A Citizen's Guide to Using Federal Environmental Laws to Secure Environmental Justice


Book Description

This handbook is a companion to a more extensive report, entitled, "Opportunities for Advancing Environmental Justice: An Analysis of U.S. EPA Statutory Authorities," which highlights the provisions in the environmental laws that could be used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to promote environmental justice. This handbook is written to be a practical guide for community residents who want to know how the environmental laws can be used to promote environmental justice in their communities.




Environmental Justice


Book Description

The environmental justice movement is concerned with the disparate environmental harms and benefits experienced by low income communities and communities of color. The selections in the reader provide graduate and undergraduate students with an introduction to environmental justice, whether or not they have a gackground in environmental law.




The Law of Environmental Justice


Book Description

Environmental justice is the concept that minority and low-income individuals, communities and populations should not be disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards, and that they should share fully in making the decisions that affect their environment. This volume examines the sources of environmental justice law and how evolving regulations and court decisions impact projects around the country.




A Guide to U.S. Environmental Law


Book Description

Written by two internationally respected authors, this unique primer distills the environmental law and policy of the United States into a practical guide for a nonlegal audience, as well as for lawyers trained in other regions. The first part of the book explains the basics of the American legal system: key actors, types of laws, and overarching legal strategies for environmental management. The second part delves into specific environmental issues (pollution, ecosystem management, and climate change) and how American law addresses each. Chapters include summaries of key concepts, discussion questions, and a glossary of terms, as well as informative "spotlights"—brief overviews of topics. With a highly accessible structure and useful illustrative features, A Guide to U.S. Environmental Law is a long-overdue synthetic reference on environmental law for students and for those who work in environmental policy or environmental science. Pairing this book with its companion, A Guide to EU Environmental Law, allows for a comparative look at how two of the most important jurisdictions in the world deal with key environmental problems.




Federal Environmental Law


Book Description

The User's Guide is designed specifically for engineers and technicians who are routinely faced with federal environmental regulations; students at the graduate and undergraduate levels who study environmental science and technology; law students; and attorneys who are beginning their practice of environmental law. As a quick resource, The User's Guide provides citations to regulations, executive orders, court cases, and numerous law reviews, journal articles, and textbooks. This book should not be used as primary authority. It should, however, be used to help you understand and digest the basic tenets contained in the federal environmental statutes and regulations.




Federal Environmental Citizen Provisions


Book Description

This article attempts to examine the special problems that community-based groups in low income and minority communities might encounter in prosecuting citizen suits under highly technical environmental statutes. To set the context for this inquiry, part II of this article describes the environmental justice movement and investigates the charge that communities of color are disproportionately and unjustly burdened with environmental hazards. Part II also explores the differences in perspective that underlie much of the conflict among environmental justice activists, mainstream environmental organizations, and EPA. Part II concludes with a look at social forces that have contributed to environmental inequities and that might influence environmental enforcement efforts. Part III examines the current scheme of private enforcement of selected, major federal environmental laws through citizen lawsuitprovisions. Existing citizen suit provisions contain limitations that create incentives for private citizens to prosecute certain types of actions and disincentives to prosecute other actions. Part III addresses the possibility that these incentives and disincentives result in an unequal playing field for enforcement by low income communities and communities of color, which in turn exacerbates the disparity in environmental protection of these communities. Common types of environmental citizen suits are examined to determine whether they have the potential to address environmental problems prevalent in low income and minority communities, and, if so, whether community-based groups might be at a disadvantage in prosecuting such lawsuits because of underfunding. In conclusion, part IV suggests amendments to environmental laws that might more directly address disparity in environmental protection. It also suggests alternative interpretations of federal citizen suit provisions that might facilitate the use of private enforcement to promote environmental justice.




Environmental Regulation


Book Description

Buy a new version of this textbook and receive access to the Connected eBook with Study Center on CasebookConnect, including: lifetime access to the online ebook with highlight, annotation, and search capabilities; practice questions from your favorite study aids; an outline tool and other helpful resources. Connected eBooks provide what you need most to be successful in your law school classes. Learn more about Connected eBooks Environmental Regulation: Law, Science, and Policy demystifies the complexity of environmental law. It provides up-to-date, comprehensive and accessible coverage of this rapidly changing field. After exploring the causes of environmental problems and the moral values they implicate, the casebook provides a structural overview of the regulatory system. It considers how environmental law seeks to protect public health and the environment from climate change, toxic chemicals, hazardous wastes, and air and water pollution. This casebook covers land use regulation, protection of biodiversity, environmental impact assessment, environmental enforcement, and international environmental law. Written in a style accessible to the non-specialist, this casebook affords instructors flexibility in organizing courses. Effective teaching and study aids include outlines of the structure of each environmental statute, real-world-based problems and questions, “pathfinders” explaining where to find crucial source materials for every major topic, an extensive glossary, and a list of acronyms. The accompanying Website is kept current with annual statutory and case supplements. New to the 9th Edition: The most comprehensive updating and editing of this classic casebook since the first edition helped define the field nearly thirty years ago, including: Biden administration reversals of Trump changes to federal environmental policy How efforts to combat the climate crisis are affecting all areas of environmental law New material on environmental justice throughout the casebook The impact of the global pandemic on environmental law and policy New material on the social cost of carbon, PFAS and chemical testing, the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, environmental enforcement, and private environmental governance Excerpts from important new court decisions including: County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund (groundwater and the Clean Water Act) ARCO v. Christian (the impact of CERCLA on state remedies for environmental contamination) Weyerhaeuser v. US Fish & Wildlife Service (critical habitat for endangered species) American Lung Ass’n v. EPA (DC Circuit’s 2021 decision invalidating the Trump administration’s Affordable Clean Energy regulations for greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act) Juliana v. US (9th Circuit decision dismissing claims that the federal government violated constitutional environmental rights by promoting fossil fuels) McKiver v. Murphy-Brown (4th Circuit decision on private nuisance, CAFOS and environmental justice) Jam v. International Finance Corporation (immunity of international development bank for financing coal-fired power plant in India) New and improved problem exercises Streamlined and more tightly edited and featuring a new Teacher’s Manual Professors and students will benefit from: Comprehensive and up-to-date coverage in a style accessible to the non-specialist Self-contained chapters for flexibility in organizing courses A detailed examination of policy Focus on environmental statutes How statutes translate into regulations Factors that affect real-world behavior Effective teaching and study aids Outlines of the structure of each environmental statute Real-world-based problems and questions “pathfinders” explaining where to find crucial source materials for every major subject area Extensive glossary List of acronyms




Advanced Introduction to U.S. Environmental Law


Book Description

Providing a comprehensive overview of the current and developing state of environmental governance in the United States, this Advanced Introduction lays out the foundations of U.S. environmental law. E. Donald Elliott and Daniel C. Esty explore how federal environmental law is made and how it interacts with state law, highlighting the important role that administrative agencies play in the creation, implementation, and enforcement of U.S. environmental law.




Environmental Protection


Book Description

The purchase of this ebook edition does not entitle you to receive access to the Connected eBook with Study Center on CasebookConnect. You will need to purchase a new print book to get access to the full experience, including: lifetime access to the online ebook with highlight, annotation, and search capabilities; practice questions from your favorite study aids; an outline tool and other helpful resources. Environmental Protection: Law and Policy, respected for its intellectual breadth and depth, is an interdisciplinary overview of Environmental Law, incorporating history, theory, litigation, regulation, policy, science, economics, and ethics. It covers the history of environmental protection; policy objectives; regulatory design strategies; and constitutional federalism and related statutory interpretation issues concerning the design and implementation of the environmental laws. Coverage also includes the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, CERCLA, and other pollution control statutes; a chapter on climate change that discusses scientific, policy, program design, and statutory authority questions; and natural resource management issues (including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and limited coverage of national forest management). New to the 9th Edition: New co-author Alejandro Camacho, a leading scholar on natural resources and public land law Ch.1: New materials on the Flint, Michigan battles over lead contamination of the municipal water system Ch.2: Discussion of regulatory and judicial skirmishes resulting from policy differences among the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations Ch.3: Changes, driven by the Supreme Court, to areas such as standard of judicial review (including the Court’s endorsement of the major questions doctrine) and potential changes to entrenched law in areas such as the nondelegation doctrine Ch.4: Council on Environmental Quality’s overhaul of its 1978 NEPA regulations under the Trump administration and the Biden CEQ’s phased revision of those regulations; Food and Water Watch v. FERC; Sierra Club v. EPA Ch.5: Discussion of recent research and scholarship on biodiversity loss, the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict the scope of the Endangered Species Act, and the Biden administration’s attempts to reverse or revise these changes; recent developments on listing, critical habitat, federal agency consultation, taking prohibitions, and incidental takings Ch.6: Updated references to air pollution science Ch.7: Updates on ongoing litigation involving the “waters of the United States” definition in the Clean Water Act Ch.8: EPA’s efforts to implement 2016 amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act; League of United Latin American Citizens v. Regan Ch.9: New case law under CERCLA; discussion of the treatment in the Restatement (Third) Torts of joint and several liability Ch.10: Streamlined coverage of environmental enforcement process Ch.11: Updated coverage of climate change law, policy, and science to reflect opposed regulatory responses to climate change by the Trump and Biden administrations; West Virginia v. EPA Online environmental justice supplement Streamlined note material Benefits for instructors and students: Thorough, nuanced treatment of existing laws, regulations, and cases, regulatory design strategies, and current and developing policy objectives Interdisciplinary approach incorporating science, economics, and ethics Coverage of major federal pollution control, environmental assessment, and species protection laws Charts and graphics Exercises and problems Distinguished author team with extensive practical, scholarly, and teaching experience