Environmental Law Commons^™

Electric Utility Alignment With The Sdgs & The Paris Climate Agreement, Perrine Toledano, Aniket Shah, Nicolas Maennling, Ryan J. Lasnick

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda poses a unique and critical challenge to the energy sector: how to scale access to clean energy to power sustainable, economic development for a growing population, while simultaneously decarbonizing global energy supply. Expanding access to clean energy will play a crucial role in achieving nearly every one of the Sustainable Development Goals, including those related to agricultural production, health outcomes, educational performance, water systems, access to infrastructure, and reducing inequalities. However, practices by some actors in the energy sector, and continued over-reliance on greenhouse gas-intensive fossil fuels also undermine global efforts to mitigate climate change …

When Losses Are Too Big: Evaluating The Economic Loss Doctrine In California, John T. Nockleby

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

The pure economic loss doctrine is a rule developed by common law courts to shield a defendant from exposure to negligence suits where a party has not suffered physical injury or property damage, and the only losses someone suffers are economic in nature—such as lost profits or wages. Most recently, the California Supreme Court evaluated whether the doctrine should be applied in a case involving a massive environmental disaster, holding that the doctrine shielded a utility from liability for the economic losses to neighboring businesses caused by its putative negligence.

In October of 2015, a huge underground natural gas storage …

A Framework For Assessing The Impact Of Private Climate Governance, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Jonathan M. Gilligan

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The growing sense of urgency by the public for action to address climate change stands in stark contrast to the slow pace and limited accomplishments of national and international institutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Political institutions face significant structural barriers to taking strong and rapid action to cut emissions, but private environmental governance has potential to avoid those barriers and achieve rapid emissions reductions. It appears unlikely that private governance alone can reduce emissions enough to stabilize the climate, but it does have the potential to reduce emissions sufficiently and quickly enough to buy time for enacting more comprehensive …

Trump Administration Makes A Splash: The Altered Clean Water Act's Rippling Effect On State And Federal Water Regulation, Brian W. Blomain

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

The Sound Of Freedom At Naval Air Station Whidbey: Environmental Impact Review Under The National Historic Preservation Act And National Environmental Policy Act, James K. Kelly

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Will The River Ever Get A Chance To Speak? Standing Up For The Legal Rights Of Nature, Caroline Mcdonough

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

We Didn't Start The Fire…Did We? Analyzing Why California Cannot Seem To Extinguish Its Worsening Wildfire Problem, Rizzlyn Terri M. Melo

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

High Time To Go Green: Environmental Impact Of Marijuana Legalization, Kahn R. Wiedis

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Montana Environmental Information Center V. Department Of Environmental Quality, Anthony P. Reed

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The DEQ renewed a 1999 MPDES Permit on September 14, 2012 that allowed Western Energy Company to discharge pollutants from the Rosebud Mine into streams. Environmental groups MEIC and the Sierra Club sued, arguing this violated both the Montana Water Quality Act and federal Clean Water Act because the DEQ’s interpretation of its own regulations that exempted waters with ephemeral characteristics from water quality standards was arbitrary and capricious. The district court agreed, but the Montana Supreme Court reversed. It held the DEQ’s interpretation was lawful and remanded for further fact finding to assess how the DEQ applied the interpretation …

We Can Fight Climate Change With The Army We Have, Michael A. Quirke

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Disunity Among The United States: Navigating Net-Metering Without Getting Electrocuted, Aundene Szmolyan

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

As it stands, the progress towards fighting climate change at the national level is in disarray, and there is a complete disunity of direction and goals at the state level. This paper highlights the disunity by providing a case study of the different regulations, which affect the solar power industry across all fifty states, with a particular focus paid to net metering regulations. Through an examination of this industry, three startling conclusions will emerge. First, investor-owned utilities apply intense political pressure through lobbying efforts to maintain the current status quo of the utility industry’s economic model, which results in the …

Public-Private Partnerships And Smart Growth: A Legislative Tool Kit For Public- Infrastructure Projects, Emma Lagle

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Extraterritoriality In Common Law Climate Actions: Judicial Restraint Or Judicial Error?, Aaron B. Rudyan

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Omnipresent Chemicals: Tsca Preemption In The Wake Of Pfas Contamination, Frederick A. Mcdonald

Pace Environmental Law Review

Over the past few decades, studies addressing the harms of PFAS have gradually progressed, and now scientists believe increased exposure could lead to reproductive defects and a higher risk of cancer. Given the amplified concern surrounding these pervasive chemicals, states are proactively filing lawsuits on behalf of their citizens and enacting legislation to combat this nation-wide contamination epidemic. However, given the 2016 Amendment to the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, states looking to regulate the manufacturing or looking to ratify a state- wide ban on the manufacturing of such chemicals may face preemption under actions taken by the United …

How Clean Is Clean?: An Analysis On The Difference Between The Affordable Clean Energy Rule And The Clean Power Plan And Why States Should Adhere To Stricter Emissions Standards, Katherine Mccormick

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Biodiversity Impacts Of Investment And Free Trade Agreements, Lee C. Rarrick

Pace Environmental Law Review

The following Article identifies the myriad ways in which international investment and free trade agreements interact with biodiversity. It categorizes these interactions into three main groups and provides a literature review of the various real-world and policy impacts. The first part analyses arbitration procedures in these agreements that investors and trade partners can invoke to protect their economic expectations from otherwise proper State action, including regulation that is intended to promote biodiversity. The next part evaluates biodiversity provisions that are included directly in the free trade and investment agreements themselves, or in side agreements thereto. Some of these provisions reference …

Seeing The Forest For The Trees: Public And Private Law Tools For Halting Deforestation, Harriette I. Resnick

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legal Rights For Nature: How The Idea Of Recognizing Nature As A Legal Entity Can Spread And Make A Difference Globally, Kaitlin Sheber

UC Law Environmental Journal

In recent years, a growing number of States have granted legal status to natural entities. First, this paper looks at case studies to determine how this trend has emerged in individual Nations, be it through extensive litigation as seen in New Zealand, a court decision as seen in India, or through the restructuring of a legal system as seen in Ecuador. Next follows a discussion of legal tools that have been used and their accomplishments, especially through lawsuits in Ecuador, as well as legal work that could be accomplished in New Zealand. After, this essay looks at how the idea …

Beyond The Antiquities Act: Can The Blm Reconcile Energy Dominance And National Monument Protection?, John C. Ruple, Heather Tanana

Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources, and the Environment publications

On December 4, 2017, President Donald J. Trump carved more than 2 million acres from the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. He also directed federal land managers to prepare management plans for both monuments. Draft plans have been released, and the preferred alternative under both plans promotes right-of-way development, minerals exploration, livestock grazing, and other traditional uses over protection of monument resources. Our paper argues that this approach violates both the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and the Omnibus Public Lands Act of 2009 because these statutes require the Bureau of Land Management to emphasize protection of …

Does Nepa Help Or Harm Esa Critical Habitat Designations? An Assessment Of Over 600 Critical Habitat Rules, John C. Ruple, Michael J. Tanana, Merrill M. Williams

Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources, and the Environment publications

This paper tests whether impact analysis pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act delays federal decision making, and whether the NEPA process results in significant changes to the substance of federal decisions. We reviewed 636 rules designating critical habitat for species that are protected by the Endangered Species Act. Because of a circuit court split, some of these rules were subject to NEPA analysis while others were not. In comparing these two groups we found that rules that underwent NEPA analysis were completed more than three months faster than rules that were exempted from NEPA review. We also found that …