November 5, 2018
by Rebecca Strauss
Energy
Fossil Fuels
International
By Alex D. Pappas, Staff Contributor
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
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 Samuel Ruddy
Climate change
State and Local
By Cecilia Turchetti, Staff Contributor
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 Alexander Pappas
Air
Fossil Fuels
By Spencer Shweky, staff contributor.
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 bcf27
Natural Resources
Online Supplemental Article
By Professor John C. Ruple, Michael Henderson, and Caitlin Ceci*
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?
October 5, 2018
by De Vann Sago
Endangered Species
Wildlife
By Rebecca Strauss, Staff Contributor.
The Supreme Court opened the 2018 term with a case on the Endangered Species Act, focusing on the dusky gopher frog. With only eight sitting justices, what are the Court's options?
October 4, 2018
by mjb443
By Jie Yang, staff contributor.
Over the summer, a big firm lawyer and a coke company’s senior executive were both convicted of bribing a former state legislator in order to prevent the EPA from listing the 35th Avenue Superfund Site located in north Birmingham, Alabama on the National Priorities List. How did this corruption happen, and what were the underlying causes?
October 3, 2018
by Caitlin Meagher
Endangered Species
Public Lands
State and Local
Water
Wildlife
By Caroline McHugh, Staff Contributor
The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 protected horses and burros in the American West. Now the population has recovered (and then some). How do federal agencies approach increasingly conflicting mandates for public land management?
September 23, 2018
by Georgetown Environmental Law Review
By Lauren Phillips, Online Managing Editor
The 2018 Global Climate Action Summit brought thousands of people to San Francisco last week to announce commitments to fighting climate change. Outside the summit, however, protestors demanded that leaders set more ambitious goals. What happened inside and outside the summit, and did it represent a meaningful step to fighting climate change?
September 9, 2018
by bcf27
Litigation
By Samantha Peppers, Executive Editor
In administrative law, third parties may intervene in agency actions so long as they qualify as an "interested person." The D.C. District Court in a recent decision has articulated criteria for determining administrative standing, and in doing so, identified a clear standard for determining whether a party qualifies as an "interested person." The rule from this case is broadly applicable and may be helpful in enabling third party participation in many areas of environmental litigation.
