Search Results | Environmental Law Reporter®

The Tyranny of Baselines

Many environmental law paradigms focus on fixed points. Sometimes, the fixed points are in the past, and environmental laws call upon us to look at a baseline or previous state of nature and compare our actions against it. Other approaches call for us to consider an ideal state and develop strategies regarding how to reach it. In a 4° Celsius world, both strategies fail. Adhering to baselines is meaningless and striving for goals that are unachievable may lead to paralysis.

Climate Corps: Skills-Based Training to Combat the Climate Crisis

Last September, the Biden Administration announced the American Climate Corps, a workforce training and service initiative with the goal of giving young people skills-based training for careers in the clean energy, conservation, and climate resilience sectors. The initiative will offer 20,000 Americans paid training in a variety of environmental fields, specifically prioritize equity and environmental justice, and collaborate with federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, and tribal, state, and local governments.

89 FR 13717

EPA announced the availability of and seeks comment on the draft document titled "Technical Documentation for the Framework for Evaluating Damages and Impacts (FrEDI)," which provides technical documentation of a framework used to analyze future climate change-related impacts to the United States, projected to occur across multiple impact sector categories, geographic regions, and populations, under any custom temperature scenario.

89 FR 11829

EPA announced the availability of and seeks comment on a document that describes its draft approach for implementation of the EPA label program for low embodied carbon construction materials.

89 FR 11275

EPA announced the availability of and seeks comment on the Draft Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2022.

89 FR 10019

DOI announced the dates of tribal consultation meetings to gather information to revise procedures for conducting natural resource damage assessment and restoration for hazardous substance releases.

Pay to Play? The Past, Present, and Future of Recreation Fees on Federal Public Lands

The United States has historically valued free access to most public lands. But federal land management agencies also rely on users’ fee dollars to support critical operations. This tension between “free access” and “user pays” has been an important feature of public land law since the late 1800s. The primary statute at issue is the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA), which authorizes fees at some sites while mandating free access at others.

89 FR 5572

The Bureau of Indian Affairs proclaimed approximately 1,483.03 acres as an addition to the reservation of Pascua Yaqui Tribe.

89 FR 4606

EPA announced a 30-day public comment period on draft updates to its Scientific Integrity Policy that will adopt a new federal definition of scientific integrity and meaningfully strengthen several policy elements to ensure a culture of scientific integrity at the Agency.

88 FR 89142

The U.S. Sentencing Commission seeks comment on proposed amendments to the sentencing guidelines, policy statements, and commentary.