With continued globalization of the food system and the increasing number of agricultural products traded on the world market, concerns regarding food safety standards in other countries led Congress to pass the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) to better guard against outbreaks of foodborne illnesses. As FDA finalized the FSMA rules just last year, food safety experts began to fear that those new regulations could be undone if Congress ratified the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). This may seem a moot issue now that Pres. Donald J .

Carbon dioxide and other substances injected as part of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) have the potential to migrate beyond the confines of the injection project, creating the potential for trespass. In order for CCS to be viable, legal clarity on the issue of subsurface trespass is required. This Article argues that the challenge of subsurface trespass associated with CCS can be overcome by conceptualizing pore space rights in the storage complex as limited common property with rights of proportionate use.

Disasters and emergencies come in all shapes and sizes. Some are man-made while others are a result of natural events. The federal government has a system in place under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act that assists states in recovering from disasters and emergencies by providing federal relief in the form of funds and resources. However, this current system fails to appropriately address disasters that occur over a longer period of time.

Editors' Summary: TSCA provides EPA with broad authority to address potential hazards posed by the manufacture, processing, distribution in commerce, use, and disposal of chemical substances and mixtures. In this first of a three-part series, the authors begin a detailed examination of the statute and regulatory program. They review the origins, objectives, and key components of TSCA, and then analyze TSCA's scope -- focusing particularly on definitional issues and exclusions.

Today, nuclear technology is used in a variety of applications, including energy, medicine, research, and agriculture. These applications produce waste that is radioactive and, therefore, harmful to humans for a certain period of time. Radioactive wastes are generally sorted into three categories based on how radioactive the waste is: low-level waste; intermediate-level waste; and high-level waste (HLW). The storage and disposal of HLW poses a challenge because of the level of radiation emitted from this waste and/or the longevity of the radiation.

Each presidential election brings the possibility of large-scale changes in environmental policy. Pres. Donald Trump has not explicitly laid out ocean policies for his new administration, but he has provided some clues; these policies ultimately will be important for the ecological and economic health of the United States and the world. On December 9, 2016, ELI convened a panel of experts to discuss some key ocean issues that the Trump Administration will face. This Dialogue presents a transcript of the discussion, which has been edited for style, clarity, and space considerations.

Under the ESA, areas that otherwise qualify as critical habitat “may” be excluded from a designation if the government determines that the benefits of exclusion would outweigh the benefits of inclusion, and if the exclusion would not result in the species’ extinction.

Environmental law and environmental protection are often portrayed as requiring trade offs: “jobs versus environment;” “markets versus regulation;” “enforcement versus incentives.” In the summer of 2016, members of the Environmental Law Collaborative gathered to consider how environmentalism and environmental regulation can advance beyond this framing to include new constituents and offer new pathways to tackle the many significant challenges ahead.

As renewable energy becomes more cost-effective, there are increasing calls to leave traditional fossil fuel resources “in the ground.” But our ability to do so is constrained both by current technology and by the existing legal and policy structure. This Article examines the improvements in renewable energy technologies and their limitations and economic implications and discusses the challenges facing federal and state attempts to mandate and encourage renewable energy as a result of recent federal court and agency decisions.

On November 4, 2016, DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division convened an extraordinary group of legal scholars and practitioners to discuss “The Future of Environmental Law.” Speaking before the presidential election but mindful of the transition possibilities, the symposium panelists identified and discussed cutting-edge issues in administrative law, natural resources law, and environmental enforcement that will be crucial going forward for both government lawyers and the environmental law profession as a whole.