive. There is no smart electricity network at present, and there are numerous barriers to the development of open networking, such …

Alliance For Wild Rockies V. Salazar: Congress Behaving Badly, Edward A. Fitzgerald

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Monetary Exactions: Not Just Compensation? The Expansion Of Nollan And Dolan In Koontz V. St. Johns River Water Management District, Catherine Contino

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Governing A Global Commons: Sharks In The High Seas, Jared R. Wigginton

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Trends In Environmental Law Scholarship 2008-2013, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Linda K. Breggin, David L. Stabb, Emma T. Doineau

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

As part of the article selection process each year, Vanderbilt University Law School students assemble and review the environmental law articles published during the previous academic year. In this Article, we draw on the results of the ELPAR article selection process to report on trends in environmental legal scholarship for academic years 2008-2013.

Specifically, this Article reports on the number of environmental law articles published in general law reviews and environmental law journals. We find that although the total varied somewhat from year to year, more than 400 environmental law articles were published each year during the 2008-2013 period. Additionally, …

Energy And Climate Change: A Climate Prediction Market, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Kaitlin T. Raimi, Jonathan M. Gilligan

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Much of energy policy is driven by concerns about climate change. Views about the importance of carbon emissions affect debates on topics ranging from the regulation of electricity generation and transmission to the need for incentives to develop emerging technologies. Government efforts to fund and communicate climate science have been extraordinary, but recent polling suggests that roughly half of the American population is unsure or does not believe that anthropogenic climate change is occurring. Among some populations, belief in climate change is declining even as the climate science becomes more certain. Much of the doubt occurs among individuals who support …

Court Limitations On 'Cap And Trade' Regulation: Administrative Law Decisions Applicable To The Mechanism Of The Kyoto Protocol, E.U.-Ets, And U.S. Regulation, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

‘Cap-and-trade’ regulation is the regulatory 21st century tool used in environmental law and climate change regulation. It is a key mechanism employed under the U.S. Clean Air Act, integral to the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol for greenhouse gas control, and the regulatory foundation of carbon control legislation in every U.S. state which regulates carbon. This modern ‘cap-and-trade’ mechanism for environmental regulation has been challenged in recent litigation in the U.S. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in every one of five recent legal challenges has held EPA’s use of ‘cap-and-trade’ to be illegal. In only one case, …

Property Constructs And Nature's Challenge To Perpetuity, Jessica Owley

Contributions to Books

Published as Chapter 4 in Environmental Law and Contrasting Ideas of Nature: a Constructivist Approach, Keith H. Hirokawa, ed.

Testimony Before The Committee On Science, Space, And Technology, Subcommittee On Oversight And Environment, U.S. House Of Representatives Hearing On Status Of Reforms To Epa's Integrated Risk Information System, July 16, 2014, Rena I. Steinzor

Congressional Testimony

No abstract provided.

Order And Disorder In The Urban Forest: A Foucauldian-Latourian Perspective, Irus Braverman

Contributions to Books

Published as Chapter 9 in Urban Forests, Trees, and Greenspace: A Political Ecology Perspective, L. Anders Sandberg, Adrina Bardekjian & Sadia Butt, eds.

We pass by street trees everyday. Their existence as well as their particular location in the city seems obvious, innocuous, natural. But, as is the case with most taken-for-granted "things" (Brown, 2011), some excavation is bound to reveal a more complicated and even ideological story. This study focuses on such a story: the story of the clandestine governance of nature and of humans by way of nature - all through the construction and regulation of city street …

Testimony Before The Committee On Energy And Commerce, Subcommittee On Environment And Economics, U.S. House Of Representatives, Hearing On Constitutional Considerations: States Vs. Federal Environmental Policy Implementation July 11, 2014, Rena I. Steinzor

Congressional Testimony

No abstract provided.