Join us.

We’re working to create a just society and preserve a healthy environment for future generations. Donate today to help.

Donate

Blog

Showing 66 results

Robert Verchick

Gauthier - St. Martin Eminent Scholar Chair in Environmental Law

Robert R.M. Verchick holds the Gauthier ~ St. Martin Eminent Scholar Chair in Environmental Law at Loyola University New Orleans, is the Faculty Director of the Center for Environmental Law at Loyola, and is a Senior Fellow in Disaster Resilience Leadership, Tulane University. He serves as Treasurer of the board of directors at the Center for Progressive Reform.

Robert Verchick | March 5, 2012

After Partial Settlement, Oil Spill Case on a Slow Boil

The BP Oil Spill case settled! Well, part of it. The smaller part. But, still, we must count this a victory for U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, whose reported 72 million pages of assigned reading will inevitably be shaved down. (Does this man have an iPad?) On Friday evening the court announced that BP had […]

Robert Verchick | February 22, 2012

Mardi Gras, Check. BP ‘Trial of the Century’ Here We Come.

  Mardi Gras Float, 2011 Well, another magnificent Mardi Gras has ended, and at this point, I’d normally be slouched on the sofa sipping a tomato juice (neat) and sorting beads. But not this year.  That’s because next week, squadrons of lawyers, journalists, petroleum engineers, and fisher folk are scheduled to descend on New Orleans, […]

Robert Verchick | February 13, 2012

EPA Releases Inventory of Legal Authorities to Advance Environmental Justice

Last fall, in a speech I gave at an environmental justice event in Los Angeles, I ruffled some feathers with an impromptu line that went something like this:  “Believe it or not, federal environmental statutes say nothing directly about environmental justice.” During the “Q & A” I was challenged by an environmental activist and lawyer […]

Robert Verchick | November 15, 2011

Fifth Circuit Mulls Katrina Flood Ruling

        Mr. Go is Gone     Today’s question: When are flood waters not “flood waters”? We New Orleanians have become fluent in all things subaqueous; last week three Texans sitting on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals took their turn. Yes, we’re talking about Katrina. Or, more specifically, its flood waters, which […]

Robert Verchick | September 21, 2011

Plan EJ 2014: Building a Foundation for Federal Environmental Justice Policy

Let’s stipulate: EPA’s withdrawal of a stronger ozone rule was the low point. And for many, a betrayal, a sedition, the nation’s biggest sell-out since Dylan went electric (or played China, take your pick). Still, Jackson’s EPA has accomplished a great deal. Last week the EPA showcased new policy devoted to one issue with which Jackson […]

Robert Verchick | June 22, 2011

U.S. House Targets Early Government Efforts to Help Citizens Prepare for and Cope With Effects of Climate Change

Imagine you are building a beach house somewhere on the Gulf Coast and that I had some information about future high tides that would help you build a smarter structure, avoid flood damage, and save money in the long-run. Would you want that information? Not if you follow the reasoning of Representatives Steve Scalise of […]

Robert Verchick | June 12, 2011

Climate Change Meets the Little Mermaid

Copenhagen—Denmark’s famed “Little Harbor Lady,” or in English, “Little Mermaid,” has had her share of antics and perils. She’s been photographed by millions in Copenhagen’s harbor, carted off and shown at the 2010 World Fair in Shanghai, beheaded (several times), dynamited, splashed with pink paint, and enveloped in a Burqua. An environmental nerd for all […]

Robert Verchick | June 5, 2011

Notes from the 2nd World Congress on Cities and Adaptation to Climate Change

Bonn–At a climate conference in Germany, with lager in hand, I was prepared to ponder nearly any environmental insult or failure. But rat pee? Really?  The urine of rats, as it turns out, is known to transmit the leptospirosis bacteria which can lead to high fever, bad headaches, vomiting, and diarrhea. During summer rainstorms in São Paulo, Brazil, […]

Robert Verchick | February 21, 2011

Next Steps for America’s Great Outdoors

If you’ve ever visited the Great Smoky Mountains National Park—one of the most visited national parks in the United States—you have Horace Kephart and George Masa to thank. These two men, the first a travel writer, the second a landscape photographer from Osaka, Japan, each settled among those six-thousand foot peaks with intentions of starting a […]