Endangered Species Act

Is Missouri v. Holland in the Court’s crosshairs?

Justices look for limits on Treaty Power in domestic dispute case

The headline environmental cases at the Supreme Court this term are of course about the Clean Air Act, specifically about its application to cross-state pollution (as Dan has explained here) and to greenhouse emissions (as Ann has addressed here and here). But sometimes cases that at first glance seem wholly unrelated to the environment could …

CONTINUE READING

U.C. DAVIS LAW SCHOOL CONVENES “ESA AT 40” CONFERENCE

U.C. Davis School of Law’s California Environmental Law & Policy Center to host major conference commemorating the 40th anniversary of the federal Endangered Species Act

This Friday, October 4th, the U.C. Davis School of Law’s California Environmental Law & Policy Center (CELPC) will convene a major conference commemorating the 40th anniversary of the federal Endangered Species Act. “The ESA at 40: Examining Its Past and Exploring Its Future” will bring to King Hall a broad array of ESA experts, including …

CONTINUE READING

De-Extinction Conference

Last month, I participated in a conference on the topic of de-extinction — efforts to resurrect all or part of the genome of extinct animals. The goal would be to have something very much akin to the wooly mammoth or the passenger pigeon, perhaps released into the wild. (And no, this isn’t going to work …

CONTINUE READING

Good environmental data matters for environmental litigation

If you aren’t reading Dave Owen’s blog posts over at Environmental Law Prof Blog, you should be.  His most recent post is about a recent Endangered Species Act (ESA) case in Texas: Environmental plaintiffs sued, arguing that the state of Texas had allowed too many water withdrawals upstream from the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, a critical breeding …

CONTINUE READING

D.C. Circuit Affirms Polar Bear Listing

In an opinion released earlier today, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rejected challenges to the listing of the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.  Read the full opinion, In re: Polar Bear Endangered Species Act Listing and Section 4(d) Rule Litigation – MDL No. 1993.  Holly has discussed …

CONTINUE READING

On “pretextual” listings of species for protection under the Endangered Species Act

The folks over at Pacific Legal Foundation’s (PLF) blog have been nice enough to post about an article that I co-authored with Berry Brosi at Emory University (paywall protected, unfortunately!). The article investigates the role that citizen petitions and citizen suits play in the process of listing species for protection under the Endangered Species Act …

CONTINUE READING

Obama Administration Proposes Merging NOAA’s Endangered Species Act Functions Into Department of the Interior

As reported in today’s Wall Street Journal, President Obama has proposed a major government reorganization merging into a single, cabinet-level agency federal trade and commerce responsibilities currently dispersed among a number of different agencies and departments. These reforms, which would require the consent of Congress to implement, would increase government efficiency and reduced federal expenditures. …

CONTINUE READING

“Please Don’t Murder Me”

Musical accompaniment to Justin’s post below.  “I cut my deck to the Queen of Spades, but the cards were all the same”: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhqyg_dTaTg]   More information here.

CONTINUE READING

Wolf delisting rule challenged in federal court

Yesterday, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Friends of the Clearwater and WildEarth Guardians filed a compliant in the federal district court of Montana challenging the wolf delisting rider. You can check out a press release from WildEarth Guardians here. My previous posts describe the wolf delisting rider and the past litigation on the wolf delisting. …

CONTINUE READING

Gray Wolf Litigation Summary

I previously discussed the wolf delisting rider to the budget compromise bill. I thought it would be useful to summarize here the recent court opinions concerning the wolf, and consider the effects of the rider on those opinions.

CONTINUE READING

Join Our Mailing List

Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.

TRENDING

What does UUD mean?

A key legal standard in public lands law is being used by the Trump Administration to stop renewable energy, but in the long run the Administration’s position may advance environmentalists objectives.