A district court denied policy groups' request to preliminarily enjoin construction of a wind energy project off the coast of Virginia. The groups argued the project should be enjoined until NMFS updates its biological opinion to include an analysis of the cumulative effects of other offshore wind p...
Development impacts many aspects of the food system, including where food is grown, how far food must travel, where distributors and retailers are placed, and who has access to fresh and nutritious food. By viewing development and its associated impacts through a sustainability and life-cycle lens, we can rethink the role of development and how communities can grow while fostering a strong, inclusive, affordable, accessible, and healthy food system. This Article focuses on the way local governments regulate development and how that impacts the food system.
In China, the year 2023 witnessed the further evolution of environmental protection and development of legislation and rulemaking. This mainly included adoption of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Ecological Protection Law, revision of the Marine Environmental Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China, and adoption of a series of judicial interpretations. This Comment summarizes some of the year’s major developments.
Sustainability promotes decisions that balance social, environmental, and economic values; antitrust seeks to preserve and promote commercial competition.
The Seventh Circuit reversed a district court's preliminary injunction prohibiting approval of a proposed land exchange in Wisconsin for construction of a high-voltage electric transmission line that would run through the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. The appellate court...
The First Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and NMFS in a challenge to BOEM's approval for construction of a wind power project off the coast of Massachusetts. A group of Nantucket residents argued NMFS violated the ESA by issuing a deficient biologic...
The First Circuit affirmed summary judgment for NMFS in a challenge to the Service's issuance of an incidental harassment authorization (IHA) for construction of a wind power project off the coast of Massachusetts. A part-time Martha's Vineyard resident argued NMFS' determination that the IHA, which...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) enforcement program has long been the backbone of environmental enforcement in the United States. That program may now be bound for dramatic change. This Article analyzes the threats posed to the Agency’s program by the U.S. Supreme Court’s forthcoming decision in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, in which three constitutional questions presented cut to the core of administrative enforcement.
Supplemental environmental projects (SEPs) have received a growing amount of attention in recent years, from the Donald Trump Administration banning their use in settlements, to regulation and guidance from the Joseph Biden Administration reversing the ban, to legislative proposals prohibiting them altogether. This Article examines SEPs’ legality under existing law, focusing on claims that they violate the Miscellaneous Receipts Act and the Antideficiency Act. It begins with a brief history of SEPs’ policy evolution and the limitations on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s and U.S.
A district court denied tribes' and conservation groups' request to preliminarily enjoin construction of a transmission line through the San Pedro Valley in Arizona. The plaintiffs argued BLM violated the National Historic Preservation Act when it authorized construction to begin without assessing t...