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The author reflects on the Juliana v U.S. case which involves American climate change policy and is considered the most important environmental case in the country. The violation made by the U.S. federal government to the plaintiffs’ fundamental constitutional rights to liberty, life, and property by substantially causing or contributing to a dangerous concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is mentioned.

Following the intent of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, many states have adopted policies and procedures directing state agencies and local government units to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of development projects prior to their undertaking. In contrast to a rich literature on federal requirements, current understanding of state environmental review is narrowly focused and outdated. This paper seeks to provide information on the landscape of state environmental review policy frameworks. The paper identifies 37 states with formal environmental review requirements through a document review of state statutes, administrative rules and agency-prepared materials, and confirms this finding through a survey of state administrators. A two-tier classification is used to distinguish states based on the approach taken to address environmental review needs and the scope and depth of relevant policies and procedures implemented. This paper also provides a discussion of policy and programme attributes that may contribute to effective practice, and of the potential for adopting relevant legislation in states where environmental review is currently lacking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency''s Self-Policing Policy (more commonly referred to as the Audit Policy) waives or reduces penalties when companies voluntarily discover, disclose, and correct environmental violations. One goal of the Audit Policy is to encourage companies to conduct environmental audits in order to identify poor environmental performance. Thus, the regulatory flexibility associated with the Audit Policy should reduce subsequent chemical emissions. While several studies examine predictors of the Audit Policy, no studies examine if facilities that use the Policy decrease their chemical emissions as a result. The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of the Audit Policy on changes in Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) emissions among a sample of 178 facilities operating in the chemical and allied product industry. The results of that analysis suggest that facilities that use the policy have similar subsequent emissions trends as facilities that do not use the policy. Moreover, the results also suggest that formal enforcement actions are the best predictor of TRI reductions. These findings persist despite other regulator and company controls. In terms of environmental policy, the results suggest that self-policing may not improve or deteriorate environmental performance in the chemical and allied products industry. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

During the 1990s, American Indian Nations assumed regulatory primacy over certain portions of federal environmental laws in the United States. For tribes that have not developed their own standards, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued policy statements aimed at incorporating tribal health and natural resources. While many communities of color have to fight to get heard in state and federal permitting processes, the U.S. EPA has made it an explicit mission to always include Indian Nations. Thus, "getting to the decision-making table" - a key goal of environmental justice groups - is presumably serving the interests of tribes seeking environmental justice. However, being involved in regulatory processes, as tribes are, may not be enough for Indian Nations or other communities of color. It is to this end that I write this article - should "getting to the table" be the ultimate goal for environmental justice groups, and how should this table be structured? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Federal roles and responsibilities involving 206 million hectares of nonfederal forests in the United States are often implemented in partnership with state governments. These intergovernmental relations were examined with the assistance of state and federal agency executives. Federal roles are expressed by an estimated 187 federal programs, most of which are concentrated in the Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Preferred federal roles include providing financial support, monitoring area and condition of federal forests, and providing technical advice and assistance to states. Obstacles to effective state-federal working relationships include cumbersome administrative procedures, lack of common vision for nonfederal forests, and inadequate resources of various kinds. Overwhelming views are that state-federal working relationships are positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at U.S. environmental politics, policies, and the common good. According to the article, throughout American history, the dominant policies of the U.S. have been to promote the economic exploitation of natural resources. Some U.S. environmental policies have also included initiatives to manage and protect the natural environment, such as water management projects and controlling pollution. The article discusses public health, federal conservation, and sanitation policies, the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act, the limits of current environmental policies, and international environmental diplomacy.

Because there is no specific legislative or regulatory guidance, there is no "right" way to allocate liability at Superfund sites. Allocation based on the cost of a remedy, and allocation based on the need for a remedy, i.e. risk-based allocation, represent two possibilities. Other allocation schemes can be located between these two philosophical poles. When waste streams and environmental impacts are qualitatively similar, allocation based solely on costs may make the most sense. When one or more potentially responsible parties (PRPs) have qualitatively different wastes or impacts, an allocation scheme based on both contribution to cost and to risk may be able to incorporate all PRPs. In any case, dissident PRPs, whose contribution to remedy costs is large but whose contribution to risk is small, may find satisfaction in the courts where there is precedent for risk-based allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States' basic declaration of environmental policy, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), was the first comprehensive commitment in modern times toward responsible custody of the environment. Views on where NEPA has succeeded; How, where, and why it has failed. INSETS: A draft resolution on a national policy for the environment;National Environmental Policy Act Title 1, Section 101 (b);National Environmental Policy Act Title II, Section 204.

The rising public awareness of environmental problems around 1970 brought the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and targeting of the obvious environmental polluters. This has helped the clean‐up, but there are now new challenges. Toxics are much more subtle, more widespread, and there effects more unknown than sewage or smoke. The public will have to decide the trade‐offs of toxic risk and material goods. Focus is turning to habitat protection and healthy ecosystems, not just human health. Now that big industry is better controlled, the more difficult widely dispersed environmental problems must be tackled. Solutions will require costs and lifestyle changes for us all. For this to happen, the public must understand the problems and accept that they are part of them. The role of the environmental professional will be to assess the problem and possible solutions and present them to the public for their decisions when weighed against the cost of the solutions and prevailing values. We must open up the process of environmental decision making to those who bear the costs, and then accept their judgment. Roles of government will change to, more local control using federal assistance, standards, research, regulations and advice. Local actions and industry may include more projects, seeking help from government agencies. Attitudes and behaviour of everyone must change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In blunt contrast to the lax environmental goals of the Reagan administration, the American public has voiced strong support for environmental protection throughout the 1980s. Examines how well this public sentiment translates into votes and political action. INSET: The Growth in Environmental Organization Memberships.

This article deals with issues such as environmental protection and policy in the U.S. as of June 1986. For the second year in a row, the U.S. Department of Defense has decided not to consider the policy implications of nuclear winter. Meanwhile, after nine months of negotiations, representatives from environmental groups and major oil companies have reached agreement on a plan for development and preservation of outer continental shelf tracts in the Bering Sea. Connecticut chemists Martin L. Cohen and Warren D. Steinmetz of the American Cyanamid Company found that a small amount of rain can wash off most of several pesticides sprayed on cotton plants. Scientists at the University of Washington in Seattle are using fish cells and eggs to evaluate the biological effects of chemical pollutants. The potential detrimental effects on environmental protection from the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings deficit reduction law, a possible remedy for them, and a way for the government to raise much-needed funds have been outlined by seven environmental groups.

This article presents an update on the proposed wilderness legislation in the U.S. as of December 1984. A compromise reached in May 1984 by U.S. Senate-House negotiators on the management of national forest lands not designated by U.S. Congress as wilderness unleashed a tide of previously stalled bills that resulted in the designation of over six million acres of new wilderness areas in October 1984. Besides protecting millions of remote and pristine acres in their natural state, the enactment of these bills released for possible logging, mining, petroleum production, and intensive recreational use over 40 million acres of roadless national forest lands whose status has been in question since the 1970s when they came under study for possible wilderness designation. The pending legislation also will put to rest lawsuits challenging the adequacy of a Forest Service environmental impact statement and contesting federal forest development plans. The 98th Congress had before it more than two dozen bills that would have created roughly 11 million acres of new wilderness in national forests in 22 states. Wilderness bills were enacted for Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Montana, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Reports on the United States Congress's 1985 Environmental and Energy Study Conference. How the conference gives members of Congress access to unbiased sources of information and analysis of the increasingly complex environmental and energy policy questions; Consideration of bipartisan concern over environmental protection; Lack of agreement among government officials on environmental policies; Public concern over environment; Environmental and Energy policy debate.

Discusses how the Bankruptcy Code protects financially ailing companies while they attempt reorganization. Consideration of how the Code does not exempt a company from the obligation to comply with federal or state environmental laws.

This article focuses on the irrigation contracts in the western U.S. and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). To establish an effective plan for environmental protection and recovery, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the agency in the U.S. Department of the Interior that owns and operates most of the water projects, must reassess the environmental costs associated with providing vast quantities of subsidized water to agriculture. This issue was the subject of a major legal and policy dispute that focuses on the renewal of water contracts at Friant Dam on the San Joaquin River in California. The Bureau of Reclamation's projects were designed to provide low-cost irrigation water to small, family-owned farms as one way to develop the arid West. Most large reclamation projects were authorized before the major environmental statutes regulating current government actions were enacted. Both the NEPA and the implementing guidelines promulgated by the Council on Environmental Quality, require government agencies to prepare an environmental impact statement before embarking on any major federal action significantly affecting the human environment. Another federal environmental statute, the Endangered Species Act (ESA), requires federal agencies to ensure that their actions are unlikely to jeopardize any endangered or threatened species or critical habitat. This law requires the bureau to follow a formal consultation process. Early in 1988, the environmental groups began urging the bureau to prepare an environmental impact statement on the upcoming contract renewals. In December 1988, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Trout Unlimited and other environmental and fishing groups that sought to block the signing of long-term contracts sued the bureau for failing to comply with the requirements of NEPA and ESA.

The article provides observations regarding the reputation of the Republican Party for supporting environmental policy. At the presidential level, this record goes back at least to Theodore Roosevelt's leadership in protecting more than 350,000 square miles of natural areas. Republican presidents appointed some of the most outstanding civil servants ever to advance the cause of environmental quality in America: Russell Train, William Ruckleshaus, Lee Thomas, and William Reilly come readily to mind. The nation's environment has also historically benefited from the leadership of enlightened Republican legislators, ranging from John Saylor's pioneering work on the Wilderness Act, through Barry Goldwater's promotion of solar energy, to John Chaffee's championing of safe drinking water. The behavior of contemporary Washington's Republican establishment can only be described as a radical departure from the party's traditions. One example, the current Bush administration is pushing an energy strategy that violates traditional Republican values at every turn: It would expand federal authority over land use, restrict states' rights to hold polluters accountable, and increase federal subsidies. Other administration initiatives on toxic pollutants, forest reserves, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are equally radical departures from the precedents set by an earlier generation of truly conservative and conservation-minded Republican leaders. Against this unrepresentative, radically antienvironmental record of the majority of Washington's current crop of Republicans, a small, beleaguered band of "Green Elephants" has continued to stand for traditionally conservative principles of conservation and environmental protection.

The article discusses how a recent study of three proposed plans to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants in the United States rated the Bush administration's Clear Skies Act the weakest of the three. The report, Dirty Air, Dirty Power, commissioned by the government and conducted by the international research firm Abt Associates, found that although the Clear Skies Act would save 14,000 lives, the most aggressive of the three, a bill introduced by Senator James Jeffords (I-VT), would save as many as 22,000 lives. The third plan, Senator Thomas Carper's (D-DE) bill, would save 16,000 lives. Industry representatives, along with the administration's chief environmental policy adviser, attacked the report for focusing on just one emission source. According to the report, pollution from power plants kills nearly 24,000 Americans each year under current policies. Reauthorization of the Clean Air Act, the report says, will save 4,000 more lives than the proposed Clear Skies Act. However, congressional action may be far off, as the 2004 election campaigns have put a hold on major legislation this year.

Points out that environmental forensics has evolved as a technical discipline which involves a systematic examination of environmental information to determine sources of chemical contamination, the timing of releases to the environment, the spatial distribution of contamination, and potentially responsible parties. Prediction that it will play an increasingly important role in regulatory enforcement actions and cost-recovery litigation in the U.S.

This article reports on the development of an innovative environmental law education program exclusively for judges, by the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, D.C., the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, and the Flaschner Judicial Institute in Boston in October 1990. With more environmental laws being passed each year and enforcement efforts expanding in many jurisdictions, U.S. judges are facing ever-fatter dockets of thorny environmental cases. New felony clauses in the laws and stiffer federal sentencing guidelines have led to heavier fines and longer sentences. That some prosecutors are charging corporate executives for crimes their companies commit is further evidence of an emerging get-tough attitude toward environmental crime. The environmental law education program are designed to help judges make sense out of this growing class of litigation. Although the program is designed for New England judges, it is expected to produce materials and a curriculum that will serve as a national model. Queries about the course already have come in from California, Minnesota, and Maryland. Similar programs for lawyers have been sponsored by the Environmental Law Institute since 1970, but the course for judges is thought to be the first of its kind.