Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Could A More Limited Environmental Goods Agreement Resolve Continued Issues In Cities Compliance?, Andrew Coccoli

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Note will adopt an economic perspective while advocating for the most sustainable practices in natural resources management. It will first conduct a series of case studies of natural resources for which there is transnational or international demand, but unsustainable management. While CITES-listed resources will be considered with particular attention, unlisted and more conventional resources will also be considered. In its second part, this Note will consider mechanisms currently available in international trade to accommodate environmental progress, then will set forth various new measures the WTO could adopt to incentivize sustainable management of the Part I resources. Part III will …

Charting A Course To Conserve 30% Of Freshwaters By 2030, Sandra B. Zellmer

William & Mary Law Review

One of President Biden’s earliest executive orders established an ambitious national goal to conserve at least 30 percent of U.S. lands, waters, and oceans by 2030. The Biden administration is not alone; over 100 countries support this goal as a means of combating climate change and slowing the pace of species extinction, both of which are accelerating at a rate that is unprecedented in history.

Despite its vow to pursue a wide-sweeping, all-of-government approach, Biden’s 30 by 30 initiative overlooks a critical component of the conservation goal—it pays virtually no attention to freshwater. Freshwater ecosystems are among the most endangered …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

(Re)Empowering The Community: A Case Study Of Namibia's Legal Evolution Of Wildlife Governance, Stefan Carpenter

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Article will introduce the theoretical foundation of the CBC [Community-Based Conservation] approach. It will then use Namibia as a case study to both: (a) illustrate the sort of historical, political, and economic drivers that motivate the adoption of CBC across the global south, and (b) highlight the existence of potential structural weaknesses present in even the most lauded CBC programs. Finally, this Article will present some of the common theoretical and results-based criticisms of CBC and discuss broader lessons that can be drawn from the Namibian experience. The analyses in this Article draw from academic literature, Namibia’s statutes and …

New Strategies For Groundwater Litigation In Texas, Amy Hardberger

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Article evaluates the evolution of the understanding of groundwater rights since the Day decision and assesses the relative power of property rights in groundwater that have emerged and what can be done to equalize resulting inequities. Part I reviews the current state of groundwater ownership rights and includes a brief history of litigation that led to that point. Part II explains the authority and obligations of groundwater conservation districts, which create a regulatory overlay on the common law vested rights through permitting rules and the statewide planning process. Part III summarizes the history of constitutional challenges litigated after the …

The Water Is On Fire: Current Circuit Approaches To Fee-Shifting In Citizen-Suits Under The Clean Water Act And The Need For Clearer And More Uniform Standards, Charles Kinley

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Note will start by providing a short explanation of the origins of and congressional goals for the fee-shifting provision in the CWA [Clean Water Act]. It will then offer a brief summary of how Supreme Court precedent has both clarified and confused this issue. Then, it will dive into an examination of how the different circuits and their district courts have interpreted the CWA’s fee-shifting provision and how these interpretations have struggled with past Supreme Court decisions. Finally, this Note will explore the costs and benefits associated with these fee-shifting standards and offer a potential solution to this problem. …

Not Approved For Human Consumption: A Study Of The Denmark Water Crisis, A Call For Reforming The Swda, And A Demand For Community Lawyering In Rural America, Matthew Woodward

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Over the past four decades, nine million Americans have ingested dangerous drinking water from a trusted source: their own taps. Each year, “an estimated 16.4 million cases of acute gastroenteritis” are linked to public drinking water. For many Americans, drinking water—perhaps the most important cornerstone of human health—has become cause for concern.

In Flint, Michigan, this concern turned to panic. In 2014, after toddlers began developing painful skin conditions, children fell seriously ill, and tap water emerged in the form of thick, orange-brown sludge, the people of Flint began to wonder: is there something in the water? What soon became …

Bird-Safe Buildings Act: Ready To Take Flight, Kerry Sean Cooney

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Integrated Estuary Governance, Mary Jane Angelo, J.W. Glass

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Estuaries are complex, dynamic ecosystems that play a critical role in supporting crucial economic industries, such as commercial fishing and tourism, and providing the resources necessary to sustain coastal communities. A range of anthropogenic environmental stressors are threatening the health of estuaries throughout the world. Traditional top-down single resource focused environmental regulatory approaches have proved inadequate to protect and restore estuarine systems. In recent years, scientific and legal academics, as well as policymakers, have called for more holistic participatory approaches to addressing environmental challenges. Drawing on the literature on ecosystem management, integrated water resources management, collaborative governance, and adaptive management, …

A "Directed Trust" Approach To Intergenerational Solidarity In American Environmental Law And Policy: A Modest Proposal, Lucia A. Silecchia

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Too Little, Too Late: Congress's Attempt To Regulate Forever Chemicals Through Military Appropriations, Michael Heard Snow

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, shortened to “PFAS,” are a broad class of approximately 4,000 to 6,000 industrial chemicals characterized by a carbon chain saturated with fluorine molecules. This structure, dominated by carbon-fluorine bonds, is one of the most stable known chemical structures—and it is this stability that lies at the core of both the usefulness and the greatest issues surrounding PFAS. They are generally non-reactive except at tailored “active sites” and they never break down naturally—leading to the nickname “forever chemicals.” The persistence of their structures creates a plethora of desirable characteristics: PFAS are grease-resistant, waterproof, fireproof, stain-proof, and chemically …

Community-Driven Climate Solutions: How Public-Private Partnerships With Land Trusts Can Advance Climate Action, Jessica Grannis

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

In 2018 and 2019, several landmark developments demonstrated the failings of past efforts to address climate change and the need for new and more ambitious solutions. In October 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”) released a dire report indicating that the window is rapidly closing for countries to dramatically reduce emissions in order to avoid the worst consequences of climate change and predicting dramatic consequences to the environment and public health if countries fail to take action; young activists started taking to the streets to demand more ambitious action to address climate change; and, at the 25th Conference …

Galactic Preservation And Beyond: A Framework For Protecting Cultural, Natural, And Scientific Heritage In Space, Matthew Rosendahl

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

In July 2017, Moon Express, a private spaceflight company, announced plans to build an outpost on the South Pole of the Moon by 2020. The goal? To mine the Moon for minerals and water that could then be sold for profit. Indeed, the Moon has been found to possess resources with lucrative uses, both in space and here on Earth. The potential for huge rewards has incentivized several private and governmental actors to launch planned expeditions to the Moon, with China becoming the third nation to land a spacecraft there in 2013. Both China and India have since announced plans …

International Law Instruments To Address The Plastic Soup, Luisa Cortat Simonetti Goncalves, Michael Gerbert Faure

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

The problem of plastic pollution in the oceans has been increasingly evident after 1997, when the great concentrations of plastics in the oceans were initially publicized. Still, there is a substantial lack of scientific data and research about the sources of plastic pollution, destinations and consequences to nature and human life. The only certainty is that the amount of plastic that ends up in the ocean is alarming and likely will not decrease anytime soon because of its durability and large range of use. Estimates show that, each year, at least 8 million tons of plastics leak into the ocean …

The Case For A Mandatory Renewable Portfolio Standard In Virginia: A Case Study Examining Virginia’S Potential For A Mandatory Renewable Portfolio Standard By Comparing Virginia To Maryland And North Carolina, Rebecca Wescott

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Since the early 1980s, states have utilized Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards (“RPSs”) as policy mechanisms to “promote broader investment in renewable energy without requiring passage of a comprehensive energy policy measure that includes a pricing mechanism for carbon.” RPS policies can be drafted in one of two ways: (1) as a mandatory RPS, a legal mandate on what percentage of a state’s power portfolio must come from specific eligible renewable energy sources by a specific date in the future, or (2) as a non-binding or voluntary RPS, a policy goal that recommends that a certain percentage of a state’s power …

Yielding To The Necessities Of A Great Public Industry: Denial And Concealment Of The Harmful Health Effects Of Coal Mining, Caitlyn Greene, Patrick Charles Mcginley

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

In the mid-nineteenth century, coal mined in Central Appalachia began to flow into industrial markets. Those mines and the coal they produced provided jobs, put food on family tables in coalfield households, and even provided housing for hundreds of thousands of coal miners and their families. The bounty from America’s expanding coalfields fueled the Industrial Revolution and powered the nation’s steel mills, factories,steamboats, and railroads. It powered America’s defense through two World Wars and later military conflicts. Coal-fired power plants generated more than half of the electricity used in the United States in the latter quarter of the twentieth century. …

Offshore Oil Leasing: Trump Administration’S Environmentally Dangerous Energy Policy, Carol J. Miller, Bonnie B. Persons

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

The Trump administration’s Executive orders on Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth (“Energy Independence Order”) and Implementing an America-First Offshore Energy Strategy (“Offshore Energy Order”) set the stage to open over 90% of the continental shelf to offshore oil drilling from 2019–2024. The Offshore Energy Order ignores the statutory requirements of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (“OCSLA”) and the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) to balance energy exploration with safeguards for marine life and the environment. We analyze the lack of express authority in OCSLA for the President to rescind its protective designations, in comparison to other laws that …

Property In The Anthropocene, E. Lees

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Intergenerational justice, community interests, and environmental protection are all goals sought through the imposition of the duties of stewardship onto owners of land. But such duties, when imposed by law, require justification beyond the morality of maintaining and preserving land in a good condition for its present and future use. The potential for sanction imposed by the state means that stewardship duties, if they are to be justified, must be grounded in established principles of justified legal intervention. Of those, the most convincing is, and always has been, the harm principle: intervention is justified where a rule prevents one person …

Waste Size: The Skinny On The Environmental Costs Of The Fashion Industry, Elisha Teibel

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

The fashion industry is a web of complex global markets currently valued at $3 trillion that employs somewhere around sixty million people worldwide and is estimated to be one of the most labor-intensive industries on the planet. Over the past couple of decades, the industry has evolved into a highly fragmented sector with complicated supply chains and completely unstandardized production practices, which vary by factory and by country. The most significant facet of the fashion trade is the clothing and textile industry. The current total value of the clothing and textiles trade is estimated at $726 billion and a staggering …

Environmental Governance And The Global South, Jeffrey J. Minneti

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Over the last several decades, efforts to regulate the environment through traditional public law at national and international levels have stalled. In contrast, private environmental governance has flourished as nongovernmental entities have engaged in standard setting and assessment practices traditionally left to public government. This Article observes that while private governance of producers’ environmental product claims has grown tremendously in recent years, the vast majority of the governance originates in the global North and thrusts the global North’s economic and environmental agenda into the global South. In light of recent empirical studies of the effectiveness of such governance, the Article …

Using Renewable Portfolio Standards To Accelerate Development Of Negative Emissions Technologies, Anthony E. Chavez

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

As society continues to emit greenhouse gases, the likelihood of dangerous climate change occurring increases. Indeed, most analyses project that we must utilize negative emission technologies (“NETs”) to avoid dangerous warming. Even the Paris Agreement anticipates the implementation of such carbon dioxide (“CO₂”) removal technologies. Unfortunately, NETs are not ready for large-scale deployment. In many instances, their technologies remain uncertain; in others, their ability to operate at the scale required is unknown. Other uncertainties, including their costs, effectiveness, and environmental impacts have yet to be determined.

A means to accelerate the development and implementation of NETs is a …

Dealing With Climate Change Under The National Environmental Policy Act, Climate Change--Laws Regulations And Rules, Environmental Impact Statements, Greenhouse Gases, Arnold W. Reitze Jr.

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

The National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) was an important environmental law for several decades before climate change became an issue of concern. In the 1990s, efforts began to include in NEPA’s environmental assessments and environmental impact statements both the impact of federal government actions on climate change and the impact of climate change on proposed federal actions. These efforts were encouraged by the Council on Environmental Quality (“CEQ”). However, implementation at the agency level has since been uneven. Some federal agencies have resisted making serious efforts to incorporate climate change impacts into their decision-making process. Moreover, the courts have not …

Regulatory Obsolescence Through Technological Change In Oil And Gas Extraction, Timothy Fitzgerald

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Extraction of oil and gas from unconventional resources, recently enabled by technological innovations, revolutionized national and global markets. However, exploration and production still proceed under legacy regulations, mostly promulgated at the state level. The mismatch of modern production realities and historic regulatory structures creates opportunities for reducing conflicts that diminish economic value. This Article identifies regulations that originated under conventional extraction, and often enhance productivity in that setting, but create waste when applied to unconventional resources. Then, it identifies contractual solutions that have evolved as resource owners and extraction firms have adapted to new technologies. Contractual innovations help inform directions …

When The Well Runs Dry: Why Water-Rich States Need To Prepare For Climate Change And Protect Their Groundwater, Danielle Takacs

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

It may seem surprising to see such concern over groundwater usage in a state like Wisconsin. While known for its dairy and cheese production, Wisconsin is first in the nation for producing snap beans and cranberries. Agriculture contributes $88.3 billion annually to Wisconsin’s economy alone. In addition to bordering two of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, Wisconsin boasts that it is home to about 15,000 lakes. And this does not include the numerous rivers and streams throughout the state. These facts alone may make Wisconsin seem an unlikely place for disputes over groundwater, as water seems to …

An Examination Of The Need For Campaign Fianance Reform Through The Lens Of The United States Treaty Clause And Environmental Protection Treaties, Jordan Smith

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

The United States’ federal election system is constantly the focus of debate, including components from voting mechanisms, to candidate selection, and to the candidates themselves. Unsurprisingly, campaign finance has also been the source of much debate. For decades, scholars, politicians, lawyers, and laypersons have debated the merits and shortcomings of the campaign finance system enumerated in the United States Code. The landmark Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (“FEC”) decision in 2010, in which the United States Supreme Court equated corporate speech to human speech, merely added fuel to the fire. The considerable volume of scholarship based upon campaign finance …

The Waters Of Antarctica: Do They Belong To Some States, No States, Or All States?, Linda A. Malone

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Major issues and complexities arise when one is looking at the international puzzle that is Antarctica. Despite being uninhabited year round and lacking substantial long-term international law rules for sovereignty, states still try to claim their sovereignty over various parts of Antarctica. The consortium of states under the Antarctica Treaty System (“ATS”) then further aggravates these complexities, especially when other states outside of the ATS have been arguing for different regimes and approaches to dealing with Antarctica and resource exploitation. Due to these major issues and a desperate need for a resolution in times of global climate change, this Article …

"Un-Designating" Marine Sanctuaries?: Assessing President Trump's America-First Offshore Energy Strategy, Kevin O. Leske

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.