At this point in time, climate change pervades every aspect of contemporary life. It is a persistent current through our lives and, increasingly, throughout the law. One would be hard-pressed to find any area of law that has not or will not soon be touched by climate change. The onset of climate change has prompted decades worth of deep and wide efforts to reshape law and policy. Yet, alongside this development, there is also erosion.
President Joe Biden’s Executive Order No. 14008 of January 2021 called for the Administration to conserve at least 30% of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030. To accomplish this ambitious “30 by 30” effort, the Order directed federal agencies to work with tribal governments, among others, to propose lands and waters as qualifying for conservation. This Comment examines "areas of critical environmental concern" and their potential role in the 30 by 30 program, particularly their potential to enlist tribal governments in helping to manage lands of tribal cultural significance.
The European Union, China, California, and a number of U.S. states in the Northeast are currently using emissions trading as part of their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, the popularity of emissions trading as a policy tool co-exists with a well-established, and increasingly politically powerful, set of critiques of it in the United States. These critiques come from environmental justice advocates as well as some academics and other observers.
The president issued Executive Order No. 14072, Strengthening the Nation's Forests, Communities, and Local Economies; among other things, the order directs federal agencies to inventory old-growth and mature forests on federal lands and develop policies to protect them from threats like wildfire and climate change, and to develop a federal goal for meeting agency-specific reforestation targets by 2030.
NMFS announced the availability of and seeks comment on draft Climate Science Regional Action Plans designed to increase the production, delivery, and use of climate-related information in its stewardship of the nation's marine resources.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finalized revised fuel economy standards for passenger cars and light trucks for model years 2024-2025 that increase at a rate of eight percent per year, and increase at a rate of 10 percent per year for model year 2026 vehicles.
EPA seeks comment on a proposed analysis of the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions associated with certain biofuels that are produced from canola oil; the Agency proposed to approve these fuel pathways, making them eligible to generate renewable identification numbers.
The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed amendments to its rules that would require registrants to provide certain climate-related information in their registration statements and annual reports under the Securities Act of 1933 and Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Efforts to hold major greenhouse gas emitters accountable for the harms caused by global climate change have been consistently frustrated at the procedural stages of litigation in U.S. federal courts. This Article explores using a combination of class action mechanisms to engage with these threshold barriers and hold carbon-major corporations responsible for climate impacts.
On January 28, 2021, President Joseph Biden issued Executive Order No. 14008 initiating the “30 by 30” program to “conserve” 30% of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030, but to date, the Administration has yet to clarify the standards defining "conservation" lands. In September 2021, Nada Culver, the acting director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and Chris French, the deputy chief of the Forest Service’s National Forest System (NFS) confirmed at an annual Public Lands Council meeting that they believe the nation’s grazing lands “should [be] include[d]” in the 30 by 30 count.