This Article focuses on lessons learned from state practice in environmental justice (EJ) mapping and screening, and their relationship to the central issue of cumulative impacts—the reality that EJ communities typically suffer from a concentration of pollution sources and negative land uses as well as health and social vulnerabilities. These lessons are based on work in California and the development, use, and impact of the California Environmental Protection Agency’s CalEnviroScreen tool; the Article also examines the U.S.

While a “spaceport” may sound like a concept mostly confined to science fiction, several commercial spaceports are in operation in the United States and abroad, and more are being developed. As the name suggests, spaceports, or commercial space launch sites, are used to conduct launch and reentry operations to and from space, such as launching satellites into orbit or sending space tourists to the edge of space and back.

We are practitioners for the City of Philadelphia with extensive experience in cases and analysis regarding the extent to which the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has, or has not, preempted local regulation in various subjects of concern to the City. As City attorneys, our perspective is based in our role as advocates for the preservation and defense of the City’s exercise of its home rule powers. In considering the city-state relationship, many of the practical, political and cultural issues addressed in Prof. Richard C.

On March 11, 2019, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking to amend regulations that implement the Coastal Zone Management Act’s (CZMA’s) consistency requirement. This Article places the notice in context, focusing on the CZMA’s role in state review of offshore oil and gas development and its evolution to provide a predictable framework that balances coastal state interests with the nation’s energy needs.

Our country's landscape has changed dramatically over the last 50 years as a result of numerous governmental policies and subsidies that encourage low-density development commonly referred to as "sprawl." Sprawl results in environmental problems ranging from air pollution to wetland degradation. Our countryside is disappearing and becoming more fragmented, while urban areas are simply neglected. Moreover, this type of growth, which has gone unchecked for the latter half of this century, increases traffic congestion, strains public budgets, and deteriorates our quality of life.

The plastic packaging industry faces mounting shareholder and public pressure to reduce the environmental impact of post-consumer plastic packaging. The recycled plastics market in the United States is positioned for growth; however, developing a reliable supply of post-consumer plastics will be expensive because of problems in the recycling market. Reliance on export markets has limited investment in domestic recycling capacity, local collection programs vary considerably, and many consumers are ignorant about what can be recycled.

As climate change worsens, so does the risk of wildfires. This is especially so in already hot, dry areas such as the western United States. Adding to this problem is the rapid growth of the wildland-urban interface (WUI).

This year, 2019, marks the 20th anniversary of the removal of the Edwards Dam, one of the first functioning hydroelectric dam to be decommissioned and removed in the United States. It was also the first to be removed under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) asserted power to compel such a removal without compensation, an assertion raising legal questions that have yet to be fully resolved. As our hydroelectric infrastructure continues to age, these questions may again come to the forefront.

A number of bills have been introduced in recent years to put a price on carbon via a federal carbon tax. These proposals generally proceed from the implicit assumption that the federal government in general, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in particular, does not already have such authority. That is incorrect. Under a federal statute that has been on the books since 1952, EPA could impose a carbon “tax” any time an administration in power is willing to do so.

This Article explains that the conventional view of agency behavior—following the specific direction of the U.S. Congress or the president and using notice-and-comment rulemaking or adjudication processes—does not capture how public agencies and private entities develop innovative regulatory strategies and earn regulatory authority as a result. In particular, this Article explains how governmental agencies like the U.S.