By Matt Carlisle, Vermont Law School
​This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate. Please post any comments on the original, which can be found here.

I. Introduction:
 
Storm water is a major polluter. As one judge put it, “Storm water runoff is one of the most significant sources of water pollution in the nation, at times ‘comparable to, if not greater than, contamination from industrial and sewage sources.’”[1] Storm water “runoff may contain or mobilize high levels of contaminants, such as sediment, suspended solids, nutrients (phosphorous and nitrogen), heavy metals and other toxic pollutants, pathogens, toxins, oxygen-demanding substances (organic material), and floatables.”[2] When it storms or rains, “storm water runoff carries these pollutants into nearby streams, rivers, lakes, estuaries, wetlands, and oceans.”[3] This creates an immediate and dire need to regulate effluent from polluting storm water systems.
 
Municipal storm water regulation has and is continuing to become a regulatory farce. Sloppy legislative language and short cited court rulings have dulled the tools necessary to curb polluted effluent from contaminating municipal storm water. Due to the legislative carelessness and misguided case law, municipal storm water regulation is treated as almost exempt from the Clean Water Act (CWA) because municipal storm water is not required to strictly comply with water quality standards. This paper proceeds as follows. In part one, the discussion will focus on the regulatory mechanisms of industrial and municipal storm water. Part two will discuss the judicial interpretations of industrial and municipal storm water. Part three discusses the counter arguments to the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Defenders. Finally, part four concludes with the common sense interpretation of municipal storm water regulation.​

By Garrett Lenahan, UCLA School of Law, JD Candidate 2017
This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate. Please post any comments on the original, which can be found here.

I. Scoping Plan Background
 
            Two prominent pieces of Californian legislation that seek to address climate change are Assembly Bill 32 ("AB 32") and Senate Bill 32 ("SB 32"). AB 32 required California to reduce its greenhouse gas ("GHG") emissions to the 1990 level by 2020. It tasked the Air Resources Board with creating a Scoping Plan for reaching those levels. The original scoping plan contained a range of programs that would reduce GHG emissions from cars, trucks, fuels, industry, and electricity generation. SB 32 now requires the Air Resources Board to ensure that statewide GHG emissions are reduced to 40 percent below the 1990 level by 2030. The proposed Scoping Plan Update builds on the programs from the original Scoping Plan under AB 32 and includes some new ones.[1] Programs under the Proposed Scoping Plan include the Cap and Trade Regulation, the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, the Renewable Portfolio Standard, the Sustainable Community Strategies, the Sustainable Freight Action Plan, and the Mobile Source Strategy, among others.
 
            The proposed Scoping Plan Update is comprehensive and commendable. However, it does lead to a few potential questions and issues. This paper will address two potential concerns regarding the transportation sector in particular. The transportation sector emits the most greenhouse gases of any economic sector in the state, so it is vital to reaching the SB 32 goal.[2] The first concern is whether the new administration under President Trump will revoke California's waiver to regulate tailpipe emissions and how that affects the Scoping Plan. The second issue about the Scoping Plan is whether California will be able to install adequate infrastructure across the state to accommodate the increased number of zero emission vehicles.

By Andrew Miller, Senior Articles Editor for the Ecology Law Quarterly
This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate. Please post any comments on the original, which can be found here.

In March of 2015, the Associated Press (AP) published AP Investigation: Slaves May Have Caught the Fish You Bought.[1] It was the first in a series of articles the AP would publish over the next eighteen months detailing the squalor and oppression faced daily by thousands of Southeast Asian fishermen.[2] What caught readers’ attention, however, was not merely the unmasking of abuse.[3] It was the reference to Safeway.[4] It was the reference to Wal-Mart.[5] It was the reference to Fancy Feast.[6] It was the allegation that American consumers were complicit in the exploitation of foreign workers, and it was the knowledge that there were photographs to prove it.[7]
 
To date, the AP’s investigative team has helped free more than 2000 slaves in Southeast Asian fisheries, and has even uncovered similar abuse on American-flagged vessels.[8] Nevertheless, it is evident that the AP’s reporting has only scratched the surface of a deeply entrenched issue.[9] While it is difficult to quantify the scale of labor abuse in fisheries, scholars and agencies agree that fishing industry workers comprise a substantial portion of the 20.9 million people trapped in forced labor worldwide.[10]

By Kacy Manahan, Lewis & Clark Law School
This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate. Please post any comments on the original, which can be found here.

The scope of the Clean Water Act’s jurisdiction has been controversial throughout the statute’s history. Reconciling the extent of Congress’ Commerce Clause authority with the reality of vast hydrological connections across the United States has been an unenviable task delegated to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps). This post is a comprehensive, though certainly not exhaustive, examination of EPA’s and the Corps’ efforts to define the jurisdictional scope of the Clean Water Act. The issue is once again embroiled in litigation, and regulation is in the hands of an Administration seeking to depart substantially from prior policies. For that reason, I also discuss potential outcomes of the litigation and President Trump’s Executive Order.

By Sevren Gourley, former Editor-in-Chief
Virginia Environmental Law Journal
J.D. Candidate, University of Virginia School of Law, Class of 2017
This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate. 

Coastal municipalities are struggling to address the uncertain future risks created by sea level rise. Conventional models of ex ante protection and ex post relief are both too costly and often insufficient to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Sea level derivative instruments provide an alternative model for financing adaptation projects that would allow municipalities to transfer the risk of climactic uncertainty to parties willing and able to take a counter position. I propose two sea level derivative instruments—a sea level default swap and a nuisance flooding futures contract. These would reduce the risk that a given sea-level rise adaptation project will be either under or over protective while providing additional capital for project development. Due to the lack of a ready counterparty with obvious need to hedge, markets for these sea level derivatives may be susceptible to excessive speculation. However, trading would be subject to regulation by the Commodity Futures Exchange Commission—curbing speculation and facilitating a much needed funding adaptation for coastal municipalities.

​By Oliva Bensinger, Managing Editor 
Harvard Environmental Law Review
This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate. Please post any comments on the original, which can be found here.
 
As we move further into the era of climate change, we often find ourselves looking in unlikely places for tools with which to combat global warming. The Endangered Species Act[1] (“ESA”) was enacted in 1973 for the singular purpose of protecting endangered and threatened species of animals and plants. The ESA has attacked this problem with all its might, and has been a strong force for ensuring the survival of many species.[2] Now, with climate change threatening species and their habitats, the ESA has a new danger to deal with. Is it up to the task?

By Joseph Godio, Senior Editor
Georgetown Environmental Law Review
This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate. Please post any comments on the original, which can be found here.

​I.         INTRODUCTION
New York City is a city thought by many to be one of the most incredible, majestic, and beautiful cities in the world.  Its prominence and prosperity has grown just like the skyline, continuously reaching new heights.  Ironically, one of the most beautiful places in New York City, Central Park, is also home to one of the most ugly and archaic realities of not just the city, but of the country.  Walking through midtown Manhattan you will find iconic buildings, thousands of business professionals and tourists, and incredible culture.  The ugliness that you will also find is animal cruelty, on full display.

By ​Chris Erickson
Chris Erickson is a student at University of Michigan Law School and is a Junior Editor of the Michigan Journal of Environmental and Administrative Law. Chris can be reached at [email protected]. This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate (ELRS). Please leave any comments on the original post, which can be found here.

​In November 2015, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman began an investigation into whether ExxonMobil made public statements about climate change that conflicted with its own internal research.[1] Schneiderman issued a subpoena to ExxonMobil ordering production of documents related to its internal climate change research and the use of that research in making strategic decisions.[2] This investigation differentiates itself from previous climate change litigation by attempting to hold companies responsible for their contributions to climate change using laws unrelated to climate change. If New York is successful in its investigation, it could signal a new wave of climate change litigation centered on issues tangentially related to climate change.
​

 By Caitlin Brown
Caitlin Brown is a 3L at Berkeley Law and Co-Editor in Chief of Ecology Law Quarterly. This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate (ELRS). Please post all comments on the original post, which may be found on Ecology Law Quarterly's Website.

​The National Park Service manages over 84 million acres of land divided between 413 different sites, and in 2015 alone, served 307.2 million visitors.[1] Their management goals are based on the 1916 National Park Service Organic Act (“the Act”). Section 1 of the Act defines the Park Service’s purpose as “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”[2] How are conservation and impairment from section 1 of the Act defined in the legislative history? How did these concepts originally enter the legislation, and what did Congress think the implications of the standards were? Professor Eric Biber of Berkeley Law posed these questions to me to assist with his research for an article he wrote with Elisabeth Long Esposito, The National Park Service Organic Act and Climate Change.[3] Given that 2016 is the centennial of the National Park Service’s founding by the Organic Act, a deep dive into the legislative history of the National Park Service seemed timely.

By Breanna Hayes, Managing Editor, Vermont Journal of Environmental Law. This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate. Please post all comments on the original post, which may be found on Vermont Journal of Environmental Law's Website.
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This article focuses on the window of time that companies have to shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The article provides a quick overview of public companies and the use of stock.  Then, the article discusses the “Carbon Bubble” and how it compares and contrasts to both the dotcom and housing market bubbles. Finally, the article discusses the environmental impact of the energy industry’s financial choices.
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