President Obama signed an Executive Order on January 18, 2011, requiring federal agencies to design cost-effective, evidence-based regulations that are compatible with economic growth, job creation, and competitiveness. The guiding principles include analysis of costs and benefits, transparency, public participation, coordination of regulations among agencies, flexibility, and reliance on objective scientific evidence. Perhaps most significantly, the EO requires a review of existing regulations according to these principles.

With soaring gas prices, international commitments to reduce carbon emissions, and domestic pressure to reduce dependence on foreign oil, there is significant momentum for the development of alternative energy within the United States. As a mature existing technology, wind energy is the fastest growing source of domestic alternative energy. However, the local siting of wind turbines has been rife with conflict.

In 2010, China continued its environmental development goals outlined in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan passed in 2006. This annual review surveys the major developments in Chinese environmental law and policy in the past year. The Article covers developments in international environmental law, water and soil conservation, and other law and policy developments in environmental protection in China in the past year.

Since the passage of the Toxic Substances Control Act in 1976, EPA has struggled with implementation of the law, and with intermittent initiatives has explored, proposed, and attempted solutions to key chemicals management challenges. The successes or failures of TSCA (or any environmental policy for that matter) are not simply an issue of statutory language. Passage of legislation, even well-written and well-intended, is only the first step in successful implementation of a policy.

Proponents of the precautionary principle argue that it should be rigorously applied to ensure the safety of human activities that potentially impact public health or welfare before those activities commence.

A proposed alternative for reducing GHG emissions—payiing developing countries to forego fossil fuel exploitation in tropical forests, or "compensated moratoria"—could serve an important role in future climate change regulation. Ecuador's proposal to impose a moratorium on oil exploitation in the Amazon rainforest—the Yasuní-ITT Initiative—illustrates how compensated moratoria could help to improve the shortcomings of prevailing policy mechanisms for mitigating GHG emissions in developing countries.

Section 9 of the ESA boldly declares that any harm perpetrated upon a listed species, even a single animal, is illegal. Yet, the Incidental Take Permit provision of the ESA expressly allows nonfederal landowners to harm thousands, possibly millions, of listed species every year. Despite this obvious statutory contradiction, the system makes sense—if executed correctly.

Competing theories exist for how intergenerational investment projects, such as investments related to global warming, natural resources, energy, etc., should be undertaken. In particular, there are two popular prescriptions: (1) In making intergenerational investments, policymakers should use a zero discount rate; and (2) In making intergenerational investments, policymakers should use the market rate. Neither of these prescriptions is correct. Indeed, using present-value discounting at all is extremely problematic.

Offshore areas are under pressure to industrialize for renewable energy. To plan for offshore wind development, Rhode Island engaged in a marine spatial planning process that resulted in the Ocean Special Area Management Plan (O-SAMP), a regulatory invention of the Coastal Zone Management Act. Notably, the Rhode Island O-SAMP maps and plans for uses in federal waters beyond the three-mile line dividing state and fedeal jurisdiction, as well as within the state's territorial sea, posing a challenge to the boundaries of offshore federalism.

Abundant, inexpensive, and lower in emissions than traditional coal power sources, natural gas is expected to play an enormous role in our energy future. Although the drilling technique of hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" has made it possible to extract natural gas from "plays," such as the Marcellus Shale Play, some members of the public have become increasingly concerned about problems alleged to be associated with fracking and drilling, such as groundwater contamination and air pollution.