Natural Resources Law Commons^™

Carbon Outlasts The Law: States Walk The Constitutional Line, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

State carbon policies to control climate warming and our energy future are under legal attack. A successful barrage of litigation now invokes the dormant Commerce Clause and the Federal Power Act as interpreted through the Filed Rate Doctrine, as well as the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, to challenge the legal validity and sustainability of these state carbon-based laws. California and other states have survived these legal challenges sparingly, and then often only by prevailing with procedural defenses that dismiss the case before a decision on the legal merits of their state energy regulation. This Article examines and analyzes …

Wildearth Guardians V. Jewell, 738 F.3d 298 (D.C. Cir. 2013), Ross Keogh

Public Land & Resources Law Review

As part of a comprehensive strategy to keep coal “in the ground,” environmental plaintiffs challenged the BLM’s leasing of federally owned coal tracts in the Powder River Basin in 2010 on climate change grounds. WildEarth Guardians was the first suit to reach a federal circuit court, where the District of Columbia Circuit Court affirmed that the BLM’s environmental analysis of the climate change impacts of the leased coal was adequate under NEPA. Notably, in reversing the district court, the circuit court found that the plaintiffs had procedural standing.

Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Of Indians V. Nevada, Dept. Of Wildlife, David A. Bell

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of Indians v. Nevada, Dept. of Wildlife, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a Nevada federal district court decision to vacate the Nevada state engineer’s approval of the transfer of three water applications. While the appeals court recognized the state’s re-watering of wetlands as a “salutary” purpose, it could not allow the engineer’s decision to go forward because it did not meet the legal definition of “irrigation.” The Court made the decision pursuant to two federal court decrees, which resulted from prior actions by the United States to quiet title to …

Europe Should Dump Cap-And-Trade In Favor Of Carbon Tax With Reinvestment To Reduce Global Emissions, Stephen Sewalk

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

It is time for the European Union to dump the EU-ETS cap-and trade system, as it is not working. By adopting a carbon tax with reinvestment, the European Union (EU) could reduce its economy-wide emissions by forty-eight percent (and emissions from buildings and utilities by sixty-five percent) within twenty years while automatically putting in place a border tax adjustment. By adopting the carbon tax with reinvestment, the EU's trading partners would be heavily encouraged to adopt the same system, thereby dramatically reducing global emissions. This adoption would occur much like the EU adopting the Value-Added Tax and 150 countries following …

Climate Engineering Field Research: The Favorable Setting Of International Environmental Law, Jesse Reynolds

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

As forecasts for climate change and its impacts have become more dire, climate engineering proposals have come under increasing consideration and are presently moving toward field trials. This article examines the relevant international environmental law, distinguishing between climate engineering research and deployment. It also emphasizes the climate change context of these proposals and the enabling function of law. Extant international environmental law generally favors such field tests, in large part because, even though field trials may present uncertain risks to humans and the environment, climate engineering may reduce the greater risks of climate change. Notably, this favorable legal setting is …

Table Of Contents

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

No abstract provided.

Oil And Gas Law: From Habendum To Patent Law, Emir Crowne, Barbero C. Michael

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

This article outlines and addresses the specific patent issues affecting the oil and gas industry. In so doing, it argues that the business realities of the industry, coupled with its fast-paced environment, make it a perfect example of why the current patent prohibition against professional skills and business methods must be reformed.

Masthead & Front Matter

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

No abstract provided.

The Walking Dead Or Weekend At Bernie’S? How The Public Trust Doctrine Threatens Alternative Energy Development, Michael Julius Motta Jr.

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

One of the oldest doctrines of environmental law, the public trust doctrine, is sufficiently ambiguous that it risks threatening widespread adoptions of alternative energy sources such as wind energy. Because of this, the public trust doctrine threatens the protection of the environment in the name of protection of the environment. Yet, the public trust doctrine and future energy policy should be complementary and not exclusionary of each other. In light of this, whether an agency has public trust authority should be determined based on six factors: the legal authority of state fiduciaries; due diligence by state fiduciaries in determining if …

Law And Governance Of The Great Lakes, Noah D. Hall, Benjamin C. Houston

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Say What? The Resolution Of Ambiguous Written Agreements In West Virginia, James Matthew Davis

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Unringing The Bell: Time For Epa To Reconsider Its Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding, David Yaussy, Elizabeth Turgeon

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Feed-In Tarrifs In Turmoil, Lincoln L. Davies, Kirsten Allen

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Drilling And Deductions: Making The Section 170(H) Conservation Easement Work In The Shale Boom Era, Michael T. Fulks

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Spring 2014 Utton Center Newsletter, Utton Center, University Of New Mexico - School Of Law

Publications

No abstract provided.

Water Quality Standard Setting Under The Clean Water Act: Is It Nimble Enough To Avoid Wasteful Spending On The Wrong Goals, Christopher B. Power, Jennifer J. Hicks

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Geology, The Marcellus Shale, Experts, And Dispute Resolution, Itzchak E. Kornfeld

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Facts, Fiction, And Perception In Hydraulic Fracturing: Illuminating Act 13 And Robinson Township V. Commonwealth Of Pennsylvania, Joshua P. Fershee

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Common Resource Or Private Right: Contested Claims To Seaweed In 19th Century Prince Edward Island, Rusty Bittermann, Margaret Mccallum

Dalhousie Law Journal

In the nineteenth century, before farmers could purchase inexpensive chemical fertilizers, farmers on Prince Edward Island looked to the sea and the shore for nutrients to add to their soils. When disputes over who had the right to gather seaweed led to litigation, judges ruled that the owners of property fronting on the shore had the exclusive right to seaweed cast up on the shore, both above and belot, the high water mark. These rulings did little to dispel the popular perception that seaweed, a gift of nature, was a common resource that belonged to the people who collected it. …

The Pitfalls Of The Pittman-Robertson Act: Threats To An American Wildlife Act That Ensnare Hunters And Hikers Alike, Greg Huffaker

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

No abstract provided.

Wilderness Management In National Parks And Wildlife Refuges, Sandra B. Zellmer

Faculty Law Review Articles

This Article provides a wilderness scorecard of sorts for the two "dominant use" land management agencies-the National Park Service (NPS) and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). Given that both agencies operate under a similar conservation oriented mandate, one night assume that the imposition of a wilderness mandate would be closely aligned with their organic missions. However, NPS and FWS have both, at times, been surprisingly hostile toward wilderness within their systems. In NPS's case, this is likely because of a concern that wilderness might disrupt visitor use and rein in its management discretion over park activities and …

Public Lands Access Association V. Board Of County Commissioners Of Madison County, Graham Coppes

Public Land & Resources Law Review

On January 16, 2014, the Supreme Court of Montana reversed and remanded a district court decision that had foreclosed the public’s right to access the Ruby River. The Court held that the right of way was a public prescriptive easement, which extended beyond the road surface itself to include such area as necessary for the county to maintain the road in the interest of the public. Furthermore, the Court concluded that once a public right-of-way is established by prescriptive use, the scope of current and future use of such an easement is not limited to those historic adversarial practices which …

Agenda: Fracking, Water Quality And Public Health: Examining Current Laws And Regulations, Network For Public Health Law, American Society Of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Public Health Law Research Program

Fracking, Water Quality and Public Health: Examining Current Laws and Regulations (March 20)

Improved technology developments in directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as "fracking," have resulted in an oil and gas production boom nationwide. Fracking involves pumping pressurized water, sand, and chemicals down wells to crack bedrock, freeing petroleum and natural gas. Wastewater discharges, hydraulic fracturing fluid releases, and other accidental spills pose potential water quality risks, sparking concern for public health.

This webinar will examine the laws and regulations governing water quality issues related to fracking, recent state court decisions affecting regulations, and implications for public health.

Slides: Best Management Practices For Oil And Gas Development And Comparative Water Quality Database Of Regulations Relating To Shale Oil And Gas, Matt Samelson, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment. Intermountain Oil And Gas Bmp Project

Fracking, Water Quality and Public Health: Examining Current Laws and Regulations (March 20)

Presenter: Matt Samelson, J.D., Attorney, Consultant for Intermountain Oil and Gas Best Management Practices (BMP) Project, Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment, University of Colorado Law School

34 slides

Bostwick Properties Inc. V. Montana Department Natural Resources And Conservation, Carolyn A. Sime

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The Montana Supreme Court upheld the law requiring that applicants for new ground water permits in closed basins show no net surface depletion and that the new appropriation will not adversely affect senior water appropriators. Where the relationship between surface and ground water is uncertain or attenuated, applicants still bear the burden of proof, even if the proposed use constitutes only a de minimis quantity. Once again, the Court acknowledged the hydrologic connection between surface and ground water and the underlying legal framework which seeks to make water available for new appropriation and simultaneously protect the water rights of senior …

Storm King Revisited: A View From The Mountaintop, Albert K. Butzel

Pace Environmental Law Review

This article and the underlying factual information were first presented at Pace University School of Law on April 15, 2010 as the Sixteenth Annual Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture on Environmental Law.

Mr. Butzel tells the story of the Storm King case, and gives his impression of where environmental litigation stands up today measured against the promise of the Storm King decision.

Maritime Emissions Taxation: An Alternative To The Eu Emissions Trading Scheme?, Jon M. Truby

Pace Environmental Law Review

Focusing on the EU’s alternative proposal of an emissions tax, this article analyzes the possibility for the imposition by an EU Member State of a targeted environmental tax to reduce maritime emissions. It considers how such a tax can be imposed in a manner that will not be detrimental to commercial interests and can instigate the desired impact. Importantly, it focuses upon providing a greater incentive for the maritime industry to invest in the most efficient shipping fleet to reduce emissions. It concludes by comparing whether such a perceived maritime emissions tax could be more advantageous than including maritime emissions …

Compensation For Environmental Damage In China: Theory And Practice, Michael G. Faure, Liu Jing

Pace Environmental Law Review

This article is organized as follows: following the introduction in Part I, Part II focuses on the role of liability rules in compensation for environmental harm, then Part III focuses on insurance, and Part IV discusses the specific case of marine oil pollution. For each topic, we will first describe theoretical possibilities for providing compensation, and then examine the role these mechanisms play in practice. Part V offers a few concluding remarks, and provides an economic analysis and policy recommendations.

Assessing Environmental Governance Of The Hudson River Valley: Application Of An Ippep Model, Wang Xi, Albert K. Butzel, Richard L. Ottinger, Nicholas A. Robinson, John Louis Parker, Taryn L. Rucinski, Marla E. Wieder, Radina R. Valova, Wang Pianpian

Pace Environmental Law Review

The process of obtaining effective implementation of environmental laws is a process of “environmental governance.” Law, including environmental law and other fields of law related to environmental law, is essential to frame, facilitate, and foster the major parties to correctly play their roles.

This thesis has been articulated through a Model of Interactions of Parties in the Process of Environmental Protection (IPPEP Model), which has been developed by Professor Wang Xi of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, in the context of the People’s Republic of China. The IPPEP Model is a tool for observing and accessing environmental governance at work. It …

Drilling Down: New York, Hydraulic Fracturing, And The Dormant Commerce Clause, Meredith A. Wegener

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

The debate surrounding hydraulic fracturing and natural gas development from shale rock needs no embellishment. This highly sought resource and highly fought drilling technique trigger significant concerns: human health, energy independence, national security, water safety, air quality, agricultural well-being, outdoor aesthetic impairment, government involvement at all levels and by all branches, and economic development and sustainability. Whether actively participating in this conversation or not, everyone has a stake in the resolution of whether to allow this technique to be utilized and these resources to be produced.