Law Schools Doing Good
How Law Schools Serve the Public
Most people probably think of law schools, when they think of them at all, as places that train future lawyers. That's true, and it's important, but law schools do a lot more. Faculty scholarship makes a difference --law review articles laid the foundation for many of the ideas now guiding judges (both on the Right and the Left) . But I'd like to focus here on another, more recent activity by law schools -- the environmental law clinics and research centers that ...
CONTINUE READINGWhat Do You Know About Interior: Test your knowledge
Inspired by Dan Farber’s recent quiz about EPA, here is a similar challenge for the Department of Interior. The questions go from easier to harder (and more obscure). The last question will really test your knowledge. But first some quick history. The Department of the Interior was created by Congress in 1849. As the Department's website recounts, its original mandates were a real grab bag of responsibilities taken from other departments, consolidating: "the Gene...
CONTINUE READINGClean Power Plan Litigation Kick-Off
Flood of lawsuits follows publication of EPA rules to regulate power-plant GHGs
*Updated: Nov. 17, 2015* On Friday, October 23, 2015, the Federal Register formally published EPA’s rules to control greenhouse-gas emissions from fossil-fuel-fired power plants under the Clean Air Act. I described the basics of the rules after EPA released the unofficial text in August. The final text of the rule to regulate new and modified power plants under Clean Air Act § 111(b)—known as the New Source Performance Standard, or NSPS—is now available at 8...
CONTINUE READINGJapan Removes Whaling from ICJ Jurisdiction
In a decision that surprised many, almost 18 months ago the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Japan’s whaling activities in the Southern Ocean were not justified under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW). Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs replied soon after that “as a state that respects the rule of law … and as a member of the global community, Japan will abide by the ruling of the court.” The ICJ decision and Jap...
CONTINUE READINGWhat Do You Know About EPA? Test Your Knowledge.
Much of what most people think they know about EPA is wrong.
This test involves a few basics about EPA. See how much you know. 1. What President established EPA? A. Kennedy. B. Johnson C. Nixon D. Clinton 2. When is cost a factor in issuing EPA regulations? A. Whenever allowed by law. B. Under Republican Presidents. C. Only for minor regulations. D. Never. 3. Why did EPA decide to regulate greenhouse gases? A. Because new scientific breakthroughs forced to do so?....
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Supreme Court Continues to Expand Its Environmental Docket
Justices Considering Unprecedented Number & Variety of Environmental Law Issues
At the beginning of 2015, I posted on this site an analysis of the California Supreme Court's environmental law docket. My conclusion was that California's highest court was showing unprecedented interest in environmental law--as demonstrated by the fact that it then had pending nine cases arising under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and 20 pending environmental cases overall. One obvious question was whether that fact represented a one-time abe...
CONTINUE READINGAddressing Externalities: A Modest Proposal
How to make health and safety a personal priority for industry officials.
According to economists, firms have little reason to take into account the cost of externalities -- that is to say, the harms their activities may impose on others. The traditional solutions are damage remedies or taxes to transfer the financial cost to the industry, or regulation to force industries to limit their harmful activities. Why not try a more direct solution? Why not require owners and managers to expose themselves to the same risks? For instance, ...
CONTINUE READINGAir quality and wildfire
We may need to burn more to get less smoke
One of the impacts of California’s difficult fire season has been air pollution. Fires produce smoke. Large wildfires produce a lot of smoke. And large wildfires in the southern Sierra Nevada produce smoke in the southern Central Valley – the part of the United States that already has some of the worst air quality in the country. Moreover, because the southern Central Valley has a large Latino population and has a high poverty rate, the poor air quality dispropor...
CONTINUE READINGDueling California Drought Relief Bills Debated on Capitol Hill
Stark Differences Emerge Between Competing House and Senate Bills
What can and should the federal government do to assist the State of California in weathering the worst drought in recorded state history? While the U.S. House of Representatives is embroiled in a chaotic political debate over selection of a new House Speaker, the more deliberate consideration of new legislation continues apace in the Senate. Currently before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee are two bill designed to provide federal relief for a...
CONTINUE READINGThe First Environmentalist Law Teacher
William Colby (1870-1964), a pioneering figure in the Sierra Club from Berkeley's past
I'm pretty sure that William E. Colby qualifies as the nation's first environmentalist law teacher, if only because environmentalism was very young at the time.. Colby was a lecturer on mining law and water law at Berkeley for twenty-one years, retiring in 1936. (That doesn't make him the first natural resources teacher; Judge Lindley had taught mining and water law before him.) Colby was a close friend of John Muir. He joined the Sierra Club in 1898 and, except...
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