Environmental Law Commons^™

Should Missouri Consider The Social Cost Of Carbon In Policymaking?, Matthew Geer

SLU Law Journal Online

The social cost of carbon (SCC) is a tool used by federal agencies to quantify the cost of carbon emissions in policymaking. As concerns surrounding climate change become more pressing, some states have also begun using the SCC in their own policies, rules, and regulations, while other states like Missouri have actively challenged the metric. In this article, Matthew Geer looks at the origin of the federal social cost of carbon and considers its effectiveness as a tool by state governments to guide policymaking that will prevent climate change from causing irreversible harm to Planet Earth.

Chemical Weapons And Their Unforeseen Impact On Health And The Environment, Alexandra Chen

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

The May 2020 police murder of George Floyd catalyzed a racial reckoning in the United States that saw millions of people take to the streets to protest police brutality against people of color. In following months, law enforcement used massive amounts of "less-lethal" chemical weapons against protesters in cities across the country. Despite widespread use of chemical weapons by police agencies and mounting evidence of related environmental and health harms, the federal government does not regulate the use nor the manufacture of chemical weapons. Chemical weapons contain toxic ingredients such as hexavalent chromium, lead salts, and methylene chloride, which are …

The Long-Term Problem With Electric Vehicle Batteries: A Policy Recommendation To Encourage Advancement For Scalable Recycling Practices, Lauren Fricke

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

With the growing popularity of electric vehicles, the demand for lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries, which are the dominant energy source for electric vehicles, are skyrocketing. By default, this means a growing demand for the raw materials needed to manufacture these complex batteries such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel. Economic, environmental, and political supply chain factors bring into question the sustainability of these batteries as a solution to the issues surrounding gasoline powered transportation, creating a need for large scale Li-ion battery recycling. By 2030, 140 million EVs are predicted to be on the road worldwide. In that time, eleven million …

Uranium 233: The Nuclear Superfuel No One Is Using, Maris Hanson

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

Nuclear power offers more energy in less physical space than solar and wind and yields more energy per pound than fossil fuels. However different nuclear fuels yield different waste profiles and create different beneficial products. Uranium 233 (U233) resists use in nuclear weapons, yields beneficial daughter products, and produces dramatically less of the most problematic waste products than Uranium 235 (U235). U233 results from reactions with Thorium, a plentiful, ubiquitous element currently considered waste from rare earth mines. Additionally, U233 functions well in a liquid fuel reactor resulting in safer, more efficient reactors than current solid fuel U235 or Plutonium …

A Call For The Library Community To Deploy Best Practices Toward A Database For Biocultural Knowledge Relating To Climate Change, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Abstract

Purpose – In this paper, a call to the library and information science community to support documentation and conservation of cultural and biocultural heritage has been presented.

Design/methodology/approach – Based in existing Literature, this proposal is generative and descriptive— rather than prescriptive—regarding precisely how libraries should collaborate to employ technical and ethical best practices to provide access to vital data, research and cultural narratives relating to climate.

Findings – COVID-19 and climate destruction signal urgent global challenges. Library best practices are positioned to respond to climate change. Literature indicates how libraries preserve, share and cross-link cultural and scientific knowledge. …

Land Use Conflicts Between Wind And Solar Renewable Energy And Agriculture Uses, Peggy Kirk Hall, Whitney Morgan, Jesse Richardson

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Too Hot To Handle: Curbing Mobile Home Heat Deaths In A Warming Climate

Washington Journal of Social & Environmental Justice

As global warming intensifies, ensuring that its impacts do not disproportionately burden disadvantaged populations has become a growing policy concern. Within the United States, mobile home residents increasingly face climate injustices but are often overlooked in climate policy discussions. Even after accounting for income and race, mobile home residents experience substantially higher indoor heat risks than single-family home residents. Mobile home residents also comprise a disproportionately high percentage of indoor heat deaths. The heat vulnerability of these Americans is even greater for those living in the numerous sparsely-shaded mobile home parks occupying cities and towns throughout the country’s Sun Belt …

Environmental Enforceability, Seema Kakade

Faculty Scholarship

There are great expectations for a resurgence in federal environmental enforcement in a Biden-led federal government. Indeed, federal environmental enforcement suffered serious blows during the Trump administration, particularly at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), including large cuts in the budget for enforcement and reversals of key enforcement policies. Yet, while important to repair the damage, truly strengthening federal environmental enforcement will require more. This Article highlights the need for greater attention to the multiple hurdles that plague environmental enforcement. In doing so, it makes three contributions to the literature. First, it asserts that even though environmental statutes, regulations, and guidance …

Adaptive Regulation In India- Groundwater, Electric Vehicles, And Health Data, Rupanjali Karthik

Duke Law SJD Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Coming Full Circle: The Boring Company's Not So Boring Transportation Gamble With The Las Vegas Loop, Tanner Castro, Jorge Padilla

Nevada Law Journal Forum

Las Vegas tourists and residents can soon travel in Tesla cars underneath the city in neon-lit tunnels in a project known as the Las Vegas Loop. The Boring Company—an American infrastructure and tunnel construction company founded by Elon Musk—is undertaking this “Teslas in Tunnels” project. The Loop plans to connect Downtown Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Strip, Harry Reid International Airport, and various other properties in the Vegas area. Boring seeks to offer a new form of public transit through the Loop to transport passengers across the Vegas area. This White Paper discusses the Loop’s development, compares the Loop to …

Minnesota's Children: The True Cost Of Minnesota's Lead Problem, Kaitlin Yira

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.

Impact Fees, Bonding Reform, And Oil And Gas Development, Pete Morton Ph.D., Joe Kerkvliet Ph. D., Evan Hjerpe Ph.D.

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Covid-19 Infects The Fishing Industry: The Rise Of Illegal Fishing And The Waiver Of Fishery Observer Requirements, Maya Raphael

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Displacement And Preemption Of Climate Nuisance Claims, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

New York City and other municipalities have filed state-law-based nuisance suits against fossil fuel companies seeking compensatory damages for the consequences of climate change. Previous nuisance claims, filed under federal common law, were held to be displaced by federal environmental statutes. Defendants have argued that state-law-based claims should likewise be preempted. Yet while the enactment of federal regulatory statutes displaces federal common law actions for interstate pollution, such enactments do not necessarily preempt state common law actions, even where pollution crosses state boundaries, as it is more difficult to preempt state common law than it is to displace federal common …

Storm Warning: New Zealand's Treatment Of "Climate Refugee" Claims As A Violation Of Internatinal Law, Isabella Zink

American University International Law Review

As some countries begin to acknowledge the increasingly strong effects of climate change, others have struggled with its slow onset of effects for decades. Coastal communities, especially island nations at or slightly above sea level, face not only threats of flooding and damaging storms, but also rising sea levels jeopardizing soil and water health. As citizens of these coastal regions face increasing difficulty accessing food, water, and medical care, the United Nations‘ (“U.N.”) scientific bodies predict there will be staggering numbers of displaced persons within the next few decades. Island nations rising two meters above sea-level face total submersion by …

U.S. State-Based Wilderness Law: An Evaluation, Miranda Holeton, David Takacs

UC Law Environmental Journal

No abstract provided.

Tides Of Plastic: Using International Environmental Law To Reduce Marine Plastic Pollution, Mckayla Mcmahon

UC Law Environmental Journal

The oceans are drowning in plastic pollution. Although it is widely accepted that this pollution exists, international law falls short in protecting one of our most valued ecosystems. Countries differ in commitment and accountability, yet the ocean is a shared and valued resource. This paper seeks to differentiate the approaches made by Germany, Australia, and the Philippines to combat marine plastic and microplastic pollution. In the absence of robust international environmental law, individual country’s efforts can expand the customary principles and lead the international community to adopt effective, all-encompassing international policy. By mirroring successes and modifying individual country’s ineffective approaches, …

Centering Environmental Justice In California: Attempts And Opportunities In Ceqa, Lena Freij

UC Law Environmental Journal

Environmental justice communities and advocates have used the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) as a necessary tool to incorporate their concerns into agency decision-making. However, environmental justice is neither mentioned in the statutory language of CEQA, nor was it intended as a fundamental purpose of CEQA as an environmental review statute. Thus, in order to understand where CEQA reform would be most successful in serving communities that are disproportionately impacted by environmental burdens, CEQA’s history must be evaluated with comprehensive principles of environmental justice. As such, this paper explores why and how environmental justice principles can and should be implemented …

The Key Deer Is Headed For Extinction: How Repealing A Trump-Era Federal Rule Defining "Habitat" Could Allow Assisted Migration To Save Species Threatened By Climate Change, Kennedi Fichtel

St. Thomas Law Review

Climate change induced sea level rise is imminent. In fact, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has predicted that “[b]y 2045, the sea level in the Florida Keys will rise 15 inches . . . .” Such a projection usually invites questions about the implications for coastal residential homeowners. However, this projection means so much more for the voiceless inhabitants of the Florida Keys. Anthropogenic climate change that leads to sea level rise of this magnitude will be responsible for permanently destroying species’ habitats, and therefore impacting their ability to survive. For endangered and threatened species, this means extinction. As …

Nys Bar Association Annual Meeting Lecture Outline: The New Environmental Rights In Ny’S Constitutional Bill Of Rights, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

It is too easy this winter to miss the signature Human Rights event in New York, the overwhelming vote last November 4^th to recognizing the Human Right to the Environment. Competition for our attention is fierce: the Pandemic, political rivalries playing out in Washington, D.C., and angst about extreme weather events and other climate change impacts. So, I welcome this opportunity to illuminate the hope and promise of Article 1, Section 19 in New York’s Bill of Rights: “Each Person shall have a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.” Most New York lawyers have yet …