Environmental Law Commons^™

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Preventing Emissions From Slipping Through The Cracks: How Collaboration On New Technologies To Detect Violations And Minimize Emissions Can Efficiently Enforce Existing Clean Air Act Regulations, Kathryn Caballero

Journal Articles

The link between air pollution and poor public health is well known and has been farther documented during the COVID-19 pandemic, 1 but EPA has outdated methods and rules to detect air emissions. Enforcing existing environmental regulations presents challenges because the detection and monitoring technologies identified in the regulations, or the regulation language itself, may not sufficiently identify environmental pollution, let alone complex environmental fraud. How can EPA best use new technologies and concepts to detect violations, with the intent of minimizing emissions, to improve human health and environmental outcomes during the lengthy process of drafting and publishing new regulations? …

Advancing Positive Water Rights, Allyson E. Gold, Srinivas Parinandi, Allen Slater, Tyler Garrett

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

The History And Conflicts Of The Montana Environmental Policy Act, William Oliver Borghesani

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

No abstract provided.

Recommendations To Increase The Resilience Of Wastewater Treatment In Coastal Virginia, Grace D. Molino, Forrest M. Via

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

This white paper discusses the problem of septic failures in Virginia, as infrastructure ages and previously installed systems can no longer function. Section II.A. discusses the feasibility of regulatory and other measures that the Virginia state and local governments can implement to incentivize the identification, maintenance and repair of septic systems. Among these measures is a point-of-sale inspection requirement, which would require real property sellers to have their septic system inspected upon sale. Additionally, this white paper addresses several alternative options to conventional onsite septic systems, including public information campaigns to inform septic system owners of maintenance and repair techniques; …

Grid Reliability Through Clean Energy, Hannah Jacobs Wiseman, Alexandra Klass, Joshua Macey, Shelley Welton

Faculty Scholarship

In the wake of recent high-profile power failures, policymakers and politicians have asserted that there is an inherent tension between the aims of clean energy and grid reliability. But continuing to rely on fossil fuels to avoid system outages will only exacerbate reliability challenges by contributing to increasingly extreme climate-related weather events. These extremes will disrupt the power supply, with impacts rippling far beyond the electricity sector.

This Article shows that much of the perceived tension between clean energy and reliability is a failure of law and governance resulting from the United States’ siloed approach to regulating the electric grid. …

Comments In Response To Request For Information To Inform Interagency Efforts To Develop The American Conservation And Stewardship Atlas, John C. Ruple, Jamie Pleune

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

On January 2, 2022, the Department of the Interior published a notice in the Federal Register seeking Information to Inform Interagency Efforts to Develop the American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas. This letter responds to the Department’s request for information.

Our comments focus on what we believe would be a useful framework for the Atlas. Our comments proceed in 5 parts: (1) broad comments about conservation, the Conservation and Stewardship Atlas, and the America the Beautiful Initiative; (2) the need to provide a universal baseline of ecological health that includes ecological potential, existing conditions, and a landscape health assessment; (3) the …

Protecting Tribal Public Health From Climate Change Impacts, Heather Tanana

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

The COVID-19 pandemic brought national attention to challenges that tribal communities have been facing for decades, such as limited health services and lack of water access. Although the end to the pandemic seems to be in sight, climate change will continue to threaten the public health and survival of tribal communities. Since time immemorial, Native Americans have recognized the sanctity of water. Water is life. However, climate change impacts are shifting the landscape across the country and many tribes lack the necessary infrastructure to protect their communities. For example, located in the Southwest, approximately 30-40 percent of homes on the …

Evaluating Climate Risk In Nepa Reviews: Current Practices And Recommendations For Reform, Romany M. Webb, Michael Panfil, Stephanie H. Jones, Dena Adler

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

In recent years, policymakers, practitioners, and scholars have increasingly considered how climate change should factor into existing environmental review obligations, including review of U.S. federal agency actions under the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”). Attention thus far has focused primarily on the critical question of how to account for an action’s contribution to climate change via direct, indirect, or cumulative greenhouse gas emissions. However, less focus has been given to the equally critical question of how actions will be affected by, and can prepare for, the impacts of climate change. This paper combines an extensive review of previously conducted …

Polarization And Reform: Rethinking Separation Of Emergency Powers, Kevin Rizzo

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

The note examines the challenges posed by the expansion of presidential emergency powers, particularly under the National Emergencies Act (NEA), and argues that political polarization has weakened Congress's ability to check the President's use of these powers. It advocates for reforms to balance national security needs with constitutional checks and balances, emphasizing the need to address the structural and political factors that enable presidential overreach.

The Political Economy Of Wto Exceptions, Timothy Meyer

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In a bid to save the planet from rising temperatures, the European Union is introducing a carbon border adjustment mechanism-essentially a levy on imports from countries with weak climate rules. The United States, Canada, and Japan are all openly mulling similar proposals. The Biden Administration is adopting new Buy American rules, while countries around the world debate new supply chain regulations to address public health issues arising from COVID-19 and shortages in critical components like computer chips. These public policy initiatives-addressing the central environmental, public health, and economic issues of the day-all likely violate World Trade Organization (WTO) rules governing …

The Hierarchy And Performance Of State Recycling And Deposit Laws, W. Kip Viscusi, Caroline Cecot

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

States can foster recycling of waste materials through a variety of policies. The majority of the states have recycling laws for waste products such as glass, plastic, cans, and paper. These laws vary in terms of stringency. The hierarchy we developed orders the laws as follows: laws that make recycling mandatory, laws that require the provision of recycling opportunities, laws that require the development of a recycling plan, and laws that specify a recycling goal. Based on national recycling data with over 400,000 observations, we find that the amount of recycling households undertake increases with the degree of stringency of …

Roundtable Two: Environmental Law Education: New Techniques In The Classroom And Beyond, Lincoln Davies, Karrigan Bork, Sarah Krakoff

Publications

No abstract provided.

Addressing Pollution From More Frequent, But Still Exceptional, Wildfires, Jonathan Skinner-Thompson, Kristi M. Smith

Publications

No abstract provided.

Reconciling Agricultural Production And Property Rights With The Use Of Dicamba Herbicides, Terence J. Centner

Lewis & Clark Law Review

The production of food and fiber by our nation’s farmers is often dependent on using herbicides to control weed growth that can reduce crop yields. After several decades of herbicide usage, some weed species developed resistance to glyphosate and were decreasing yields. Seed and pesticide manufacturers responded to weed resistance by developing genetically engineered soybean and cotton seeds and specially formulated over-the-top (OTT) dicamba products. Commencing in 2017, OTT dicamba products were used to successfully kill glyphosate-resistant weeds. However, dicamba is a volatile herbicide, and applications of the new OTT products were accompanied by spray drift and volatilization that injured …

Using Adaptive Governance To Protect Oregon’S Water Resources, Lauren Butz

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Over 30 years ago, Oregon adopted the innovative In-Stream Water Rights Act, which introduced new regulatory tools and incentives for encouraging efficient water consumption, and paved the way for the emergence of water trusts. However, Oregon’s water resources are under increasing strain as the state faces the challenges of over-appropriation and climate change. New solutions are needed to augment the existing regulatory framework. This Comment draws on the principles of adaptive governance and ecological resilience to formulate possible legal solutions to help the state adapt to increasing demands for water, proposing that Oregon leverage corporate social responsibility to encourage investments …

Protecting The Sublette Antelope Migration: An Analysis Of The Evolution Of The Legal Tools Employed To Protect The Sublette Antelope Herd From Fencing Obstructions, Colin Reynolds

Lewis & Clark Law Review

A biological marvel of the natural world, each year a small herd of pronghorn antelope—called the Sublette herd—migrate over 300 miles through a mix of public and private land in Wyoming. The Sublette herd’s annual movement constitutes one of the largest remaining “big game” migrations within the continental United States. Unfortunately, this migration faces an increasing number of obstacles threatening its long-term viability; chief among them being fencing obstacles. This Comment examines the evolution of the legal tools the federal government, the state of Wyoming, and everyday citizens can use to protect the Sublette herd’s migration.

Humility, Climate Change, And The Pursuit Of Scientific Truth, John Copeland Nagle

Journal Articles

This Essay begins with the understanding that environmental law could not exist without science. The tolerable amount of pollution, the proximity of a species to extinction, and the threats presented by climate change are just some of the questions that environmental law depends on science to answer. Often environmental law insists that science alone is relevant to a particular regulatory action, such as an air pollution standard or an endangered species listing. It is not surprising, therefore, that many disputes about environmental law are really disputes about science.

Science, however, does not always yield the information that environmental law needs …

Striving For Resilience In Virginia's Transportation Sector, Elizabeth H. Davis, Jacob Haddad, Bryce Ballard

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

To help address the need for increased resiliency in the Commonwealth’s transportation sector, and in furtherance of the goals set forth in the VDOT [Virginia Department of Transportation] Resilience Plan, this white paper highlights green infrastructure and natural and nature-based features as ways to increase resilience for transportation infrastructure and mitigating impacts from climate change. Additionally, this paper describes potential methods of incorporating resilient best practices with respect to Virginia’s transportation infrastructure and planning decisions.

This abstract has been taken from the paper's Section I, Background.

Genetically Engineered Food, Food Security, And Climate Change, Joanna K. Sax

Faculty Scholarship

Malnutrition is the leading cause of death and disease worldwide. Climate change is an existential crisis. We need to feed people and address the role of agriculture in climate change – at the same time. This is problematic, as agriculture inherently creates issues that contributes to climate change. Utilizing science, through genetically engineered crops, is one way to close the harm gap between food security and climate change. This essay addresses the controversial issue of genetically engineered crops with the complicated issues of food security and climate change by analyzing three main issues: (1) how the science of genetically engineered …