Following a turbulent transition and in the midst of a global pandemic, Joseph R. Biden was inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States on January 20, 2021. In its first year, the Biden Administration prioritized climate and environmental justice initiatives through executive actions, legislation—including the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—and international agreement at the 2021 Conference of the Parties in Glasgow.
Seventy phosphogypsum stacks are scattered throughout the United States, concentrated in low-wealth and Black, indigenous, and people of color communities. These radioactive waste heaps have a long history of failures, and present a substantial hazard and unreasonable risk of harm. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should swiftly move to regulate these environmental and public health hazards. This Article examines the regulatory failures that have given rise to the proliferation of phosphogypsum stacks in vulnerable communities and sensitive environments in the United States.
This Article discusses how disparate environmental burdens can be addressed using environmental justice (EJ) screening tools. It identifies states that have developed state-specific EJ screening tools, analyzes these tools’ functions, and identifies strategies to overcome resistance to them. The authors conducted interviews with multiple stakeholder groups to understand how state-specific screening tools are used, and make a series of recommendations for states to follow as they proceed in their efforts to develop EJ screening tools.
More than 50 years ago, Franklin Kury drafted and championed an Environmental Rights Amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution. His book, The Constitutional Question to Save the Planet: The Right to a Healthy Environment (ELI Press 2021), expands upon the story of his amendment to demonstrate how its principles can be the basis for addressing climate change in the rest of the world.
Evaluating government programs is a relatively new idea for China’s government and policymakers. Many policies and programs continue to be evaluated based on procedural standards rather than on actual performance. This Article investigates how program evaluations and the knowledge they produce find their way into China’s environmental policy.
As in prior years, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 contains a variety of provisions setting U.S. Department of Defense priorities for energy, environmental, and natural resource issues. These include measures that represent some degree of consensus on these often-politicized topics.
In 2009, when carbon dioxide (CO2) levels were at 387.43 parts per million, the Center for Biological Diversity and 350.org submitted a citizen petition calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take steps necessary to institute a national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under §§108-110 of the Clean Air Act (CAA). For 12 years, the petition was simply ignored. Then, the day President Donald Trump left office, outgoing EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler issued a letter denying the petition.
This Comment asserts that hiring outside counsel in complex, specialized matters and recovering enforcement costs is crucial for local jurisdictions across the nation, especially in the code enforcement and nuisance abatement context, and discusses the California Court of Appeal's decision in City of Norco v. Mugar as a signal to cities and counties that access to outside legal counsel in the realm of code enforcement is squarely permissible and clearly necessary under California law.
Despite existing laws, communities across the United States are exposed to dangerous environmental conditions that can have devastating effects on public health. One emerging mechanism to address these issues are “green amendments,” self-executing provisions added to a state constitution that recognize and protect the rights of all people, including future generations, to pure water, clean air, and a stable climate.