Recent literature describing climate change governance at the international level emphasizes the need for more comprehensive domestic action to reduce carbon emissions. To date, China’s voluntary carbon reduction schemes indicate a more centralized approach in collaboration at the ministerial level, but also suggest a piecemeal voluntary model at the local level. Fragmented climate change governance at the local level opens the door to develop laws and regulations to explore relevant theoretical positions and implementation in the field of carbon reduction.

In the magical world of Winnie the Pooh, Piglet lives in a house signposted “TRESPASSERS W.” The golden silence that follows the W allows Pooh and his friends to wonder about the sign’s meaning, which Piglet insists honors his grandfather, Trespassers William. Piglet’s grandfather aside, silence in the law allows competing interpretations to arise and flourish in the realms of rhetoric, narrative, power, and politics.

Products, processes, and whole companies are voluntarily going green today, leading the way to a whole new approach to protecting the environment. Company claims of green products, processes, and philosophy are merely so much greenwash, with little or no real substance. Both of these sharply contrasting views of business  environmentalism command passionate support today. Three questions about business environmentalism become apparent: Why is business environmentalism  important? Second, what are companies doing today and are they getting better environmental performance?

On December 9, 2011, the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions convened a broad range of stakeholders representing numerous viewpoints to explore  issues surrounding CAA §111(d), including options for states to demonstrate that existing GHG policies are equivalent to the §111(d) requirements. This Article builds upon the discussion during the December 9 workshop and considers some of the major challenges associated with categories of potentially “equivalent” state programs.

Supporters of EPA note that the Agency is responsible for only 0.06% of the U.S. national debt and 0.26% of the federal government’s budget, and argue that cutting environmental spending could make our economy worse by increasing medical costs if the Agency lacks the resources to enforce laws that protect public health.  Opponents argue that the EPA regulatory process has exploded, creating so much red tape for businesses that they are unable to hire workers and stimulate our economy. On December 9, 2011, ELI convened a seminar to examine the effect of EPA on the economy and jobs.

In an Article published in the October issue of the Environmental Law Reporter, Elisabeth Holmes and Charles Tebbutt argued that H.R. 872, a bill that would amend FIFRA and the CWA as they pertain to aquatic pesticide applications, should not be enacted. To the contrary, H.R. 872 is a commonsense approach to harmonizing regulatory obligations under FIFRA and the CWA, and it should be enacted promptly. NPDES permits for aquatic pesticide applications are not needed to protect human health and

Healthy ecosystems provide many services to society, including water filtration, biodiversity habitat protection, and carbon sequestration. A number of incentive programs and markets have arisen to pay landowners for these services, raising questions about how landowners can receive multiple payments for the ecosystem services they provide from the same parcel, a practice known as stacking. Stacking can provide multiple revenue streams for landowners and encourage them to manage their lands for multiple ecosystem services.

On May 2, 2011, EPA andthe Corps issued draft joint guidance for the interpretation of the phrase “waters of the United States” under the CWA. Determinations of CWA jurisdiction are critical for the agencies in issuing permits to fill wetlands under §404 of the CWA and in CWA enforcement actions. The proposed guidance purports to “clarify” how the agencies will “understand” existing requirements of the CWA and identify waters protected by the CWA “in light of” the holdings in Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cooke County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Rapanos v.

The difficulty of coming to agreement on comprehensive energy and climate change legislation highlights the need for a more targeted and incremental approach. One promising intermediate step would be a technology-neutral national clean energy standard for the power sector. The proposed standard would lower carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 60% relative to 2005 levels over 20 years, streamline the fragmented regulatory system, generate fiscal benefits, and finance energy innovation.