Natural Resources Law Commons^™

Cobalt's Climate Paradox: Global Ambitions For A Greener Future Rely On Blood-Stained Hands, Ashleigh Wootton

Natural Resources Journal

The global effort to mitigate climate change increasingly relies on widespread electrification, with lithium-ion batteries at its core and the key minerals required for their production concentrated in countries uniquely vulnerable to exploitation. Lithium-ion battery production relies heavily on cobalt, a critical mineral primarily sourced from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which supplies approximately 70 percent of the world’s cobalt. As demand for cobalt is projected to rise sharply, the DRC has become indispensable to the global clean energy transition. Cobalt extraction in the DRC is closely linked to severe human rights abuses, including forced labor, child labor, …

The Historic Superfund Listing Of The Lukachukai Mountains Mining District, Nadine Padilla

Faculty Scholarship

President Biden’s 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law included, among its many provisions, a historic investment of $3.5 billion to be allocated toward cleanups under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as Superfund. This investment will help in addressing the problem of legacy pollution that impacts communities across the country. Approximately $1 billion will go towards clearing the backlog of 49 previously unfunded Superfund sites and will accelerate cleanup at over 85 current Superfund sites. Remaining funds will go towards launching cleanup efforts at 25 new Superfund sites. In a development that aligns with these broader cleanup …

2023 Update: A Water Rights Manual For Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Associations, Utton Center, Zackeriah Carpenter, Gregory Chakalian, Darcy S. Bushnell

Publications

This is the 2023 update of the Water Rights Manual. The archival version is also available in our digital repository. 

The Utton Center prepared this Water Rights Manual to assist Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Associations (MDWCAs) with the development, protection and management of their water rights.

This manual provides an introduction to and defines Water Rights in New Mexico, as well as to acquire and have recognized Water Rights. This document also covers water management and planning, and provides additional resources.

Facing New Mexico's 21st Century Water Challenges; A Report Of The New Mexico Water Policy And Infrastructure Task Force, New Mexico Water And Infrastructure Task Force N/A

Publications

No abstract provided.

Groundwater Law, The San Luis Valley, And Climate Change, Rachel Grabenstein

Student Published Scholarship

A vast region of the western United States is in the grips of the first climate change-induced megadrought observed in the past 1,200 years.

This paper explores how climate change and the current groundwater legal regimes interact in Colorado’s San Luis Valley. The Valley was chosen as a case study because it is an example of a community that introduced voluntary measures to address the overuse of groundwater. This paper examines how those measures might have been sufficient if not for the additional challenge of climate change.

This paper will first explain the history of water management in the Valley. …

This Land Is Your Land: The Dark Canon Of The United States Supreme Court In Natural Resources Law, Oliver A. Houck

Natural Resources Journal

This article treats four Supreme Court opinions that have had a lasting impact, largely negative, on public lands and resources. They rest on highly selective statements of fact, and dubious footing with precedent and statutory law. As a quartet they make the protection of natural resources extremely difficult. Resources that, in law, belong to us all. The first case, Southern Utah Wilderness Association, opened up a designated Wilderness Area too off-road vehicle use, where these uses are explicitly prohibited by law. In this opinion Justice Scalia managed, inter alia, to turn congressionally-mandated management plans into (unenforceable) wish lists, and find …

State Ballot Initiatives And Federal Preemption: How Colorado Voters Have Changed Cooperative Federalism In Wildlife Management, Lucas O'Brien

Natural Resources Journal

In United States wildlife management, there is a notion that the federal government manages land while states manage wildlife. While it is true that states have historically held authority over wildlife, federal agencies often also have the authority, and often an obligation, to manage and conserve wildlife. This overlapping jurisdiction has led to the frequent preemption of state wildlife laws and management tactics by federal statutes or objectives, eroding state authority in this area over the past century. In the 2020 election, Colorado voters passed Proposition 114, a state ballot initiative that requires Colorado Parks and Wildlife to reintroduce wolves …

Borders And Water Conflicts: Mitigating Conflicts With Love And Cooperation, Peter J. Longo, Anthony B. Schutz, James M. Scott

Natural Resources Journal

Borders are political constructs, not constructs derived from laws of nature. Borders carry more potential for conflict than any other matter in political relations. In international relations, wars have been fought over borders and territory. But, territory does not necessarily entail a dispute about the geographic location of a border. Trans-boundary natural resources disputes emerge because the laws of nature do not bend to this peculiar human construct. As much can be seen in international and intra-state water conflicts, where political boundaries provide individuals with a tribal identity that eclipses the power of natural resources to tie people together in …

Environmental Justice: Law, Policy & Regulation, Clifford Villa, Nadia Ahmad, Rebecca Bratspies, Roger Lin, Clifford Rechtschaffen, Eileen Gauna, Catherine O'Neill

Faculty Book Display Case

Environmental Justice: Law, Policy, & Regulation explores theory and practice in this dynamic subject, which fuses environmental law and civil rights enforcement. From early concerns over toxic waste in minority communities, environmental justice expanded to consider the range of environmental threats facing poor, immigrant, and indigenous communities; women, children, and seniors; and other vulnerable populations. This third edition provides extensively updated materials to address environmental justice concerns today, including oil drilling in the Arctic, the Dakota Access Pipeline, drinking water contamination in Flint, and the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Featuring new chapters addressing disaster justice and …

Remaking Environmental Justice, Clifford Villa

Faculty Scholarship

From movements for civil rights in the 1960s and environmental protection in the 1970s, the environmental justice movement emerged in the 1980s and 1990s to highlight the disparate impacts of pollution, principally upon people of color and low-income communities. Over time, the scope of environmental justice expanded to address concerns for other dimensions of diversity. New and continuing challenges tell us that we need to reframe our understanding of environmental justice to ensure better protection for people going forward. One way to reframe this understanding may be to apply the heuristic of vulnerability analysis as proposed by legal theorist Martha …

Getting Past Possession: Subsurface Property Disputes As Nuisances, Joseph A. Schremmer

Faculty Scholarship

Property rights in the subsurface of land are adapting to accommodate modern activities like massive hydraulic fracturing (fracing). Property rights will need to continue adapting if they are to accommodate other developing activities like large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS). Courts and commentators rarely approach the nature of subsurface property directly. They tend instead to discuss appropriate standards for tort liability when disputes arise—for example when artificial fissures from a frac treatment extend into and drain oil or gas from a neighbor’s land. The case law and literature generally approach unauthorized subterranean invasions as trespasses. Because the tort of trespass …

Acknowledgement, Melanie Mcnett, Julia Shaver

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Natural Resources Journal

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

The Long View Of The Water/Energy Nexus: Hydropower’S First Century In The U.S.A., Carl J. Bauer

Natural Resources Journal

This paper offers a historical overview of the first century of hydropower in the US from today’s perspective of the water/energy nexus. Hydropower emerged as a technology in the 1880s and its development expanded until large dam building ended in the US in the 1970s-1980s. I summarize the century from the two different angles of the water sector and the electric power sector, as the roles and strategic importance of hydropower changed dramatically in the two sectors, in the parallel histories of water development and electric power development. The paper emphasizes the electricity side of the hydropower story because the …

The Hns Convention: Will It Be A Game Changer For China’S Marine Pollution Law?, Ruixuan Zhuo

Natural Resources Journal

This article analyzes the international convention governing marine pollution caused by the shipment of hazardous and noxious substances (“HNS”). It also discusses China’s domestic laws and regulations of HNS marine pollution liability comparing the Chinese approach with norms under the HNS Convention. The author argues that China faces severe HNS pollution issues and proposes solutions to HNS liability and compensation problems.

A Road Map To Restoring Rivers: How The Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement Might Influence Future Dam Removal And River Restoration Projects, James C. Ish

Natural Resources Journal

Throughout the United States dams are approaching the terminus of their original licensing periods and are undergoing re-licensing by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. This period of review has prompted extensive studies in these basins to determine the cost-benefits associated with keeping these dams, versus removing and restoring the natural ecosystems that are currently inundated. In situations where a dam is deemed to be no longer economically relevant, and/or a detriment to endangered species or their critical habitat, an agreement for removal and restoration is often proposed as the next step in the management of that basin’s water resources. However, …

Legal Rights For Rivers: Competition, Collaboration And Water Governance By Erin O’Donnell (Routledge, 202 Pages; 2019), Ariel Macmillan-Sanchez

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Climate Perspectives Across The Generations, Dan Farber

Natural Resources Journal

Climate change is a multi-generational problem, but it does not impact all generations in the same way. Correspondingly, older Americans and younger ones differ greatly in how they perceive the issue and how they respond. The wave of youth activism epitomized by Greta Thunburg is on one side of this generation gap. Donald Trump’s climate skepticism is on the other. We’re talking about large groups of people, so there is a range of attitudes on both sides, but these two individuals represent the generational differences in dramatic form. My goal today is to explore these generational differences. I want to …

Creating Contracts In A Vacuum: Space Mining And The Creation Of Future Contract Law, Kris Turner

Natural Resources Journal

Asteroid mining is set to be one of the most lucrative industries of the near future. With mineral value that dwarfs resources found on Earth, the race to locate and mine these precious minerals will soon begin in earnest. However, asteroid mining raises numerous legal questions, including how to create contracts for private mining companies to exploit the asteroids. Standard mining contracts provide a foundation for earthbound contracts, while mining in extreme environments such as Antarctica and the seabed provides further structure upon which parties interested in asteroid mining can begin building new contracts. These earthbound contracts also serve as …

River Of Lost Souls: The Science, Politics, And Greed Behind The Gold King Mine Disaster By Jonathan P. Thompson (Torrey House Press, 296 Pages; 2018), Sarah Mclain

Natural Resources Journal

“Oh. Shit.” These were the first words spoken when mine sludge carrying heavy metals began spewing out of the side of Level 7 portal of the Gold King Mine. On August 5, 2015, EPA staffers and contractors were working to start clearing out debris from the mine, and instead opened a hole on the side of an old mine tunnel which released three million gallons of water and sludge into the Animas River below. The sludge would travel downstream, passing the old mining community of Silverton, CO, continuing past Durango, CO, and eventually crossing state lines into New Mexico where …

Symposium Letter, Ariel Macmillan-Sanchez

Natural Resources Journal

Acknowledgement

Creative Legal Approaches To Protect Youth’S Constitutional Rights In The Face Of Climate Change, Andrea Rodgers

Natural Resources Journal

This interview with Andrea Rodgers was produced through written responses to prompts from Ariel MacMillan-Sanchez in April 2020.

Creating Social Change Through Art: The Greater Chaco Art Zines, Jeanette Hart-Mann, Asha Canalos

Natural Resources Journal

This interview with Jeanette Hart-Mann and Asha Canalos took place on March 6, 2020 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This interview was conducted in person and edited by Ariel MacMillan-Sanchez.4 Hart-Mann and Canalos explained the importance of the Greater Chaco Art Zines project, how it came to fruition, the issues of censorship that surround it, and their perspectives on generating meaningful change. Some of the art pieces discussed in this interview are published in this article. If you would like to get involved or wish to see more of the art pieces discussed in this interview please visit https://greaterchacoartzines.org/.

Crystal Gazing: Foretelling The Next Decade In Oil And Gas Law, Joseph A. Schremmer

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter attempts to predict the major issues oil and gas law will encounter in the 2020s. Yet even before the first draft could be completed, the industry landscape changed unexpectedly. As this chapter goes to press, the global and domestic economies are just starting to emerge from a sharp downturn brought on by the outbreak of COVID-19. Oil and natural gas prices collapsed to levels not seen in decades. Against this unforeseen backdrop, the legal changes facing oil and gas development in the United States look somewhat different. But one element of our new reality is consistent with this …

Natural Resources And Environmental Law Newsletter, Fall 2019, Natural Resources And Environmental Law Program

Newsletter

Table of Contents:

• Emerita Professor Eileen Gauna Receives American Bar Association Award
• UNM Hires Joseph A. Schremmer as Leon Karelitz Oil & Gas Law Professor
• Faculty Scholarship and Presentations
• NREL Clinic Proposes Low Income Energy Efficiency Bill, Participates in Methane Regulation Expert Workgroup
• Reed D. Benson Elected to Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Board of Directors
• Alumna Stefanie Tsosie Hired for Tribal Partnerships Program at Earthjustice
• 2019 Graduate Ann Brethour Gains National Recognition

Introduction: What You Don't Know Does Protect You, Rebecca Roose

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Property In Ecology, Jonathan H. Adler

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Jonathan P. Thompson, River Of Lost Souls: The Science, Politics, And Green Behind The Gold King Mine Disaster (2018), Clifford J. Villa

Faculty Scholarship

On August 5, 2015, contractors for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigating the Gold King Mine in southwestern Colorado accidently released some three million gallons of contaminated water into the Animas River, triggering weeks of front-page headlines, months of congressional hearings, and now years of litigation. River of Lost Souls: The Science, Politics, and Greed Behind the Gold King Mine Disaster, a new book by Jonathan P. Thompson, suggests by its title a human folly behind this “disaster” much broader and deeper than one tragic accident wrought by EPA contractors. On this thesis, Thompson certainly delivers. However, what …

Property Provisions Of The Joint Operating Agreement: An Update For The New 2015 Form Joa, Alex Ritchie, Gary B. Conine

Faculty Scholarship

The joint operating agreement (JOA) in the oil and gas industry helps coordinate joint operation efforts that facilitate exploration and unitization of tracts, and conservation of a depleting resource. Professor Conine’s 1988 article expanded, limited, and defined the property interests of the parties both inside and outside the contract area. This article is an update to those prior works with greater emphasis on the 1989 Form JOA, cases and developments since its publication, and the implications of the revisions to the JOA in the new 2015 Form JOA published by the American Association of Professional Landmen (AAPL).

The purposes of …

Brief For The Kansas Independent Oil & Gas Association As Amicus Curiae, Joseph A. Schremmer

Faculty Scholarship

Is the letter of the rule against perpetuities (the Rule) more important than its public policy? The Appellants in this case recklessly petition the Court to apply the Rule to a commonly used form of mineral reservation for the first time in the reservation’s nearly 100 years of use. They contend the Rule should apply even though it would cloud or nullify the property interests of countless unrepresented parties, spur a spate of litigation, remove a useful form of mineral ownership from commerce, and disrupt oil and gas development across Kansas—all in contravention of the Rule’s policy of making land …