January 24, 2019
by Sylvie Yudin
Public Lands
Government shutdowns can have drastic effects on National Parks. It is up the administration under which the shutdown is occurring to decide whether or not to permit National Parks to remain open, and this decision can have lasting consequences on the environmental sanctity of the Parks.
January 17, 2019
by Leora Friedman
Chemicals
Litigation
The Northern District of California readies to hear the U.S.’s first federal test case regarding the carcinogenicity of Monsanto’s glyphosate-containing herbicide, Roundup. Controversially, in early January 2019, Judge Chhabria granted Monsanto’s request for bifurcation—agreeing first to litigate glyphosate’s causation to the plaintiff’s cancer and, only afterward, allowing evidence of Monsanto’s alleged efforts to sway agency positions on glyphosate. But can the reliability of scientific studies be determined without considering the institutions that may have housed and/or nurtured them?
November 21, 2018
by Sophie Grueterich
Endangered Species
Regulations
Sustainability
Wildlife
The Endangered Species Act, passed in 1973, was intended to “provide a means whereby the ecosystems upon which endangered species and threatened species depend may be conserved, to provide a program for the conservation of such endangered and threatened…
November 15, 2018
by Michelle Endo
Energy
As eyes in the Capitol were fixated on the contentious midterm races, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) quietly handed down an order proposing a new policy for establishing transmission rates for electric utilities. Although the Coakley…
November 15, 2018
by Ryan Levandowski
Climate change
Public Lands
State and Local
Water
As rising sea levels threaten California’s coast, the state’s characteristic beaches have become a battleground for homeowners, cities, and state regulatory agencies. Because coastal adaptation policies often pit preservation of public beaches against private property rights, recent litigation over the issue has posed a difficult question for courts: Who should (literally) give ground?
November 5, 2018
by Alex D. Pappas
Energy
Fossil Fuels
International
Proposals to reform an emergency storage repository for crude oil known as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (“SPR”) abound as President Trump and lawmakers react to changing oil market dynamics. As the policy goals and technical utilization of the SPR are evaluated, policymakers could benefit from additional assessment of the costs and benefits of SPR modifications that could imperil an essential national security asset.
October 18, 2018
by Gregory Harned
Endangered Species
Litigation
Regulations
Wildlife
This federal district court’s decision [to reverse the de-listing of the grizzly] has angered state officials and sparked a new debate about federalism and institutional competence
October 17, 2018
by Cecilia Turchetti
Climate change
State and Local
In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, Houston has continued to develop at an incredible rate. Historically, the city and its residents have strongly opposed zoning, but development in floodplains has sparked a debate about how expansion should look for the booming city. How can Houston continue to grow while ensuring the safety of its residents?
October 9, 2018
by Spencer Shweky
Air
Fossil Fuels
Litigation
Regulations
It has now been just over 3 years since the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) first informed the public that Volkswagen, at the time the world's largest automaker, had installed ‘cheat devices’ designed to evade U.S. regulators in hundreds of thousands of their cars. Ultimately, the automaker paid a $2.8 billion criminal fine, and 9 executives and employees were charged with violating the Clean Air Act (“CAA”) and Title 18 of the United States code (the main criminal code of the federal government). Interestingly, though, no one was actually held criminally liable for the pollution itself.
October 5, 2018
by Professor John C. Ruple, Michael Henderson, and Caitlin Ceci*
Natural Resources
Online Supplemental Article
Public Lands
In this exclusive online article, Professor John C. Ruple, a Research Professor of Law and Wallace Stegner Center Fellow at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law, explains why plant and invertebrate fossils on land excluded from Bears Ears and Grand-Staircase Escalante national monuments now receive less protection under the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act and National Landscape Conservation System Act. Without national monument protections, will these valuable segments of the fossil record be forever lost to the public and to scientific study?