Administrative Law Commons^™

The Constitutionality Of The Epa's Enforcement Of Cercla: Big Business Challenges And A Small Business Problem, Scott Corley

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

With the Deepwater Horizon oil drill disaster in 2010 and the disaster at Japan's Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant in 2011, more attention has recently been focused on the government's role in responding to and recovering from environmental disasters. In the U.S., the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) is one of the statutes that allows the EPA to respond to environmental pollution and the inappropriate disposal of hazardous wastes. Businesses have long claimed that CERCLA goes too far in the power it grants the EPA to order private parties to clean up hazardous waste sites, and this …

The Spirit Of Nagpra: The Native American Graves Protection And Repatriation Act And The Regulation Of Culturally Unidentifiable Remains, Aaron H. Midler

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In March 2010, the U.S. Department of the Interior issued a final rule regarding the disposition of culturally unidentifiable human remains under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The rule is controversial, as some commentators argue that the Secretary of the Interior lacks the authority under the statute to regulate these remains. This Note analyzes the legitimacy of the final rule in light of federal administrative law precedent as well as the origin and purpose of NAGPRA. It also discusses two well-known cases arising under the statute and the effect that the final rule will have on …

Brand New Law! The Need To Market Health Care Reform, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

The most serious problem with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is not its contents but its packaging. Because it requires significant departures from business as usual in health insurance, health care delivery, and health behavior, the ACA is unlikely to succeed unless Americans feel a shared stake in its success. Unfortunately, the new law has been branded only by its opponents. Neither the Obama administration nor its congressional allies have effectively communicated the law’s key elements to the public. Most surprisingly, the groundbreaking program of near-universal health coverage the ACA creates does not even have a name. …

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Appointment With Trouble, Kent H. Barnett

Scholarly Works

This article considers whether the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director’s appointment of the Bureau’s Deputy Director comports with the Appointments Clause. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act established the Bureau in July 2010, as well as the offices of the Bureau’s Director and Deputy Director, to coordinate the regulation and enforcement of federal consumer-financial-protection laws. Under that act, the Director appoints the Deputy Director. The Appointments Clause permits “Heads of Departments” to appoint inferior officers like the Deputy Director. But it is unclear if the Bureau is a “department” and thus if the Director is a department …

Deference To Tax Agencies' Interpretation Of Their Regulations, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

This installment closes a loop begun in the last installment of this column. We have been exploring the degrees of deference accorded by the courts to interpretations and positions taken by state and local revenue agencies. The last installment examined conditional deference doctrines, that is, deference specific to particular situations or conditioned on the existence of particular conditions. That installment noted one line of conditional deference, applying to cases in which agencies are interpreting their own regulations. This is often called Auer deference, after one of the most prominent cases of the line. Because of the richness of the Auer …

Slides: Introduction To Large-Scale Planning And The Intermountain Bmp Project, Kathryn Mutz

Best Management Practices (BMPs): What? How? And Why? (May 26)

Presenter: Kathryn Mutz, Natural Resources Law Center, University of Colorado School of Law

18 slides

Agenda: Best Management Practices (Bmps): What? How? And Why?, Houston Advanced Research Center. Environmentally Friendly Drilling Systems Program, Research Partnership To Secure Energy For America, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center. Intermountain Oil And Gas Bmp Project

Best Management Practices (BMPs): What? How? And Why? (May 26)

The Environmentally Friendly Drilling Systems (EFD) Program, managed by the Houston Advanced Research Center, works to identify, develop and transfer critical, cost effective, new technologies that can provide policy makers and industry with the ability to develop natural gas reserves in a safe and environmentally friendly manner. Funding for the EFD Program is through a grant from the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America, established under the 2005 Energy Act. Within the EFD Program, some projects focus on technologies for developing energy sources in environmentally sensitive areas; others (like the NRLC’s BMP Project) seek ways to reduce the environmental …

Slides: The Costs And Benefits Of Best Management Practices: Insights From The Marcellus Shale, Timothy J. Considine

Best Management Practices (BMPs): What? How? And Why? (May 26)

Presenter: Timothy J. Considine, School of Energy Resources, Department of Economics and Finance, University of Wyoming

15 slides

Slides: Bmps For Reclamation: Do We Know What Is Effective?, Peter Stahl

Best Management Practices (BMPs): What? How? And Why? (May 26)

Presenter: Pete Stahl, Wyoming Reclamation and Restoration Center

19 slides

Slides: The Economic Benefits Of Completing Initial Reclamation Successfully For Oil And Gas, David Chenoweth, David Holland, Gerald Jacob, Lindsey Kruckenberg, John Rizza, Bryan Whiteley

Best Management Practices (BMPs): What? How? And Why? (May 26)

Presenters: Joe Schneider and Colby Reid, Western States Reclamation, Inc.

34 slides

Slides: Arctic Ecosystem Services Measurement And Modeling Project, Eric Biltonen

Best Management Practices (BMPs): What? How? And Why? (May 26)

Presenter: Eric Biltonen, PhD, Environment Economist, Houston Advanced Research Center

8 slides

Slides: Master Development Plans (Mdps): Oil And Gas Projects, Mary Bloomstran

Best Management Practices (BMPs): What? How? And Why? (May 26)

Presenter: Mary Bloomstran, Edge Environmental

19 slides

Slides: Planning Tools: Wildlife Mitigation Plan (Wmp), Comprehensive Drilling Plan (Cdp), Geographic Area Plan (Gap), Ginny Brannon

Best Management Practices (BMPs): What? How? And Why? (May 26)

Presenter: Ginny Brannon, Colorado Department of Natural Resources

7 slides

Slides: Master Development Plans (Mdps) / Geographic Area Plans (Gaps): Comprehensive Planning Tools For Oil And Gas Projects, Allen B. Crockett

Best Management Practices (BMPs): What? How? And Why? (May 26)

Presenter: Mary Bloomstran, Edge Environmental

20 slides

Slides: Environmentally Friendly Drilling Systems Program, Rich Haut

Best Management Practices (BMPs): What? How? And Why? (May 26)

Presenter: Rich Haut, Houston Advanced Research Center

6 slides

Slides: Collaborative Planning And Lessons Learned, Matt Sura

Best Management Practices (BMPs): What? How? And Why? (May 26)

Presenter: Matt Sura, University of Colorado Law School

48 slides

Summary Of Southern California Edison V. First Judicial District Court, 127 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 22, Cayla Witty

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

A petition for a writ of mandamus challenging whether the district court hears use tax refund claims as independent actions, requiring de novo review, or as a petition for judicial review under NRS Chapter 233B, which is more deferential to the Nevada Tax Commission’s prior decision.

Cityland – Vol. 8, No. 4, Center For New York City Law

CityLand - 2011

This issue of CityLand covers significant land use and zoning developments in New York City as of May 15, 2011. The City Council approved Harlem River Point, a mixed-income housing project in East Harlem, and advanced a large contextual rezoning for South Jamaica, Queens. The Council held its first oversight hearing on the City Charter’s “fair share” rules, examining the equitable distribution of municipal facilities. Separate rezonings were approved for Carroll Street in Brooklyn to support residential development. The Atlantic Avenue BID proposal moved forward, while a zoning text amendment was adopted to allow public and café seating in arcades …

How Elevation Of Corporate Free Speech Rights Affects Legality Of Network Neutrality, Barbara A. Cherry

Federal Communications Law Journal

In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), the U.S. Supreme Court overruled a century of precedent to hold that corporations must be treated identically to natural persons with regard to political speech. This Article describes how the Court's decision is a radical departure from history that mirrors the FCC's flawed analysis in its classification of broadband Internet access services as an information service with no separable telecommunications component subject to common carriage regulation. Overall, the combinatorial effect of Citizens United and the FCC's classification of broadband access service as an information service is to elevate the constitutional free speech …

A Policy Framework For Spectrum Allocation In Mobile Communications, T. Randolph Beard, George S. Ford, Lawrence J. Spiwak, Michael Stern

Federal Communications Law Journal

With the National Broadband Plan's promise of an additional 500 MHz of spectrum for commercial purposes, the question of how to allocate those resources among competing uses and users will dominate the communications policy debate over the coming years. In this Article, the Authors provide a theoretical analysis of some of the relevant tradeoffs involved in allocating spectrum among service providers, with a particular focus on incumbent exclusion rules such as spectrum caps. Two key assumptions center the analysis: (i) more firms implies lower prices (i.e., Cournot competition); and (ii) more spectrum permits more advanced services due to greater capacity …