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The Carbon Footprint of the Whiskey Industry: is Federal Preemption at Odds with Environmental Health?

Dana Dabbousi

February 21st 2024

by Jenisha Sabaratnam* Introduction In Mulberry, a small town in Lincoln County, Tennessee, residents have begun noticing the growth of a suspicious black fungus. The most likely culprit? Whiskey. Several Jack Daniels warehouses near the town are home to countless barrels of whiskey. During the distillation process, ethanol is released ...

Animals Too Ugly to Protect? The PACT Act Needs an Update

Camryn Cezar

April 27th 2023

This Article examines the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act. This Article argues that the definition of animal crushing should include the torture of low-value animals. Because the PACT Act presents a legitimate governmental interest in preventing animal cruelty, this interest could extend to low-value animals in other federal ...

Redressing the Loss of Slave-Era Trees: Evans v. Bedsole and What Louisiana Timber Trespass Law Can’t Do

Camryn Cezar

December 8th 2022

In Part I, I review timber trespass under Louisiana law, including its triple damages provision. In Part II, I discuss the availability of mental distress damages for timber trespass. Finally, in Part III, I use Critical Race Theory to analyze the 1988 case of Johnny Evans v. B.R. Bedsole Timber ...

So You Want to be an Environmental Law Professor… An Empirical Analysis of the Environmental Law Hiring Market from 2011 – 2022

Camryn Cezar

November 23rd 2022

Using data collected by Professor Sarah Lawsky for her annual entry level hiring report, I analyzed trends in the hiring of environmental law professors (“ELPs”) from 2011 2022. With this Analysis, I provide insight into the hiring market for environmental law professors. I hope this Analysis is useful and edifying ...

Holey Cow: The Legal Exploitation of Cattle in the United States

Camryn Cezar

September 21st 2022

This paper aims to unearth patterns, successes, and shortcomings of the legal landscape for cattle in the United States. While U.S. law occasionally works to protect cattle against human exploitation, it is not enough. Instead, the United States’ legal approaches to cattle activity should strive to develop empathy and compassion ...

Evaluating COVID-19 In Prisons As An Environmental Justice Issue

May 17th 2022

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has underscored the racial, social, and economic disparities that have long plagued every part of American society—including the health of our environment. Given the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on minority communities across the country, government officials have focused their efforts on an equitable COVID-19 response. These ...

The World is My Oyster and Other Tales of Domination: The Critique From Ecosystem Services

March 8th 2022

This Article levels a critique of resource-driven capitalism and the associated, facilitative property rights from the position of ecosystem services. Pitting nature as resource against nature as ecosystem services reveals that the value of nature lies beyond the price of tradeable goods and that economic regicide results not from regulation ...

Environmental Impact Assessment in North Korean Environmental Law: Origins, Evolution, and a Comparative Analysis

November 13th 2021

This Article will explore the little-known legal tools that North Korea has adopted in order to address environmental issues, with a specific focus on the Environmental Protection Law (1986) and the Environmental Impact Assessment Law (2005), because environmental impact assessment can serve as a barometer of the socialist country’s environmental ...

California’s Ban on Climate-Informed Models for Wildfire Insurance Premiums

October 19th 2021

Popular news outlets have effectively covered how homeowners living in high fire risk areas find it increasingly difficult to obtain property insurance. However, there is very little public discussion of, and little scholarship on, how California’s rules against using current and future risk data – including cutting edge climate science ...

Food for Thought: The International Seed Treaty as a Tool to Promote Equity and Biodiversity in a Changing Global Climate

August 21st 2021

While much attention is shed upon the climate crisis, intimately intertwined—and arguably a bigger threat to human stability—is the biodiversity crisis. In particular, current industrial agricultural systems accelerate biodiversity loss and amplify climate change, which in turn intensifies widespread food insecurity and has left over 800 million people without adequate ...

Networked Federalism: Subnational Governments in the Biden Era

March 12th 2021

Subnational governments, working with non-governmental advocates, drove climate action during the Trump administration while rebuffing federal rollbacks. Under the Biden administration, focus may initially shift towards the federal government, but the subnational network is critical to continued progress on climate change. I use the term “networked federalism” to describe how ...

Exploring Prospects for Environmental Justice as the EPA Reaches the Half-Century Mark

December 7th 2020

As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency turns 50, the federal government remains a laggard on environmental justice. We offer three forward-facing remedies to provide more just outcomes for environmental justice communities through the legal system: refocusing criminal enforcement efforts to prioritize environmental justice communities, further conceptualizing environmental justice communities as ...

Easing Off the Gas: Efficient and Equitable Policy for Passenger Vehicle Emissions Reduction

October 26th 2020

There are various public policy approaches to addressing passenger vehicle carbon emissions. In this article I review three possible approaches: raising emissions standards; alternative fuel vehicle subsidies; and congestion charging zones. I propose a set of criteria for evaluating these different policies, and apply those criteria to the three policies. ...

Smart Grids Need Smart Privacy Laws: Reconciling the California Consumer Privacy Act with Decentralized Electricity Models

August 18th 2020

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) grants strong privacy rights, including allowing a consumer to opt out of the sale of her information to third parties, and to request that a business delete her information from its records. At the same time, the electricity industry is transitioning towards a decentralized ...

Colluding to Save the World: How Antitrust Laws Discourage Corporations from Taking Action on Climate Change

July 27th 2020

“The loftiest of purported motivations do not excuse anti-competitive collusion among rivals. That’s long-standing antitrust law.” So begins a USA Today opinion piece by Makan Delrahim, Assistant Attorney General and head of the Antitrust Division. Delrahim was defending a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into four major automakers who had ...

Salmon Lessons For The Delta Smelt: Unjustified Reliance On Hatcheries In The USFWS October 2019 Biological Opinion

June 26th 2020

Pursuant to the Endangered Species Act, in October 2019 the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) of the Trump Administration issued a new Biological Opinion (BiOp) for coordinated operations of the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project (2019 USFWS BiOp). The 2019 USFWS BiOp issued by the ...

A Polymer Problem: How Plastic Production and Consumption is Polluting our Oceans

Computer Courage

April 19th 2019

Typically, when a new product comes on the scene, it takes several generations to evaluate its use and environmental impact. However, synthetic plastics really only began to take over around 50 years ago, and we’re already seeing a movement to ban, or at least drastically reduce, the material.

Conduit to Tribal and Environmental Justice? Unpacking Washington v. United States

Computer Courage

January 14th 2019

Popularly referred to by the general public in Washington State as “the culvert case,” Washington v. United States (“Washington V”) has ramifications beyond the removal of barrier culverts precluding safe fish passage. This case brought together several lingering and hotly contested legal issues

A Blooming Problem: How Florida Could Address the Causes and Effects of Red Tide

Computer Courage

November 27th 2018

Florida’s southwest coast, once a haven to wildlife and tourists alike, is experiencing one of the worst red tides in recent memory. Red tides, harmful algae blooms (“HABs”) which often have a red hue which affect both inland and coastal waterways, are common occurrences in Florida

State and Local Control of Federal Lands: New Developments in the Transfer of Federal Lands Movement

ELQ Journal

August 21st 2018

The history of federal public lands is one of national interests, not those of any particular state or county government. It was the federal government, not western states, that acquired these lands through “purchase or conquest.” After an early period of federal land sales and disposals, much of the public ...

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