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Yee Huang | July 16, 2009

Water Resources & the Public Trust Doctrine: A Primer

This is the first of four posts on the application of the public trust doctrine to water resources, based on a forthcoming CPR publication, Restoring the Trust: Water Resources and the Public Trust Doctrine, A Manual for Advocates, which will be released this summer.  If you are interested in attending a free web-based seminar on […]

Daniel Farber | July 14, 2009

The Sotomayor Hearing and the Climate Nuisance Case

This item cross-posted by permission from Legal Planet. Greenwire reports that one issue in the confirmation hearing may be a case involving climate change.  The plaintiffs sued under the federal common law of nuisance for injunctive relief against public utilities for their carbon emissions.  The case has now been pending before a panel including Judge […]

Matt Shudtz | July 8, 2009

Time for Clean Science, No?

On March 9, President Obama announced a science integrity initiative aimed at taking the politics out of science. In his memorandum that day, he laid out the broad principles and instructed the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to “develop recommendations for Presidential action designed to guarantee scientific integrity throughout the […]

Ben Somberg | July 7, 2009

A Final Look Back at the Supreme Court’s 2008-2009 Term

It was, as Greenwire put it, a rough term for environmental interests; in five separate cases the Supreme Court overturned rulings that environmentalists had favored. CPR Member Scholar Amy Sinden told the NYTimes of one of the themes: “It’s become a cliché to say the Roberts court is about the expansion of executive power … […]

Holly Doremus | July 2, 2009

Section 7 Status Quo Reinstated

This item is cross-posted by permission from Legal Planet. Last week, Interior Secretary Salazar and Commerce Secretary Locke issued a press release announcing that they were withdrawing the Bush administration’s midnight rules relaxing the ESA section 7 consultation requirements. (Background on the Bush rules is here, here, and here.) The notice formalizing that decision has […]

Ben Somberg | July 2, 2009

Drywall News Roundup

A string of recent developments have brought the issue of contaminated drywall back into the headlines (we last wrote about the issue here). Last week EPA released the results of tests it did on two Chinese drywall samples taken from a Florida home. They found sulfur, as well as two organic compounds associated with acrylic […]

Rena Steinzor | July 2, 2009

Responsibility Without Accountability: Failed Cleanup in the Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay watershed covers 64,000 square miles, measuring 200 miles in length and 35 miles at its widest point. The watershed is one of the most beautiful and economically productive in the world. Tourism, which depends to a large extent on the preservation of pristine environmental conditions, contributes billions of dollars to the economies […]

Ben Somberg | June 30, 2009

Drywall Summer – An Update

The drywall debacle continues. Inez Tenenbaum, President Obama’s nominee for head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, got a number of drywall questions from senators at her nomination hearing earlier this month.  They said the government response seemed too slow. Tenenbaum pledged she’d work on the problem, and was subsequently confirmed by a voice vote […]

Ben Somberg | June 29, 2009

Waxman-Markey Analysis Round-Up

Waxman-Markey passed the House.  Was it the right thing to do?  What’s the outlook from here?  Here are a few views from around the web. Dan Farber: The concerns about measuring and enforcing offsets are genuine (and increased because of Waxman-Markey’s reliance on USDA to do the job.)  But those problems aren’t insurmountable either.  Instead […]