Kyle Burns* This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate. Read the original here and leave a comment. Introduction Every nation around the world faces ecological hardships. Almost every nation has responded with a legal regime that attempts to ensure environmental protection. These environmental law schemes come in various forms. Some nations place environmental protection at the highest level, securing it within a national constitution, while others relegate it to the statutory level. Some nations have positive rights, placing a duty on the government to protect the environment, while others create negative rights, preventing discharges of pollution into…

This week’s post, With Energy Law Federalism Under Construction, State Policymaking May Be Delayed, was written by John Bullock, J.D. Candidate at Harvard Law School.   Read the post here.

John Bullock* This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate. Read the original here and leave a comment. Introduction As the public has become more aware of the intense connection between the practices of electric utilities and greenhouse gas emissions, interested groups have shone a brighter spotlight on the regulation of utilities in the United States. Some have called on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) to take on a more environmentally conscious role when exercising their authority to set wholesale rates.[1] While FERC still hasn’t explicitly taken environmental considerations into wholesale rate setting, it has taken steps…

This week’s post, Pipelines, Protests and General Permits, was written by Samantha L. Varsalona, Class of 2018 Staff Member at Georgetown Environmental Law Review.   Check out the post here.

By Samantha L. Varsalona Georgetown University Law Center, Class of 2018 Staff Member, Georgetown Environmental Law Review This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate. Read the original here and leave a comment. Abstract The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) has become a contentious topic in recent months. The controversy centers around Dakota Access, LLC[1], a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Crude Oil Company, LLC, and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North and South Dakota[2] (the Tribe or Sioux), a federally-recognized Indian tribe.  The Tribe’s reservation, Standing Rock Indian Reservation, is half a mile upstream from where DAPL’s crude…

Elizabeth Kuhn* This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate. Read the original here and leave a comment. I. Introduction Many recent decisions by the Ninth Circuit[1] have required the court to review agency actions under the Administrative Procedure Act[2] (APA) arbitrary or capricious standard.[3]  The Supreme Court has held that the arbitrary or capricious standard is a “highly deferential” standard of review, though the inquiry must nonetheless “be searching and careful.”[4] Furthermore, the agency’s decision is “‘entitled to a presumption of regularity,’ and [the Court] may not substitute [its] judgment for that of the agency.”[5] For purposes…

This week’s post — An Ecology of Liberation: The Shifting Landscape of Environmental Law in an Era of Changing Environmental Values —  was written by Michael Zielinski, Class of 2017, at William & Mary Law School. Read the post here.  

By Michael Zielinski, William & Mary Law School, Class of 2017 This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate. Read the original here and leave a comment. I. Introduction In 1971, the Peruvian theologian and Dominican priest Gustavo Gutiérrez published his seminal work, A Theology of Liberation, in which he advocated an activist approach to Christianity based on the belief that it is only through living in solidarity with exploited and impoverished populations that all people can ultimately become free from all forms of injustice, oppression, and suffering.[1] Recognizing that “the signs of the times,” demanded a theology…

WWII-Era Government Contractor Indemnification Clauses Come to the Fore in CERCLA Litigation as Other Grounds to Shift Costs to the Government Narrow, by Hume Ross, Staff Member Georgetown Environmental Law Review. Read the post here.