Water
It’s Sotomayor!
President Obama announced his decision to nominate Sonia Sotomayor for the Souter seat today. Environmental issues are unlikely to loom large in the confirmation battle. So far as we know at this point, her most notable decision was in the Entergy case, which involved the question of whether power plants need to use closed cycle …
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CONTINUE READINGMountaintop mining update
In March, I wrote here about EPA’s newfound boldness on mountaintop removal mining. Under current regulations, the Corps of Engineers issues permits for that practice under Clean Water Act section 404, but EPA has the authority to veto those permits. EPA, which was entirely passive on the matter under the Bush administration, had sent objections …
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CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Hubris: Another Proposed “Fix” for the California Delta
Recently, California state water officials announced with considerable fanfare their latest technological “fix” for the environmental ills that have in recent years befallen the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas, the Delta is in serious environmental decline–as scientists have carefully documented and which no one disputes at this …
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CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Hypocrisy
Recently, CBS’s 60 Minutes ran a story on the current environmental damages litigation 30,000 Ecuadorians are bringing in that country’s courts against Chevron. The case arises out the toxic oil wastes a Chevron subsidiary left behind in the Ecuadorian rain forest following decades of oil production deep in the headwaters of the Amazon. The plaintiffs, …
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CONTINUE READINGA Supreme Court Speed-Bump for Coeur Alaska
With the U.S. Supreme Court’s issuance of its major CERCLA opinion yesterday in Burlington Northern, the Court has now decided four of the five major environmental cases on its docket this Term. But a little-noticed order from the Court–also issued yesterday–suggests that the Court is struggling mightily with the fifth and final case, Coeur Alaska, …
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CONTINUE READINGAnother Batch of Free On-Line Classes
In case, the headline is misleading: no, we don’t give credit to on-line viewers. Maybe someday soon Berkeley Law will get into the distance education business, but not yet. So you won’t get credit, but you’ll still learn a lot. Law 271.71 – International Environmental Law – Cymie Payne (Spring 2009): http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details_new.php?seriesid=2009-B-49982|2009-B-49985&semesterid=2009-B Law 272.1 – …
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CONTINUE READINGJustice Souter and the Environment
The news that Justice Souter is leaving the Supreme Court probably means little for environmental cases. Souter has been a reliable environmental vote, joining the majority in Massachusetts v. EPA, the Court’s only case on climate change. He dissented with the liberal wing in Rapanos v. United States , the convoluted decision about the extent to …
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CONTINUE READINGInterior to pull mountaintop mining rule
UPDATE 4/29: AP reports that the Justice Department’s filing requests that the rule be vacated and remanded on the grounds that it was not preceded by ESA consultation. (Hat tip: PLF on ESA). Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced today that his department would ask the court hearing a challenge to a key Bush-era rule on …
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CONTINUE READINGUpdating the Delta litigation line-up
The era of collaboration and cooperation that CalFed briefly brought to management of California’s water system is well and truly over. Lawsuits are multiplying like rabbits, promising to provide full employment for water and natural resource lawyers in California for the foreseeable future. For those of you scoring at home, here are some of the …
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CONTINUE READINGGetting to the root of recurring water conflicts
This post is co-authored by A. Dan Tarlock, Distinguished Professor of Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law, and cross-posted by permission from the Island Press Eco-Compass blog. The western United States is characterized by highly variable and seasonal rainfall patterns. To deal with the constant threat of drought, the West relies on intensively managed water …
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