Environmental Law Commons^™

An Analysis Of The Substantive Effectiveness Of The National Environmental Policy Act: Lessons From Ivanpah, Stephanie C. Oehler

CMC Senior Theses

Nearly 45 years ago, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was signed into law to become the first national policy for the environment of the United States. As it has evolved over time through implementation and litigation, numerous countries and states around the world have emulated NEPA with similar environmental impact assessment requirements. Many scholars have evaluated the success of the legislation in accomplishing its lofty goals. Most commonly, however, these studies address the procedural performance of agencies through the creation of environmental impact statements. This thesis examines the effectiveness of NEPA in accomplishing its substantive, rather than procedural, goals …

The Environmental, Social, And Economic Impacts Of Hydraulic Fracturing, Horizontal Drilling, And Acidization In California, Christina Whalen

CMC Senior Theses

The oil extraction mechanisms of hydraulic fracturing, horizontal drilling, and acidization have recently spread throughout the state of California. This thesis explores and assesses whether federal and state legislation should approve of fracking operations in California after studying its effects on human health, the environment, and the economy. This thesis assesses the impacts of fracking; analyzes the role of current legislation and regulation; compares California fracking to fracking in other states and countries; and provides recommendations for future action.

Climate Geoengineering And Dispute Settlement Under Unclos And The Unfccc: Stormy Seas Ahead?, Meinhard Doelle

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This paper considers the potential for the UNCLOS and UNFCCC regimes to be faced with disputes at the intersection between the management of climate change and ocean governance. Using the example of geo-engineering, the chapter considers how tensions between climate mitigation and management and conservation goals are likely to be addressed under the two regimes. The paper explores the capacity of the existing dispute resolutions mechanisms under the two regimes to deal with these tensions, conflicts and overlap.

Arctic Climate Governance: Can The Canary In The Coal Mine Lift Canada’S Head Out Of The Sand(S)?, Meinhard Doelle

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This paper considers Canada’s climate policy at the federal and territorial levels of government in light of the accelerated impacts and vulnerability of Canada’s Arctic region. The paper considers the level of awareness of current and expected future climate impacts in the Arctic, and the effect of this awareness on climate policy. Climate policy is considered in three broad areas, climate adaptation, climate mitigation and the effect on each jurisdiction’s development path. The paper concludes that there is good awareness of the current and predicted future impacts of climate change in all jurisdictions studied. For reasons explored in the paper, …

The Birth Of The Warsaw Loss & Damage Mechanism: Planting A Seed To Grow Ambition?, Meinhard Doelle

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article starts with an update on the UN climate negotiations with respect to loss & damage. It then explores two approaches to loss & damage that are substantially different form the current path of the negotiations. Both approaches seek to utilize the concern over loss & damage to improve motivation for an adequate and fair global effort to mitigation and adapt to climate change. The approaches differ mainly in the extent they can be integrated into the current UN climate regime. The first approach would create a loss & damage liability fund that seeks to ensure adequate resources to …

The Role Of The Unfccc Regime In Ensuring Effective Adaptation In Developing Countries: Lessons From Bangladesh, Meinhard Doelle, Steven Evans, Tony George Puthucherril

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This paper provides a general overview of the UNFCCCs approach to adaptation, and then conducts a case study of adaptation efforts in Bangladesh. Based on the results of the case study and drawing on existing literature, the paper considers to what extent the current approach under the UNFCCC is likely to be effective, and how UNFCCC adaptation efforts might be strengthened.

Recovery Planning For Pacific Marine Species At Risk In The Wake Of Climate Change And Ocean Acidification: Canadian Practice, Future Courses, Wesley Hartmann, David Vanderzwaag, Katja Fennel

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article evaluates how Canadian recovery planning for Pacific marine species at risk incorporates two pressing 21st century concerns: global climate change and ocean acidification (OA). While many recovery strategies for Pacific species at risk show some understanding of climate change or OA, they generally fail to incorporate key climate and OA information or to consider how these two issues will actually affect the species in question. Two strategies for progress are suggested. First is an administrative strategy that includes the development of a national climate change adaptation strategy, which clarifies how projected climate and ocean acidification impacts should be …

Importing Energy, Exporting Regulation, James W. Coleman

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This Article identifies and addresses a growing contradiction at the heart of United States energy policy. States are the traditional energy regulators and energy policy innovators — a role that has only grown more important without a settled federal climate policy. But federal regulators and market pressures are increasingly demanding integrated national and international energy markets. Deregulation, the rise of renewable energy, the shale revolution, and new sources of motor fuel precursors like crude and ethanol have all increased interstate energy trade.

The Article shows how integrated national energy markets are driving states to regulate imported fuel and electricity based …

The Implications Of Private Environmental Governance, Michael P. Vandenbergh

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

If we look back twenty years from now, will private governance be as much a part of environmental law and policy as market mechanisms, or will it have faded into the woodwork along with many other promising new developments? In this Essay, I briefly examine four issues that will play a large role in determining the answer to this question. Part I examines whether PEG is a coherent, discrete concept. Part II explores the extent to which PEG affects environmental behavior and environmental quality. Part III discusses the interactions between private and public environmental governance. Part IV then evaluates whether …

Electric Power Resource "Shuffling" And Subnational Carbon Regulation: Looking Upstream For A Solution, Jim Rossi, Andrew J.D. Smith

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

"Resource shuffling" occurs when different subnational approaches to carbon regulation create variations in the costs of production across jurisdictions. California is the most aggressive jurisdiction in the United States to address climate change and has adopted a cap & trade program for its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This Article addresses the resource shuffling issue presented by California's cap-and-trade program and evaluates the merits of various legal and regulatory solutions to the problem.

For The Birds: Wind Energy, Dead Eagles, And Unwelcome Surprises, Sam Panarella

Faculty Law Review Articles

Wind turbines kill birds. A lot of birds. You would be hard pressed to find someone who is happy with that fact, including anyone in the wind energy development community. But until and unless there are technological advances in wind turbine design that eliminate their deadly impact on birds, it is something we must accept. Of course, acceptance does not and should not mean issuing a blank check to wind energy developers to wantonly injure birds. To do so would violate both the spirit and letter of a host of environmental laws that have at their core a stubborn insistence …

Creatures Of Circumstance: Conflicts Over Local Government Regulation Of Oil And Gas, Alex Ritchie

Faculty Scholarship

Scholars periodically note the impending upsurge in local oil and gas regulation, offering various reasons for increased local action. Papers written only a few years ago attribute greater local action in the West to population growth, increased urbanization, and increased demand for energy. Consider, however, more recent phenomena. First, population migration from more liberal states to more traditionally conservative producing states likely plays a role, as new residents [11-4] bring perspectives opposing drilling activity. Second, while the suburbs continue to expand into the oil patch, the oil patch has expanded into the suburbs and urban areas as well. Hydraulic fracturing …

Energy Versus Property, Michael Pappas

Publications

This Article is the first to detail the balance legislatures and courts have struck between private property rights and the compelling public interest in energy production. By examining how property rights have consistently yielded to energy development from colonial times to the most recent decisions involving hydraulic fracturing ("fracking'), it identifies a coherent energy/property balance that has shaped property expectations to accommodate energy needs. The Article then applies this insight to current disputes pitting aggressive renewable energy policies-such as nuisance immunity or mandatory installations on private property-- against fundamental property expectations: the right to exclude and the right to use …

Anti-Waste, Michael Pappas

Publications

It may be a bad idea to waste resources, but is it illegal? Legally speaking, what does "waste" even mean? Though the concept may appear completely subjective, this Article builds a framework for understanding how the law identifies and addresses waste.

Drawing upon property and natural resource doctrines, this Article finds that the law selects from a catalog of five specific, and sometimes competing, societal values to define waste. These values include: (1) economic efficiency; (2) human flourishing: (3) concern for future generations: (4) stability and consistency; and, (5) ecology. The law recognizes waste in terms of one of or …

Introductory Remarks, James Anaya

Publications

These remarks were delivered at a Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights panel held on Wednesday, April 9, 2014.

Nepa And Indirect Effects Of Foreign Activity: Limiting Principles From The Presumption Against Extraterritoriality And Transnational Lawmaking, David Heywood

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Grazing In Wilderness Areas, Mark Squillace

Publications

Domestic livestock grazing is naturally in tension with wilderness. Wilderness areas are not truly "untrammeled by man" when they host managed livestock grazing. Yet the compromise that allowed livestock grazing in wilderness areas was surely one of the greatest in the history of the conservation movement. Without it, Congress might never have passed a wilderness bill or designated countless wilderness areas throughout the country. The grazing exception--and the Congressional Grazing Guidelines that afford specific protections for grazers--made it possible to secure bipartisan support for wilderness bills in even the most conservative western states.

Notwithstanding this success, the ecology of some …

Strengthening The Vpa General Permit: Managing Animal Feeding Operations In Virginia To Meet State Law And The Bay Tmdl, Rachel Cannon, Jason Kane

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

No abstract provided.

Room For A (Sacred) View? American Indian Tribes Confront Visual Desecration Caused By Wind Energy Projects, Allison M. Dussias

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Federal V. State Effectiveness: An Analysis Of The Endangered Species Act And Current Potential Attempts At Reform, Nicholas Primo

Pepperdine Policy Review

In November 2013, several Congressional leaders drafted a new bill to reform the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA). While the Endangered Species Management Self-Determination Act (ESMSDA) was the first major attempt at updating the crucial U.S. environmental policy in decades, it also inflamed environmentalist defenders of the original bill. More importantly, it raised several questions as to whether state or federal-oriented approaches to endangered species protection and environmental policy more broadly is ultimately more effective. This article analyzes the original 1973 ESA, followed by an analysis of the ESMSDA currently being considered. It will discuss the various strengths and …