Environmental Law Commons^™

Property Constructs And Nature's Challenge To Perpetuity, Jessica Owley

Contributions to Books

Published as Chapter 4 in Environmental Law and Contrasting Ideas of Nature: a Constructivist Approach, Keith H. Hirokawa, ed.

Testimony Before The Committee On Science, Space, And Technology, Subcommittee On Oversight And Environment, U.S. House Of Representatives Hearing On Status Of Reforms To Epa's Integrated Risk Information System, July 16, 2014, Rena I. Steinzor

Congressional Testimony

No abstract provided.

Order And Disorder In The Urban Forest: A Foucauldian-Latourian Perspective, Irus Braverman

Contributions to Books

Published as Chapter 9 in Urban Forests, Trees, and Greenspace: A Political Ecology Perspective, L. Anders Sandberg, Adrina Bardekjian & Sadia Butt, eds.

We pass by street trees everyday. Their existence as well as their particular location in the city seems obvious, innocuous, natural. But, as is the case with most taken-for-granted "things" (Brown, 2011), some excavation is bound to reveal a more complicated and even ideological story. This study focuses on such a story: the story of the clandestine governance of nature and of humans by way of nature - all through the construction and regulation of city street …

Testimony Before The Committee On Energy And Commerce, Subcommittee On Environment And Economics, U.S. House Of Representatives, Hearing On Constitutional Considerations: States Vs. Federal Environmental Policy Implementation July 11, 2014, Rena I. Steinzor

Congressional Testimony

No abstract provided.

Tackling Climate Change: Don't Forget Energy Efficency, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

Todd S. Aagaard and Joel B. Eisen write that one option available for states under the EPA's high-profile Clean Power Plan is relying on greater efficiency in energy usage and other demand-side strategies such as "demand response," which involves programs to reduce consumption at specific times of high electricity demand. However, a federal court recently cast a cloud over demand response's future.

A Tale Of Two Cities: The Need For Greater Federal Involvement To Ensure Proper Notification, Medical Monitoring And Treatment, And Successful Relocation For Tallevast, Florida And Other Environmental Justice Communities, Sabrina R. Collins

Student Works

This article explores the environmental justice battles being waged in two Florida communities. The first is in Pensacola at the site of the infamous “Mount Dioxin” and the second is in Tallevast. The article further examines the treatment of the two communities by the local, state and federal governments. Further insight is also provided regarding the affected communities. The article offers suggestions for fair and effective treatment of environmental justice communities.

Climate Change Regulation And Prediction Markets, Shi-Ling Hsu

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Exporting Coal, Importing Pollution: Can The Consumption Of Coal Be Ignored Under Nepa And Sepa Analysis When Burned Overseas?, Ross Taylor

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

The Millennium Bulk Terminal in Longview, Washington, is one of several proposed locations along the west coast of the United States for a large export facility, which would allow large-scale exportation of domestic coal to Asia. The Millennium Bulk Terminal proposal has garnered significant opposition, yet attention is only recently turning to the specific concern over greenhouse gas emissions associated with such a project. This concern stems not just from operation of the facility or transportation to and from it but from the possibly damaging amount of emissions that would result from the coal’s ultimate consumption in Asia. Implicated by …

Climate Change: Disappearing States, Migration, And Challenges For International Law, Sumudu Atapattu

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

This Article discusses two inter-related issues: the legal implications of climate-induced migration and the phenomenon of ‘disappearing states’ through the lens of four case studies, Kivalina, Inuit, the Maldives, and Tuvalu. As early as 1990, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recognized that the greatest single impact of climate change may be on human migration. With sea level rise, Small Island States face the prospect of losing their territory. The Article discusses the challenges that these two issues pose for international law.

Climate Variability, Land Ownership And Migration: Evidence From Thailand About Gender Impacts, Sara R. Curran, Jacqueline Meijer-Irons

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

Scholars point to climate change, often in the form of more frequent and severe drought, as a potential driver of migration in the developing world, particularly for places where populations rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. To date, however, there have been few large-scale, longitudinal studies that explore the relationship between climate change and migration. This study significantly extends current scholarship by evaluating distinctive effects of climatic variation and models these effects on men’s and women’s responsiveness to drought and rainfall. Our study also investigates how land ownership moderates these effects. We find small, but significant, increases in migration above …

Climate Change, Gender Inequality And Migration In East Africa, Medhanit A. Abebe

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

East Africa, one of the most volatile regions in Africa, has been suffering from enormous problems caused by population growth, weak governance, war, and famine. Recently, the advent of climate change has exacerbated these pre-existing problems. These impacts are not felt equally across populations, and, according to various studies, disproportionately affect women. Despite reforms, rural East African women still struggle to access resources or participate in decision-making processes. As a result, they have a weaker ability to adapt to climate change than men. This weaker adaptive capacity influences migration patterns between the genders, and creates its own set of problems. …

Cercla Apportionment Following Burlington Northern: How Joint And Several Liability Still Thrives—To The Surprise Of Many, Ryan Brady

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

Courts have generally held parties who are responsible for hazardous waste jointly and severally liable for that harm under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). On rare occasions, parties have shown a reasonable basis for apportionment of the harm and avoided joint and several liability. However, in 2009, the Supreme Court in Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. v. United States upheld an apportionment of harm based on a seemingly lower standard of evidence than courts have required in the past, potentially lowering the burden on parties to obtain apportionment. This article briefly summarizes Burlington Northern …

Legal Study On The Climate Change-Induced Migrants In China, Deng Haifeng, Zhao Yumin

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

While climate change is a natural phenomenon, it has also caused a series of social problems for human society. One of the most serious repercussions of climate change is the impact on population movements. As the effects of climate change grow exponentially, the number of climate change-induced migrants will also increase. Climate change-induced migrants are individuals who spontaneously or forcibly migrate temporarily or permanently from their hometowns to other regions under the influence of climate policies or climate-related projects. Climate change, either suddenly or gradually, negatively affected these migrants’ living conditions, making it impossible to survive where they were located. …

Global Water Resources & Publications, Taryn L. Rucinski

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Before we as a society can begin crafting innovative legal solutions to help combat the global water crisis, researchers and experts in the field first need access to sound sources of scientific information. Despite the seeming simplicity of that goal, locating research about water, sanitation, and agricultural conditions, especially in developing countries, can be immensely challenging as it is complicated by issues of language, currency, scope, and accuracy. The purpose of this note is to provide practitioners with a list of free, high quality resources that should help make their research in this area a bit more accessible.

Environmental Law, Travis M. Trimble

Mercer Law Review

In 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit rejected a challenge to the Navy's Undersea Warfare Training Range (Range) off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, based on potential impacts the Range could have to the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale and other endangered species. The court held that the Navy and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) had met their obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA as amended and the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA as amended thus far in the project. The court also decided two cases under the Clean …

Review Mechanisms In Natural Resource Contracts, Jacky Mandelbaum, Salli Anne Swartz, John Hauert

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Periodic review mechanisms, provisions in contracts that formally require parties to meet at particular intervals to review the terms of the contract or license and consider whether circumstances have changed since the parties’ initial agreement, are a mechanism that may smooth the process of dealing with inevitable changes in circumstances over the long term of extractive industries contracts. This briefing note looks at the use of such mechanisms, through reviewing existing extractive industry agreements, and considers how the requirements have been expressed to-date and their role as a tool to maintain the relationship between the parties. The Brief examines issues …

Environmental Law Outside The Canon, Todd S. Aagaard

Indiana Law Journal

It is time to rethink the domination of environmental law by a canon of major federal statutes enacted in the 1970s. Environmental law is in a malaise. Despite widespread agreement that existing laws are inadequate to address current environmental problems, Congress has not passed a major environmental statute in more than twenty years. If it is to succeed, the environmental law of this new century may need to evolve into something that looks quite different than the extant environmental law canon. The next generation of environmental laws must be viable for creation and implementation even in an antagonistic political climate; …

Whole-System Agricultural Certification: Using Lessons Learned From Leed To Build A Resilient Agricultural System To Adapt To Climate Change, Mary Jane Angelo, Joanna Reilly-Brown

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article proposes a novel approach to addressing global climate change's impacts on agricultural production and food security. The climate change crisis is the most significant environmental issue facing our planet. The changes predicted to occur as the earth's climate warms include significant impacts to agriculture. At the same time that the planet is undergoing dramatic climatic changes, the global population is increasing, and economic development in many parts of the world is exerting increased demand for a greater and more diverse supply of food.

The relationship between climate change and agriculture is a close and complex one, as the …

Regulating Water And War In Iraq: A Dangerous Dark Side Of New Governance, Tracey Leigh Dowdeswell, Patricia Hania

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

In the legal scholarship, the 'new governance' mode of governance advances an administrative arrangement where decision-making is shared amongst a range of actors, both public and private. The flexible, responsive, and collaborative governance orientation is intended to counter the ill effects of a coercive, top-down, state-centric, command-and-control approach to governance. Critics contend the new governance framework can displace the interests of local communities, disempower individuals, and dislodge basic human rights. The U.S. military has adopted such an adaptive approach in its own governance structure, which in this article is referred to as: the new governance "mentality." This mentality of governance …

Consequences For Cleanup: Epa Gets Serious About Weak Watershed Improvement Plans, Rena I. Steinzor, Anne Havemann

Faculty Scholarship

In a landmark series of reports issued on June 26, 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) put the seven jurisdictions that pollute the Chesapeake Bay on notice that their plans for reducing nitrogen, phosphorous, and sediment fall short of where they must be to make cleanup by 2025 a reality. By EPA’s reckoning, Pennsylvania and Delaware were furthest off the mark, but Maryland, New York, Virginia, and West Virginia face EPA action if they fail to substantially improve their plans. Of the seven jurisdictions, only Washington, D.C. escaped serious criticism.