Natural Resources Law Commons^™

Preventing Wind Waste, K.K. Duvivier

American University Law Review

The United States has vast offshore wind resources—nearly double the total electricity consumption of the country—ideally located close to the largest population centers. This abundance has remained stubbornly untapped for over a decade, without a single commercial scale wind project built in federal waters as of early 2021.

In contrast to obstruction by the Trump administration, President Biden, in his first days in office, singled out offshore wind development as one of his priorities for tackling the climate crisis. As a result, the United States may soon see an offshore wind rush.

Onshore, the United States is a world leader …

This Permit Reform Already Works. Why Aren't More Mine Permit Applicants Using It?, Jamie Pleune, Edward Boling

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

In January 2021, mining was added as a sector eligible for coverage under the FAST-41 permitting improvement program. The FAST-41 program was originally created in 2015, when Congress passed the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. Buried within the expanse of the FAST Act was the FAST-41 program, a pilot project designed to expedite federal permitting for complex infrastructure projects without compromising environmental standards or restricting public participation. FAST-41 seeks to achieve faster permitting timeframes through improved inter-agency coordination, shared data management, strategic permit sequencing that facilitates concurrent review, enhanced communication with the project sponsor, implementation of permitting best practices, …

The Carbon Price Equivalent: A Metric For Comparing Climate Change Mitigation Efforts Across Jurisdictions, Gabriel Weil

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Climate change presents a global commons problem: Emissions reductions on the scale needed to meet global targets do not pass a domestic cost-benefit test in most countries. To give national governments ample incentive to pursue deep decarbonization, mutual interstate coercion will be necessary. Many proposed tools of coercive climate diplomacy would require a onedimensional metric for comparing the stringency of climate change mitigation policy packages across jurisdictions. This article proposes and defends such a metric: the carbon price equivalent. There is substantial variation in the set of climate change mitigation policy instruments implemented by different countries. Nonetheless, the consequences of …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Richard Stewart's Perennial Question: "How's This Going To Work?", David Schoenbrod

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Null Climate Federalism: State Frustration Of Federal Renewable Energy Entitlements, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

Arresting rapid climate change is considered one of the most challenging issues of this century. To do so successfully, the U.S. must rapidly convert its electric power sector to operate on renewable energy. The Biden Administration pledged that the U.S. will have only clean/renewable electricity by 2035 – in these next 13 years U.S. federal tax incentives for renewable energy are scheduled to be substantially diminished or eliminated. Notwithstanding, there is one fundamental federal entitlement of rights for renewable power development.

The Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act (“PURPA”) statute was enacted by President Carter as the U.S. response to an …

Presidential Progress On Climate Change: Will The Courts Interfere With What Needs To Be Done To Save Our Planet?, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

The Biden Administration is undertaking numerous actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition away from fossil fuels as part of the fight against climate change. Many of these actions are likely to be challenged in court. This paper describes the various legal theories that are likely to be used in these challenges, assesses their prospects of success given the current composition of the Supreme Court, and suggests ways to minimize the risks.

Regaining Control Over The Climate Change Narrative: How To Stop Right-Wing Populism From Eroding Rule Of Law In The Climate Struggle In India, Binit Agrawal

Fordham Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Innovative Regulatory And Financial Parameters For Advancing Carbon Capture And Storage Technologies, Zen Makuch, Slavina Georgieva & Behdeen Oraee-Mirzamani

Fordham Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Textiles As A Source Of Microfiber Pollution And Potential Solutions, Lea M. Elston

Fordham Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lessons From Renewable Energy Diffusion For Carbon Dioxide Removal Development, Anthony E. Chavez

Fordham Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Of Sex Crimes And Fencelines: How Recognition Of Environmental Justice Communities As Crime Victims Under State And Federal Law Can Help Secure Environmental Justice, Joshua Ozymy, Melissa L. Jarrell

Pace Environmental Law Review

Environmental justice communities throughout the United States continue to face disproportionate health burdens from living near industrial sources of pollution. Such burdens were caused by historically racist public policies and continue to be perpetuated by inadequate regulatory responses at the federal and state level. State and federal law has increasingly recognized an emerging set of rights afforded to victims of crime in court proceedings. We argue that members of environmental justice communities should be viewed as crime victims and have the same rights applied as other victims of violent crime. Using case examples under the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act …

Unveiling The “Trojan Horses” Of Gentrification: Studies Of Legal Strategies To Combat Environmental Gentrification In Washington, D.C. And New York, N.Y., Sarena Malsin

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Hallmarks Of A Good Test: A Proposal For Applying The "Functional Equivalent" Rule From County Of Maui V. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, Damien M. Schiff, Glenn E. Roper

Pace Environmental Law Review

The Clean Water Act generally requires a federal permit for the discharge of pollutants “from any point source” to navigable waters. It is undisputed that permits are required for discharges of pollutants from point sources that proceed “directly” to regulated waters. But there is much disagreement over the extent to which indirect point-source discharges are regulated. In an attempt to clarify, the United States Supreme Court in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund ruled that permits are required not just for direct point-source discharges, but also for any point-source discharge that is the “functional equivalent” of a direct point-source …

The Fossil Fuel Industry’S Push To Target Climate Protesters In The U.S., Grace Nosek

Pace Environmental Law Review

At the very moment when the United Nations has called for profound shifts in social and economic systems to avert climate catastrophe, state and non-state actors in the United States (U.S.) are using a series of tactics to target and stifle climate protesters. Although the move to stifle climate protesters is often framed as a government effort, this Article argues it is critical to draw out the role of the fossil fuel industry in initiating, amplifying, and supporting such tactics.

This Article highlights the role the fossil fuel industry has played in supporting the targeting and restricting of climate protesters …

Bullock V. United States Bureau Of Land Mgmt., Henry O'Brien

Public Land & Resources Law Review

A Montana District Court ruled that William Perry Pendley unlawfully served as the Director of BLM for 424 days and cast doubt on the legality of many BLM decisions made during that period. The ruling took a stronger stand against the Trump administration’s liberal and brash use of acting appointees than other, similar cases have.

Introduction, Rick Applegate

Public Land & Resources Law Review

No abstract provided.

Asarco Llc V. Atlantic Richfield Co., Llc, Taylor A. Simpson

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In 2009, Asarco reached a settlement agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency for the arsenic-contaminated East Helena lead smelting facility. As part of the settlement, Asarco was responsible for $111.4 million in cleanup and remediation expenses. Following this payment, Asarco brought a contribution claim under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act against Atlantic Richfield. Finally, in 2020, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that Asarco’s remediation expenses of $111.4 million were not eligible for contribution because the costs were not fully incurred. The Ninth Circuit stated that only incurred or concrete, non-speculative future costs can be eligible …

Responsible Energy Storage For A Renewable Electrical Grid, Matt Longacre

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

The United States economy, its national security, and even the health and safety of its citizens depend on reliably available electricity. Electricity is largely available through the grid – more than 9,200 generating units, capable of generating more than one terawatt of electricity, connected to more than 600,000 miles of wire. The grid extends to nearly everything: from charging cellphones to cellphone towers, from light emitting diodes to street lights, and from parking meters to electric cars; the grid has become ubiquitous.

The current grid infrastructure has been valued at two trillion dollars, but much of it is aging to …

Mtsun, Llc V. Mont. Dep't Of Pub. Serv. Regulation, Ryan W. Frank

Public Land & Resources Law Review

MTSUN, LLC initiated negotiations for a power purchase agreement with NorthWestern Energy in September of 2015 for a potential solar energy facility in eastern Montana. In December of 2016, at an impasse in contract negotiations with NorthWestern, MTSUN filed a petition with the Montana Public Service Commission requesting that the agency exercise its statutory authority to set the terms of the contract for the proposed project. Following MTSUN’s petition, the PSC issued a series of orders and reconsiderations which ultimately reconfigured the entirety of the agreement, including the terms that the parties had previously agreed upon. After exhausting its administrative …

Recent Case Decisions

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Sovereign Lands, Brent D. Chicken, Amanda J. Dick

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Wyoming, John R. Chadd

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

West Virginia, Andrew Graham

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Virginia, Zachary H. Barrett

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Utah, Jim Tartaglia

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Texas, Don Hueske

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Tennessee, Westley A. Ketron

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Pennsylvania, Nathaniel I. Holland, Jon C. Beckman

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Oklahoma, Matt Schlensker, Sandy Fraley

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.