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Full-Text Articles in Environmental Health and Protection

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 Jan 2022

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. …


Too Little, Too Late: Congress's Attempt To Regulate Forever Chemicals Through Military Appropriations, Michael Heard Snow Feb 2021

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 Jul 2020

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 …


International Law Instruments To Address The Plastic Soup, Luisa Cortat Simonetti Goncalves, Michael Gerbert Faure Mar 2019

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 …


Property In The Anthropocene, E. Lees Jan 2019

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 …


"Un-Designating" Marine Sanctuaries?: Assessing President Trump's America-First Offshore Energy Strategy, Kevin O. Leske Apr 2018

"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.


Climate Change Litigation And Narrative: How To Use Litigation To Tell Compelling Climate Stories, Grace Nosek Apr 2018

Climate Change Litigation And Narrative: How To Use Litigation To Tell Compelling Climate Stories, Grace Nosek

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.


Incentive Compatible Climate Change Mitigation: Moving Beyond The Pledge And Review Model, Gabriel Weil Apr 2018

Incentive Compatible Climate Change Mitigation: Moving Beyond The Pledge And Review Model, Gabriel Weil

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Climate change represents a global commons problem, where individuals, businesses, and nation-states all lack sufficient incentives to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to levels consistent with meeting their collectively agreed upon mitigation goals. The current “pledge and review” paradigm for global climate change mitigation, which many see as a major breakthrough, relies primarily on moral pressure, reputational incentives, and global public opinion to foster cooperation on mitigation efforts over and above those driven by maximization of narrow conceptions of national interests. Given the scale of the emissions reductions required to meet stated mitigation goals, the substantial economic costs of deep …


An Environmental No Man's Land: The Often Overlooked Consequences Of Armed Conflict On The Natural Environment, Evan Frauhiger Apr 2018

An Environmental No Man's Land: The Often Overlooked Consequences Of Armed Conflict On The Natural Environment, Evan Frauhiger

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.


It's Always Sunny In Florida: Reexamining The Role Of Energy Monopolies After Recent Solar Ballot Initiatives, Lauren Gillespie Apr 2018

It's Always Sunny In Florida: Reexamining The Role Of Energy Monopolies After Recent Solar Ballot Initiatives, Lauren Gillespie

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.


See You In Court: Around The World In Eight Climate Change Lawsuits, Myanna Dellinger Feb 2018

See You In Court: Around The World In Eight Climate Change Lawsuits, Myanna Dellinger

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.


Gray Wolf Rising: Why The Clash Over Wolf Management In The Northern Rockies Calls For Congressional Action To Define "Recovery" Under The Endangered Species Act, W. Ryan Stephens May 2012

Gray Wolf Rising: Why The Clash Over Wolf Management In The Northern Rockies Calls For Congressional Action To Define "Recovery" Under The Endangered Species Act, W. Ryan Stephens

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.