Environmental Law Commons^™

The Renewable Power Of The Mine, Nicolas Maennling, Perrine Toledano

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Access to affordable and reliable energy is key for the mining sector and with rising demand for minerals and falling ore grades, energy demand is estimated to increase by 36% by 2035. Today, energy produced and procured by mining companies is mostly fossil fuel based. This will have to change if the sector is to contribute to the decarbonization of the world economy, needed for countries to meet the target adopted at the Paris Agreement of keeping global temperatures from rising more than 1.5-2 degrees Celsius.

At the same time, the costs of solar, wind and battery storage systems have …

School Of Law Faculty And Professional Staff, Journal Editors

Journal of Food Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Journal Of Food Law & Policy - Volume 14 Fall 2018, Journal Editors

Journal of Food Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

The Bureau Of Land Management's Infirm Compensatory Mitigation Policy, Justin Pidot

Fordham Environmental Law Review

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke has described “compensatory mitigation” as “un-American” and “extortion.” In keeping with that view, on July 26, 2018, the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) adopted a radical new policy that disclaims statutory authority to impose compensatory mitigation measures.

Notwithstanding the aspersions the Secretary has cast, compensatory mitigation is a common-sense policy instrument that has been a mainstay of environmental and public lands policy for decades. It is a tool through which an agency authorizing private activities—drilling oil wells, filling wetlands—conditions its approval upon the implementation of measures to offset attendant environmental harms. Compensatory mitigation thereby …

Framing The Global Pact For The Environment: Why It’S Needed, What It Does, And How It Does It, Teresa Parejo Navajas, Nathan Lobel

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

We face a critical environmental crisis. Humanity consumes unsustainably; we use resources at a rate fifty percent faster than they are reproduced by the planet. The population is growing exponentially and climate change, the most important challenge of this century, is already wreaking havoc around the world. Despite numerous existing international environmental treaties, the Earth, and, therefore, human safety and prosperity, is in peril. According to a recent study by scientists from Stanford University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the ongoing “sixth mass extinction” threatens to cause an “assault on the foundations of human civilization.” In November 2017, …

Root And Branch: The Thirteenth Amendment And Environmental Justice, Mehmet K. Konar-Steenberg

Nevada Law Journal

‘[The Thirteenth Amendment] abolishes slavery . . . root and branch. It abolishes it in the general and the particular. . . . Any other interpretation belittles the great amendment and allows slavery still to linger among us in some of its insufferable pretensions.’

Can He Do That?: A Constitutional Analysis Of President Trump’S Withdrawal From The Paris Agreement, David Hubinger

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article is structured to give context as to the history of United Nations-sponsored, climate change centered, international agreements from the early 1990s to the present. The Article also shows how the goals and responsibilities placed on the United States as a part of the Paris Agreement may still be realized even without full party membership. Additionally, the Article discusses the structural framework of the Paris Agreement and the significance of its legal classification when deciding how President Trump can leave the agreement in accordance with international law. The Article will also discuss how President Trump’s actions regarding the Paris …

Understanding Environmental, Health And Economic Activity Interactions Following Transition Of Ownership In Gold Mining Areas In Tanzania: A Case Of Private To Public, Sophia Rhee, Elias Charles Nyanza, Madison Condon, Joshua Fisher, Theresia Maduka, Anja Benshaul-Tolonen

Faculty Scholarship

Mining is an important source of revenue for many developing countries, however, the social, environmental and economic impacts of mining are often poorly monitored. The recent transition of a gold mine in Western Tanzania—from large-scale gold mine under private, multinational ownership, to medium-scale public and national owned mine with limited life length offers a prime opportunity to understand the implications of changes in ownership and scale on the local economy and community well-being. We conducted 44 semi-structured interviews with community members in four villages adjacent to the mine site. We find that the local economy and public service provision contracted …

Market Segmentation Vs. Subsidization: Clean Energy Credits And The Commerce Clause's Economic Wisdom, Felix Mormann

Faculty Scholarship

The dormant Commerce Clause has long been a thorn in the side of state policymakers. The latest battleground for the clash between federal courts and state legislatures is energy policy. In the absence of a decisive federal policy response to climate change, nearly thirty states have created a new type of securities—clean energy credits—to promote lowcarbon renewable and nuclear power. As more and more of these programs come under attack for alleged violations of the dormant Commerce Clause, this Article explores the constitutional constraints on clean energy credit policies. Careful analysis of recent and ongoing litigation reveals the need for …

Multilateral Economic Institutions And U.S. Foreign Policy: Hearing Before The Subcomm. On Multilateral Int'l Dev., Multilateral Insts., & Int'l Econ., Energy, & Envtl. Pol'y Of The S. Comm. On Foreign Relations, 115th Cong., Nov. 27, 2018 (Statement Of Jennifer A. Hillman), Jennifer A. Hillman

Testimony Before Congress

Virtually every major international gathering of world leaders recently has ended in failure—or at least failure to reach enough agreement to issue a concluding statement or communique. These failures come at a time when many have been looking for signs that world leaders would come together to address the most pressing problems facing the world—including climate change, the breakdown in the rules of the international trading system, the need everywhere for good jobs that pay a living wage, and rapidly growing income inequality.

The failure of these meetings to produce formal agreements—or even specific paths to reaching agreements in the …

Costs And Consequences Of Wake Effects Arising From Uncoordinated Wind Energy Development, J.K. Lundquist, K.K. Duvivier, D. Kaffine, J.M. Tomaszewski

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Optimal wind farm locations require a strong and reliable wind resource and access to transmission lines. As onshore and offshore wind energy grows, preferred locations become saturated with numerous wind farms. An upwind wind farm generates ‘wake effects’ (decreases in downwind wind speeds) that undermine a downwind wind farm’s power generation and revenues. Here we use a diverse set of analysis tools from the atmospheric science, economic and legal communities to assess costs and consequences of these wake effects, focusing on a West Texas case study. We show that although wake effects vary with atmospheric conditions, they are discernible in …

11th Marine Law Symposium: Legal Strategies For Climate Adaptation In Coastal New England 2018, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Marine Affairs Institute Conferences, Lectures, and Events

No abstract provided.

Commonwealth Climate And Law Initiative - Climate Change And Legal Risk, Janis P. Sarra, Cynthia Williams

Conference Papers

In this presentation, Dr Janis Sarra, Presidential Distinguished Professor and Professor of Law University of British Columbia, outlined the fiduciary obligations of corporate directors and pension fiduciaries as they relate to climate change. Professor Cynthia A. Williams, Osler Chair in Business Law, Osgoode Hall Law School provided an overview of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, highlighted the potential for liability risks in Canada for misleading or inaccurate disclosures relating to climate change, and surveyed the field of current climate-related litigation.

Indigenous Environmental Justice, Knowledge And Law, Deborah Mcgregor

Articles & Book Chapters

This article is based on a paper prepared for the convening of Over the Line: A Conversation about Race, Place, and the Environment, coordinated by In-grid Waldron; it was thus originally delivered in the context of a community of scholars interested and engaged in environmental justice (EJ) as well as anti-racism scholarship and activism. Conversations at the symposium were rich and deep, introducing novel ideas and generating a synergistic energy among those present. While this article builds upon the knowledge, experiences, and perspectives shared at the event, it also aims to introduce a distinct conception of Indigenous environmental justice (IEJ) …

Law School News: Marine Law Symposium At Rwu Law To Focus On Legal Strategies For Climate Adaptation 11/08/2018, Edward Fitzpatrick

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

President Trump, The New Chicago School And The Future Of Environmental Law And Scholarship, Sarah B. Schindler

Faculty Publications

Recent presidents including Bill Clinton, G. W. Bush, and Barack Obama have refined how environmental law has been enacted and carried out. Under President Trump, the scope of public environmental law will most certainly narrow. It seems likely that the future of environmental law will depend not upon traditional federal command-and-control legislation or executive branch maneuvering, but instead upon activating environmentalism through expanded substantive areas and innovative regulatory techniques that fall outside the existing, traditional norms of environmental law and legal scholarship. This chapter is an attempt to acknowledge this monumental change, recognizing that these barriers to traditional environmental regulation …

Threats, Challenges And Opportunities To Marine Protected Areas In The Coral Triangle Area : A Case Study Of Indonesia Sea, Baso Hamdani

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Measuring Brief (Fossil Creek Watchers, Inc.), Lowell J. Chandler, Nathan A. Burke

Pace Environmental Law Review Online Companion

No abstract provided.

Measuring Brief (Enerprog, Llc), Mehrded Safvati, Joshua Smith, Gabriela S. Perez

Pace Environmental Law Review Online Companion

No abstract provided.

Measuring Brief (Epa), Zachary Jones, Narayan Subramanian, Shravya Govindgari

Pace Environmental Law Review Online Companion

No abstract provided.