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Foreword

Internet Editor

March 15th 2022

We are honored to introduce the Ecology Law Quarterly’s 2020–21 Annual Review of Environmental and Natural Resource Law. Now in its twenty-second year, the Annual Review is a collaborative endeavor of students and faculty. But the greatest contributors to the Annual Review are Ecology Law Quarterly’s (ELQ) editorial board and ...

Defining, Supporting, and Scoping an Impact-Based Approach to Maui’s “Functional Equivalence” Standard for Clean Water Act Permitting

Internet Editor

March 15th 2022

In County of Maui v. Hawai’i Wildlife Fund, the Supreme Court held that “the statute requires a permit when there is a direct discharge from a point source into navigable waters or when there is the functional equivalent of a direct discharge.” The Court thus confirmed that some discharges traveling ...

The Dangers of Agency Doublespeak: The Role of the Judiciary in Creating Accountability and Transparency in EPA Actions

Internet Editor

March 15th 2022

Since their inception, administrative agencies have played a critical role in setting the trajectory of national regulatory schemes. Over the last several decades, agencies have become increasingly responsive to executive policy positions. Though executive control of agency action has long been accepted as a desirable system of accountability, the increasingly ...

Leave No One Behind: Realizing Environmental Justice through Climate Litigation Remedies

Internet Editor

March 15th 2022

In 2015, twenty-one youth plaintiffs and environmental activists caught global attention when they sued the United States government for its complicity in perpetuating climate change. Juliana v. United States was likely the highest- profile climate case yet, and the next year, a federal district court judge ruled that the lawsuit ...

The Wild Horse Problem: An Opportunity to Amend the Wild Free- Roaming Horses and Burros Act

Internet Editor

March 15th 2022

Although wild horses are largely considered non-native species in the American West, their majestic beauty has long captivated the minds of the public. In 1971, rapidly diminishing horse populations led to the enactment of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act (WHBA), to protect wild horses from “capture, branding, harassment, ...

A Landowner Walks into a Bar: Using State Common Law to Encourage Efficient CERCLA Cleanups

Internet Editor

March 15th 2022

In 2020, the Supreme Court decided Atlantic Richfield v. Christian, a case that asked the Court to reconcile ostensibly competing concerns in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act: the jurisdictional bar that limits challenges to the Environmental Protection Agency’s ongoing cleanup plans and the savings clause that makes ...

Tribal Co-Management: A Monumental Undertaking?

Internet Editor

March 15th 2022

After seven years of organizing, the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition— made up of the Hopi, Navajo, Uintah and Ouray Ute, Ute Mountain Ute, and Zuni Nations—secured the protection of 1.35 million acres of federal public land within the boundaries of the state of Utah. The land included the twin Bears ...

Changing Oceans, Lagging Management

Internet Editor

March 15th 2022

This is a story of energy and fish, the federal laws that regulate them, and their past and future as resource industries in the United States. United States federal law has long treated our oceans as an endless bounty of natural resources, ready for human extraction, consumption, and exhaustion. But ...

Standing After Environment Texas: The Problem of Cumulative Environmental Harm

Internet Editor

March 15th 2022

Environment Texas Citizen Lobby v. ExxonMobil reaffirms the age-old adage that Everything is Bigger in Texas. The facts drip with superlatives. Baytown, Texas is home to Exxon’s prized facility, the “largest petroleum and petrochemical complex in the nation.” The plaintiffs—environmental groups suing on behalf of Baytown residents—alleged Exxon committed over ...

The Environment Deserves Better: EPA and Questionable Pesticide Registration

Internet Editor

March 15th 2022

It is no secret that the chemicals present in pesticides can damage environmental and human health. Preventing this damage is why the process of registering pesticides is so crucial. In National Family Farm Coalition v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Ninth Circuit Court upheld the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ...

Amending the Federal Advisory Committee Act to Protect Independent Scientific Expertise

Internet Editor

March 15th 2022

Advisory committees serve vital roles in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal agencies. At EPA, advisory committees review the scientific basis of the agency’s decision making, revise air quality standards, and advise the agency on its research program, among other functions. In 2017, EPA issued a directive titled ...

Transition Critical: What Can and Should Be Done with the Congressional Review Act in the Post-Trump Era?

Internet Editor

March 15th 2022

My decision to write about the Congressional Review Act (CRA) in the fall of 2020 launched the beginning of an academic journey marked by several unexpected twists and turns. I originally chose to write about the CRA because, like many political theorists at the time, I was curious whether a ...

Dissenting into the Future: The Supreme Court’s Dissent in McGirt, UNDRIP, and the Future of Indigenous Land Rights

Internet Editor

March 15th 2022

In McGirt v. Oklahoma, parties disputed sovereignty over a criminal defendant for a crime committed on contested native lands. In a groundbreaking decision, the Supreme Court held that large parts of Oklahoma fell under tribal criminal jurisdiction previously unrecognized. The ruling was widely celebrated amid growing support for indigenous land ...

Sierra Club v. EPA: Why Operators Should Not Be Able to Police Themselves

Internet Editor

March 15th 2022

In Sierra Club v. EPA, the Third Circuit Court of Appeal held that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) approval of Pennsylvania’s State Implementation Plan (SIP) was arbitrary and capricious because it failed to lower emissions, had a broad exception, and gave operators wide reporting discretion. The court held that these ...

Mission Critical: How Offshore Wind Energy Development Aligns with the Department of Defense’s National Security Goals

Internet Editor

March 15th 2022

The California coast seems like the ideal location for an offshore wind energy project: the state offers attractive incentives for renewable energy generation, Pacific wind patterns are strong and consistent, and the unusually long coastline provides plenty of space for offshore wind facilities to expand. Despite these favorable factors, the ...

Being a Good Neighbor: Evaluating Federal Regulation of Interstate Air Pollution Under the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule

Internet Editor

March 15th 2022

The movement of air pollutants across state lines, or interstate air pollution, presents an externalities problem in which downwind states suffer from pollution originating from outside of the state and are powerless to address it. The Environmental Protection Agency has made multiple attempts to regulate interstate air pollution, its most ...

State Climate Suits: The Case for a Limited Remedy

Internet Editor

March 15th 2022

In 2017, the cities of Oakland and San Francisco filed suit in California state court against BP, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil. The complaint asserted a claim of public nuisance and alleged that the energy company defendants had created or contributed to climate change by producing and promoting fossil fuel ...

Boulder v. Suncor and the Case for Judicial Climate Adaptation

Internet Editor

March 15th 2022

When Canadian oil sands developer Suncor Energy brings some of the world’s dirtiest oil to market, much of it comes by way of its Colorado refinery. In Board of County Commissioners of Boulder County v. Suncor Energy, a group of Colorado communities sued Suncor for selling and marketing fossil fuels ...

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