Editor's Summary: Creating law and policy for protection of the atmosphere is a complicated and contentious process. There are a great many stakeholders with different perspectives, and the federal government has taken a measured approach to responding to the evolving economic, technological, and scientific data on the state of the air in the United States and worldwide. Therefore, the states and the judiciary have taken on increasingly central roles as national policymakers in the areas of air pollution and climate change. In this Article, E. Donald Elliott, Bret C. Cohen, Ari G.

Editor's Summary: The federal courts of appeal are currently engaged in debate over the increase in probability of future harm that must be demonstrated by petitioners to establish a cognizable injury for Article III standing purposes. Two recent decisions in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (D.C.) Circuit--one withdrawn and replaced by the other--may herald a new, quantitative approach to standing analysis with great implications for environmental law. In this Article, Cassandra Sturkie and Nathan Seltzer review these D.C.

Editors' Summary: Justice Antonin Scalia and others have described the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers'(the Corps') administration of the CWA §404 permitting process as burdensome and inefficient. Empirical data gathered from the Corps, however, do not bear out this assessment. In this Article, Kim Diana Connolly evaluates data collected from Corps Customer Service Surveys as well as the apparent disconnect between applicant experiences and the public's negative perception of the permitting process.

Editors' Summary: In this Article, Michael Allen Dymersky and Jesse J. Richardson Jr. examine the widespread rule of judicial review that a court should not consider evidence of motive in reviewing legislative actions by local government. They evaluate the rule in the context of a rezoning case in Highland County, Virginia, in which a group of plaintiffs conclusively established that improper motive prompted one supervisor to vote in favor of rezoning the subject property.

Editors' Summary: On February 21, 2007, the Environmental Law Institute hosted a seminar on law and policy for ecosystem services. After the moderator provided an overview of the challenges and opportunities for regulation of ecosystem services, the panelists shared their expertise on a range of topics surrounding this issue, including the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the economics of ecosystem services, differences between provisioning services and regulating services, and information and incentive programs for the private sector. Below is a transcript of the event.

Editors' Summary: Most popular and scholarly attention paid to biodiversity conservation has focused on federal efforts such as the ESA or international regimes like CITES. However, U.S. states have long taken action to protect biodiversity before the federal government. In this Article, Susan George discusses states'roles in biodiversity conservation, including jurisdictional issues and the authority upon which the states base their programs, new protection efforts, and what can be expected from states in the coming years.

Editors' Summary: Law and policy have traditionally lagged behind economics and ecology as fields addressing the value and protection of ecosystem services. Environmental lawyers and policymakers need to work to close the gap in ecologist- and economist-dominated discourse on these vital services. In this Article, Ira R. Feldman and Richard J. Blaustein examine the potential intersections of ecosystem services and law and policy. They discuss how economic considerations like valuation, scale, and uncertainty might figure in the policy opportunities for ecosystem services.

Editor's Summary: A commonly cited rationale for environmental protection is the ethical obligation to protect the planet and its resources for the

Editors' Summary: On February 6, 2007, the Environmental Law Institute hosted a seminar to discuss the environmental implications of the growing business of marine aquaculture. This seminar was the fifth event in the Oceans seminar series. After the moderator offered introductions, the panelists discussed a range of issues, including the current environmental challenges facing aquaculture, laws and policies that regulate existing aquaculture practices, and expanding and emerging sectors such as offshore aquaculture. The seminar concluded with a question-and-answer period.

Editor's Summary: Many environmentalists consider active environmental litigation in developing countries to be a positive development. However, in Pakistan, a country that encourages public interest litigation, this system poses serious institutional and legal problems that may hinder the development of an effective national response to environmental challenges. Those litigating for environmental protection in Pakistan may be relying too heavily on the courts to take measures that should be within the jurisdiction of the Pakistan EPA. In this Article, Dominic J. Nardi Jr.