Volume 50 (2023)

Cost Benefit Analysis is indeed irredeemably biased against climate action. It is also a fundamentally arbitrary metric to judge climate regulations aimed at preserving human health, safety, and the environment, and one which undermines the federal government’s stated commitment to environmental justice. The way forward is not better cost-justification of ...

Cumulative impact analysis (CIAs) under NEPA and CEQA are currently flawed. However, with the above amendments to NEPA and CEQA’s CIA frameworks, government agencies’ EAs of projects, such as the Project in San Bernardino, will be better positioned to consider and prioritize environmental justice concerns moving forward.

USDA’s ability to mitigate climate change through commodity subsidy programs exemplifies an area where bold, agency-led climate action is still possible, even after West Virginia.

United States v. Evergreen Resource Recovery, LLC shows the Fifth Circuit’s willingness to expand Seventh Amendment rights for jury trials to corporations under statutory claims. Finding a Seventh Amendment right for defendants under the Oil Pollution Act has potential implications for higher government expenditures, for greater outcome biases that may ...

This article discusses CLF v. Exxon Mobil, which limited agency deference by restricting the Doctrine of Primary Jurisdiction’s scope of application. It exposes issues beyond the simple adjudication of disputes and raises broader administrative and constitutional law questions.

The Fifth Circuit’s recent decision in Trafigura makes it more difficult for environmental agencies to force polluters to pay for the damage that their businesses cause. The court’s reasoning has broad significance because it restricts the use of excise charges to remediate environmental dangers at home if the good in ...

California Renters remains the gold standard for interpreting the HAA with its strict “reasonable person” standard and pro-housing bias. However, it remains to be seen whether the HAA can stand up to the delays, cost overruns, and outright project denials caused by California’s environmental review process under the California Environmental ...

Senate Bill 54 (SB 54), or the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, was signed into California state law in June of 2022 to both applause and criticism. This In Brief highlights many of the most pungent vulnerabilities and loopholes present in SB 54 that may lead to ...

Tort claims and toxic tort claims have long been a vehicle to address the gaps left by statutes. Butler v. Denka is one such case, and raises a fundamental question: can citizens successfully sue a factory that caused multiple cancer illnesses in their community by emitting excessive pollution?

Donald Trump was hostile towards environmental regulation from his first day in office. From rolling back regulations, to appointing industry insiders and anti-environmentalists to important positions within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Justice (DOJ), and other agencies tasked with the enforcement of environmental laws, Trump intended to ...

This Article seeks to answer the following questions: What does the academic literature say about POC access to and use of blue space? What role, if any, does systemic racism and inequality play in creating barriers to access? Most historical accounts of any water-race nexus focused on the Black experience, ...

As this Article argues, then, we cannot achieve our climate goals without tackling fossil fuel financing, and that requires leadership by the Federal Reserve (the Fed)—the U.S. governmental institution that has been given primary responsibility for regulating our financial system. Part I of the Article grapples with the normative questions ...

The Article identifies state innovations in four categories that go beyond widely adopted “baseline” policies. They include policies that: establish affordability and access policy goals, provide express legal authority, and require data collection; reduce electricity demand through efficiency and renewable programs targeted to the most vulnerable; make electricity affordable, for ...

Ecology Law Quarterly Volume 50.1 Front Matter