In an en banc decision, the First Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part summary judgment for an environmental group in a CWA citizen suit against developers of a construction site in Massachusetts. The group argued the developers violated the CWA by failing to comply with the construction ge...
At this point in time, climate change pervades every aspect of contemporary life. It is a persistent current through our lives and, increasingly, throughout the law. One would be hard-pressed to find any area of law that has not or will not soon be touched by climate change. The onset of climate change has prompted decades worth of deep and wide efforts to reshape law and policy. Yet, alongside this development, there is also erosion.
The European Union, China, California, and a number of U.S. states in the Northeast are currently using emissions trading as part of their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, the popularity of emissions trading as a policy tool co-exists with a well-established, and increasingly politically powerful, set of critiques of it in the United States. These critiques come from environmental justice advocates as well as some academics and other observers.
The Ninth Circuit again affirmed a district court order that remanded to state court several California counties' and cities' lawsuit against oil and gas companies alleging state law claims arising from global warming. The district court concluded that none of the companies' grounds for removal—fe...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court's denial of summary judgment for environmental groups in a challenge to the Forest Service's allowance of livestock grazing in the Stanislaus National Forest. The groups argued the grazing led to fecal matter runoff that polluted streams in the area, impai...
The Fourth Circuit affirmed a district court order that remanded to state court the city of Baltimore's climate change lawsuit against oil companies. The city alleged it sustained climate change-related injuries, including an increase in sea levels, storms, floods, heatwaves, droughts, and extreme p...
The U.S. Supreme Court, 5-4, granted states' and industry groups' application for an emergency stay of a district court ruling that had vacated the 2020 Clean Water Act 401 Certification Rule. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Kagan asserted the states and groups had failed to show they would suffer ...
Efforts to hold major greenhouse gas emitters accountable for the harms caused by global climate change have been consistently frustrated at the procedural stages of litigation in U.S. federal courts. This Article explores using a combination of class action mechanisms to engage with these threshold barriers and hold carbon-major corporations responsible for climate impacts.
A district court dismissed as moot a challenge to EPA's and the Army Corps of Engineers' 2015 Clean Water Rule interpreting the phrase "waters of the United States." Ohio and Tennessee argued the 2015 rule improperly expanded the definition of "waters of the United States," giving the agencies the p...
The Fifth Circuit granted the Biden Administration's motion to stay a district court ruling enjoining federal agencies from implementing interim estimates on the social cost of greenhouse gas emissions. States had argued the president lacked authority to promulgate and enforce the estimates; that th...