As negotiators approach a new climate change agreement in 2015, they should consider an often-overlooked category of legal provisions included in other multilateral environmental agreements: the Montreal Protocol on the Ozone Layer; the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species; and the Basel Convention on Hazardous Wastes. Each include provisions committing their Parties to restrict trade with non-Parties in substances covered by the agreement.

Opponents of oil and gas exploration using hydraulic fracturing have been advocating bans or moratoria on use of the technology, beginning in Vermont and New York. In the summer of 2013, several state legislatures, e.g., California and Illinois, rejected bans. In November, however, local bans were passed in Colorado and Ohio. This Article explores the breakthroughs that account for the rapid expansion of increased oil and gas production in the United States, returning North America to the energy powerhouse it had been in the 20th century.

Among the many unresolved legal questions posed by the Deepwater Horizon well blowout are whether and to what extent maritime tort negligence remedies escape displacement by relevant federal statutes, including, principally, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. OPA jurisprudence over two decades holds that OPA displaces these remedies. Contrarily, however, the U.S.

We are in the midst of an unprecedented governmentwide focus on infrastructure permitting and development in the United States. Our nation’s energy industry is undergoing a significant expansion across our landscapes. Large, utility-scale solar and wind projects are springing up around the country, thousands of new oil and gas wells are being drilled each year on public and private lands throughout the United States, and new pipelines and electric transmission lines traversing the country are under construction, or are on the drawing boards.

President Barack Obama has directed EPA “to use your authority under §§111(b) and 111(d) of the Clean Air Act to issue standards, regulations, or guidelines, as appropriate, that address carbon pollution from modified, reconstructed, and existing power plants and build on State efforts to move toward a cleaner power sector.” EPA is to propose standards no later than June 1, 2014, finalize them within a year, and have approved state or federal plans in place by the end of President Obama’s term.