Regulating Climate Change
As I sit in my thankfully warm office on a frigidly cold winter day, I ponder the difficulty of regulating the environmental consequences of climate change. Whether a true believer or a science...
View ArticleACOEL Members Assist ECOS On Clean Air Act Issues
This week, the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) publicly announced a memorandum prepared by ACOEL members concerning important issues arising under the Clean Air Act. In May 2013 ACOEL...
View ArticleKids Get Their Day in Court on Climate Change
On June 11, the Oregon Court of Appeals held that two teens are entitled to a judicial declaration of whether there exists a “public trust” obligation in state officials to “protect the State’s...
View ArticleOr You’ll Sink Like a Stone—Changing Times Call For Revival of the Public...
For those who may be interested in the interplay of renewable energy, climate change and the public trust doctrine, I have a new article out in the Ocean and Coastal Law Journal on how federal and...
View ArticleThe Investors' Climate March: Divestment & Reinvestment
Momentum continues to build as investors and fund managers develop and implement policies and investment guidelines favoring sustainability and clean energy, and disfavoring -- and in certain cases...
View ArticleWHO IN 1975 WOULD HAVE THOUGHT WE WOULD HAVE AN OIL GLUT TODAY?
In the mid-1970’s, the nation faced long gas lines, the rationing of heating oil supplies, 55 miles per hour speed limits on the highway, the curtailment of holiday lighting, and the uncertainty of...
View ArticleEnergy Generation – A Classic Love-Hate Paradox of Choice and Conflict
“Elmer Gantry,” a noir classic novel by Sinclair Lewis and a 1960 film, features a tortured central character with the word “love” tattooed on the knuckles of one hand and “hate” on the knuckles of...
View ArticleDAYS OF FUTURE PASSED…OR PAST
November 1967: The Moody Blues release their second album, Days of Future Passed, said to be an influential work of the countercultural, psychedelic era. May 2014: Wolverine goes back in time to rally...
View ArticleLawyers, Climate Change and Coal
In December 1952, John W. Davis, the senior name partner in one of the nation’s most prominent law firms and the Democratic candidate for President in 1924, appeared before the Supreme Court. He was...
View ArticleEnvironmental Law in “the Last Place on Earth”
A century ago expeditions to Antarctica, “the last unexplored place on earth,” made Amundsen, Scott, Mawson, and Shackleton household names. Today Antarctica’s pristine environment attracts tourists to...
View ArticleParis to Earth: Act Locally Within a Global Framework
Paris—In the run-up to the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention, a short humorous video, “Earth to Paris,” was widely viewed. It was a call to delegates for take serious action...
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Promises, promises: how legally durable are Obama's climate pledges?
As part of a global agreement on climate change, the US has pledged, among other things, to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 26%-28% compared to 2005 levels by the year 2025. But opponents...
View ArticleAre Obama’s Climate Pledges Really That “Legally Durable”?
In his December 16 ACOEL post Professor Robert Percival concludes that President Obama’s Paris GHG reduction pledges are most likely “legally durable.” Two of his key points: (1) EPA’s Clean Power...
View ArticleWHY, WHY DO I LOVE PARIS
The Paris Agreement resulting from the COP21 Climate Conference was extraordinary, far better than any of the pundit “experts” expected (indeed most were predicting gloom and doom until the very last...
View ArticleLegal Implications of the Paris Agreement for Fossil Fuels
The Paris Agreement on climate change reached on December 12, 2015 has a heavily negotiated sentence that, when closely read, seems to call for the virtual end of fossil fuel use in this...
View ArticleThe Supreme Court Stay of the Clean Power Plan and the Paris Pledges
The Supreme Court’s unprecedented, unexpected and unexplained action yesterday staying implementation of the Clean Power Plan is one of the most environmentally harmful judicial actions of all time....
View ArticleThe Supreme Court Doesn’t Think Much of Paris in the Springtime
For us gray hairs, the phrase used to be “Dateline”, now it’s “Tweetline” . . . Flash!. . . President Obama @POTUS “. . . Addressing climate change takes all of us, especially the private...
View ArticleTaking Colin to the Limit One More Time
This post started as a piece about a recent Fifth Circuit decision: Texas v. EPA. In that case, the state of Texas (and others) challenge EPA’s disapproval of Texas’s (and Oklahoma’s) plans for...
View ArticleWhat Happens When the Green New Deal Meets the Old Green Laws?
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey made headlines when introducing the Green New Deal resolution to Congress. Within milliseconds, contesting waves of support and opposition...
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Someone Left the Cake Out in the Rain: The Dissolution of Cooperative...
The Trump Administration’s recent lawsuit against California’s climate change policies has cast a spotlight on a stark and troubling reality. U.S. v. California is just the latest salvo in a...
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