Policy & Politics

With billions on the line, an entire new infrastructure to build, novel connections between the transportation and electric and building sectors, and a shifting global trade web, the last thing industry needs is to find out what Samuel Alito thinks James Madison might have thought about batteries. Electoral uncertainty in ...

“America, America has a problem.” That problem is lead: a highly toxic metal that contaminates our drinking water. Health disparities emerge, disproportionately impacting Black communities. This Article delves into America’s history of lead in drinking water, recent regulatory efforts, and proposed rulemaking that will lead to a lasting solution.

In Mulberry, Tennessee, residents have begun noticing the growth of a suspicious black fungus. The most likely culprit? Whiskey. This article explores the various challenges and opportunities associated with the community’s use of state law to address the growth of this fungus and find recourse for themselves.

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

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

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 ...

In 2016, the Illinois Legislature and New York Public Service Commission (PSC) enacted nearly identical policies to induce economically struggling nuclear power plants to continue operating. Competing power generation companies filed suits in federal district courts, arguing that the states’ policies are preempted

Joel B. Eisen* Two pending federal appellate cases involving Illinois and New York laws, Old Mill Creek v. Star and Coalition For Competitive Electricity v. Zibelman respectively,[1] involve the conflict between federal authority over the electric grid and state laws supporting nuclear power plants. The issues are nearly identical in ...

by Sam Kalen & Steven Weissman Many modern energy dialogues gravitate toward a conversation about the present status of the jurisdictional divide between state and federal authority over the regulation of wholesale sales of energy. A March 3, 2017 Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) article began by observing how the ...

  Sara Dewey,[2] Liz Hanson,[3] & Claire Horan[4] This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate (ELRS). Original article can be found here. Introduction The Farm Bill affects nearly every aspect of agriculture and forestry in the United States. Therefore, its next reauthorization offers an important opportunity to better ...

Garrett Lenahan This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate (ELRS).  I. Scoping Plan Background Two prominent pieces of Californian legislation that seek to address climate change are Assembly Bill 32 ("AB 32") and Senate Bill 32 ("SB 32"). AB 32 required California to reduce its greenhouse gas ("GHG") ...

Kacy Manahan* Kacy Manahan is the a clinical student at Earthrise Law Center at Lewis & Clark Law School and the 2017-2018 Symposium Editor for Environmental Law. This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate (ELRS).    I. Introduction The scope of the Clean Water Act’s jurisdiction has ...

John Copeland Nagle* [ download PDF ] The Clean Power Plan (CPP) was supposed to be great. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) celebrated its regulation as “a historic and important step,” “fair, flexible and designed to strengthen the fast-growing trend toward cleaner and lower-polluting American energy,” providing “national consistency, accountability ...

Chris Erickson Chris Erickson is a Junior Editor of the Michigan Journal of Environmental and Administrative Law at the University of Michigan Law School. This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate (ELRS). In November 2015, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman began an investigation into whether ExxonMobil ...

Breanna Hayes Breanna Hayes is the Managing Editor of the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law. This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate (ELRS).                  I.              Introduction Human use of fossil fuels dates back to prehistoric times.[1]  Before the Industrial Revolution, ...

Samantha L. Varsalona Samantha Varsalona is a 2L at Georgetown University Law Center and Staff Member of Georgetown Environmental Law Review. This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate (ELRS). Abstract The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) has become a contentious topic in recent months. The controversy centers around ...

Michael Zielinski Michael Zielinski is a 3L at William & Mary Law School.[1] This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate (ELRS).    I.      Introduction In 1971, the Peruvian theologian and Dominican priest Gustavo Gutiérrez published his seminal work, A Theology of Liberation, in which he advocated an activist ...