Environmental Law Commons^™

Bluebooking Environmental Resources, Deborah Heller

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Five-page tip sheet presented as a table covers how to properly cite environmental material according to the Bluebook. It includes federal and state bills, legislation, and regulations, federal and state administrative adjudications and other administrative material.

Take Time To Wander Outside Your Comfort Zone, David Spratt

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

An Independent Review Of Forest Practices In Nova Scotia: Executive Summary Conclusions And Recommendations, William Lahey Prof.

Reports & Public Policy Documents

My mandate was to make recommendations on forest practices that would, if implemented, balance environmental, social, and economic objectives, which I have interpreted to include values. My conclusion is that environmental, social, and economic values should be balanced by using forest practices that give priority to protecting and enhancing ecosystems and biodiversity.

In other words, I have concluded that protecting ecosystems and biodiversity should not be balanced against other objectives and values as if they were of equal weight or importance to those other objectives or values. Instead, protecting and enhancing ecosystems should be the objective (the outcome) of how …

Shipping And Climate Change: International Law And Policy Considerations, Aldo Chircop, Meinhard Doelle, Ryan Gauvin

Reports & Public Policy Documents

This report investigates the international law and policy challenges to the determination of the international shipping industry's contribution to climate change mitigation efforts through the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a specialized agency of the United Nations and the competent intergovernmental organization with respect to shipping in international law. The report sets out the international legal framework that serves as context for the IMO efforts, the challenge of regulating greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping and the process and issues in determining the industry's 'fair share' of mitigation efforts and potential legal pathways. The report concludes with general, policy and legal …

Annex 6: Changing Ocean Impacts On The Key Forage Fish Species Arctic Cod In The Western Canadian Arctic – Linking Climate Model Projections To Subsistence Fisheries, Nadja Steiner, William W. L. Cheung, Helen Drost, Carie Hoover, Jen Lam, Lisa Miller, Andres M. Cisneros-Montemayor, Tessa Sou, U. Rashid Sumaila, Paul Suprenand, Travis C. Tai

Reports & Public Policy Documents

This annex highlights the results of a study focusing on the potential impacts of ocean acidification and other climate- related stressors on marine species relevant for subsistence fisheries in the Western Arctic Bioregion. The study uses a knowledge co-production approach developed in the form of a multi-step process based on a combination of modelling and analysis tools including the Scientific Method and Indigenous Traditional Knowledge (Figure A6.1). Once all steps have been completed, uncertainties can be estimated and improvements can be made either with respect to the individual steps or to the linkages between them. The process can then be …

Examples Of Global And Regional Laws And Policies Relevant To Addressing The Potential Impacts Of Climate Change And Ocean Acidification, David Vanderzwaag, Nadja Steiner, Jan René Larsen

Reports & Public Policy Documents

Laws and policies relevant to the potential impacts of climate change and ocean acidification on marine species and coastal communities appear at the global and regional level, as well as the national level (see Annex 6).

Under The Radar: The Cost And Benefits Of Wind Energy Through The Lens Of National Security, David N. Cassuto

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article examines wind energy through the lens of national security. The benefit resides with helping the United States become energy independent. National-security concerns also present a cost because wind energy interferes with military radar, posing a potential threat to the systems that monitor possible attacks. This Article attempts to analyze the overall impact of wind energy while noting the inherent difficulties when so much uncertainty is involved in the process.

Part I of this Article discusses the benefits of wind energy. Part II examines its costs, specifically its interference with radar, and what that means for national security. This …

Changing International Law For A Changing Climate, Daniel C. Esty, Dena P. Adler

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

After more than two decades of inadequate international efforts to address climate change resulting from rising greenhouse gas emissions, the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement shifted gears. That agreement advances a “bottom-up” model of global cooperation that requires action commitments from all national governments and acknowledges the important role that cities, states, provinces, and businesses must play in delivering deep decarbonization. Given the limited control that presidents and prime ministers have over many of the policies and choices that determine their countries’ carbon footprints, the Paris Agreement missed an opportunity to formally recognize the climate change action commitments of mayors, …

Distributed Energy Resource Participation In Wholesale Markets: Lessons From The California Iso, Justin Gundlach, Romany M. Webb

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This article examines CAISO’s DER program after its first year of operation. It draws on written comments submitted to CAISO in the course of program development and on interviews the authors conducted with stakeholders – including active and potential DERPs, investor-owned utilities, and customer groups – to identify “barriers” to program participation. Irrespective of whether these barriers are appropriate – e.g., to ensure continued wholesale system reliability as DER penetration increases – they have clearly prevented the DER program fulfilling CAISO’s stated goal. The barriers should, therefore, be considered by other ISO/RTOs in developing programs with similar goals. The authors …

Setting The Table For An International Environmental Agreement: A Beginner's Guide To Negotiating Mandates, Susan Biniaz

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

You may be an experienced negotiator of international environmental agreements. Or you may be new to the field and excited to negotiate your very first one. In both cases, you know your precedents, helped craft your government’s positions, and are anxious to get started. But wait … before you negotiate the agreement, you will need to navigate the mandate.

A mandate launches the negotiation of an international environmental instrument and sets forth its terms of reference, both procedural (such as where and when it will take place) and substantive (such as what the instrument should address). It is generally issued …

U.S. Climate Change Litigation In The Age Of Trump: Year One, Dena P. Adler

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

In its first year, the Trump Administration undertook a program of extensive climate change deregulation. The Administration delayed and initiated the reversal of rules that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from stationary and mobile sources; sought to expedite fossil fuel development, including in previously protected areas; delayed or withdrew energy efficiency standards; undermined consideration of climate change in environmental review; and hindered adaptation to the impacts of climate change. However, the Trump Administration’s efforts have met with constant resistance, with those committed to climate protections bringing legal challenges to many, if not most, of the rollbacks.

This paper seeks to …

Turning The Tide In Coastal And Riverine Energy Infrastructure Adaptation: Can An Emerging Wave Of Litigation Advance Preparation For Climate Change?, Dena P. Adler

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

A new wave of “failure to adapt” lawsuits has sought to clarify how a changing climate may change what reasonable preparations governments and private actors must take, including increasing the resilience of their infrastructure. These suits span constitutional, tort, and statutory law more broadly, but unprepared owners of energy infrastructure may risk additional violations under environmental law due to unpermitted releases of air and water pollution during extreme weather events for which they are not adequately prepared. This piece will specifically consider recent legal and administrative suits that may indicate shifting legal responsibilities for coastal and riverine energy infrastructure owners …

Private Governance Responses To Climate Change: The Case Of Global Civil Aviation, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Daniel J. Metzger

Fordham Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Incorporating Social System Dynamics In The Columbia River Basin: Food-Energy-Water Resilience And Sustainability Modeling In The Yakima River Basin, Barbara Cosens

Articles

In the face of climate change, achieving resilience of desirable aspects of food-energy-water (FEW) systems already strained by competing multi-scalar social objectives requires interdisciplinary approaches. This study is part of a larger effort exploring “Innovations in the Food-Energy-Water Nexus (INFEWS)” in the Columbia River Basin (CRB) through coordinated modeling and simulated management scenarios. Here, we focus on a case study and conceptual mapping of the Yakima River Basin (YRB), a sub-basin of the CRB. Previous research on FEW system management and resilience includes some attention to social dynamics (e.g., economic and governance systems); however, more attention to social drivers and …

Frankly My Dear, I Don’T Want A Dam: Refocusing Dam Removal Priorities To Protect Endangered Salmon Now, Skylar Sumner

Animal Law Review

Dams are a critical threat to salmon habitat and population recovery. While much progress has been made in the past few years with dam removal, the more quickly dams are removed, the greater chance that salmon can be restored to their historic ranges. In the Pacific Northwest, dams are a particular threat to salmon. Many regulatory tools can be used to bring dams into compliance, but there is often much resistance to these efforts. This Essay proposes that by targeting dilapidated private dams opposed to functional ones on public land, compliance or removal will be achieved with less resistance and …

Taking The Public Out Of Public Lands: Shifts In Coal-Extraction Policies In The Trump Administration, Jessica Owley

Articles

No abstract provided.

Environmens Rea, Anthony Moffa

Faculty Publications

Many policymakers remain blind to the moral implications of environmental harm caused by government action (or inaction) and have not adequately considered how criminal law deals with similar immoral behavior in other contexts. Building from Lisa Heinzerling’s thought-provoking essay Knowing Killing and Environmental Law, this article considers the possibility of criminal culpability for environmental policy decisions and the implications of that potential culpability for decision-making and communication. It builds from the premise that morality and law universally condemn the knowing killing of other human beings. It matters not that the identities of the dead are unknown. What matters from the …

The Long Environmental Justice Movement, Jedediah Purdy

Faculty Scholarship

The standpoint of environmental justice has become integral to environmental law in the last thirty years. Environmental justice criticizes mainstream environmental law and advocacy institutions on three main fronts: for paying too little attention to the distributive effects of environmental policy; for emphasizing elite and professional advocacy over participation in decision making by affected communities; and for adhering to a woods-and-waters view of which problems count as “environmental” that disregards the importance of neighborhoods, workplaces, and cities. This Article highlights the existence of a “long environmental justice movement” that, like the long movements for racial equality and labor organizing, put …

California Environmental Quality Act Lawsuits And California’S Housing Crisis, Jennifer Hernandez

UC Law Environmental Journal

No abstract provided.

Friends Of The Eel River, Iccta Preemption, And The Future Of California High Speed Rail Litigation, Christopher J. Butcher, Johannah E. Kramer

UC Law Environmental Journal

No abstract provided.