environmental law
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Losing Justice Kennedy puts fundamental environmental protections in peril
With a 6 to 3 conservative majority, the Supreme Court is likely to become tough sledding for climate and green advocates.
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Smart ALEC: How corporations screw you over behind closed doors
The American Legislative Exchange Council gives corporations a chance to help ghostwrite legislation that benefits them.
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Can federal courts help tackle global warming?
If Congress and the president fail to tackle global warming, can courts step in? Can federal judges allow people struggling with the losses of global warming to sue polluters directly? The idea may at first seem crazy. In a legal world obsessed with claims of judicial activism, the image of a judge taking on a […]
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Who loses if California’s climate law is halted?
Co-authored by Manuel Pastor. Cross-posted from The Huffington Post. No doubt you’ve heard the warnings — the melting ice caps and rising sea levels, the extinct polar bears and extreme weather conditions. From pop culture movies like The Day After Tomorrow, to the tireless work of advocates like Al Gore, the discussion around climate change […]
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Justice Stevens’ pro-environmental legacy embodies a simple approach: follow the law
Following last Friday’s announcement that Justice John Paul Stevens will retire from the Supreme Court at the end of this term, President Obama hailed the Court’s most senior Justice as “an impartial guardian of the law.” This description is certainly accurate, and is perhaps best illustrated by Justice Stevens’ numerous rulings in environmental cases. First, […]
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The hazards of using toxic coal ash for land development
Following the disastrous spill of a billion gallons of coal ash waste from the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston plant in December 2008, poorly regulated coal ash impoundments like the one that failed have landed in the public spotlight. But other methods of disposing of coal ash waste have gotten less attention — even though they […]
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Why the Second Circuit ‘nuisance’ case brings good news, and bad (part II)
Cross-posted from Warming Law. In an earlier post, we explored the background, context, and historical significance of the Second Circuit decision handed down late Monday in Connecticut v. AEP, in which the court ruled that a group of states and environmental groups could sue several major electric utilities for contributing to a “public nuisance” in […]
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Why the Second Circuit “nuisance” case brings good news, and bad (part 1)
Cross-posted from Warming Law. Coverage and analysis is slowly trickling in of the landmark ruling [pdf] handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit late yesterday, in which a 2-judge panel held that a group of states and environmental groups could sue several electric utility companies for creating a “public nuisance” […]
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Obama Supreme Court pick has small but solid record on environmental rulings
President Obama today selected Sonia Sotomayor as his first nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. If confirmed, she would become the first Latin American and only the third woman to sit on the highest court in the land. The hot topic of conversation surrounding her nomination is affirmative action, but over in Gristland, we’re wondering, […]