Colorado’s SB 19-181 and the COGCC Rules are First of Their Kinds, yet Still Not Enough

  Introduction It was April 2017 when a gas explosion destroyed a home in Firestone, Colorado and killed two people—brothers-in-law Mark Martinez and Joey Irwin.[2] The explosion was caused by a severed gas line, likely cut when the home was built years earlier.[3] In the investigation that followed, it was determined that non-odorous gas had been leaking into the family’s home for months.[4] The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (“COGCC” or “Commission”) levied a fine against the oil and gas company responsible for the Continue reading →

Sleight of Land: The Socioenvironmental Impacts of Global Land Trade in the International Investment System

Introduction Global land trade has become a subversive form of neocolonialism that obscures environmental exploitation and human rights abuses. It involves the importation and exportation of land in the international market through purchase or lease. Most of the land that is foreignized through this process is in the Global South.[2] Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, interest in undeveloped land in South America, Africa, and Asia has increased.[3] The targets are often, although not exclusively, less-developed former colonies in the Global South that have Continue reading →

Tribal Consultation: Toward Meaningful Collaboration with the Federal Government

One of the bedrock principles of federal Indian law is a centuries-old understanding that the tribes, as “domestic dependent nations,” have a “government-to-government” relationship with the federal government, which has a trust obligation concerning the tribes, their sovereignty, and their cultural resources. Although this relationship was first judicially articulated in the nineteenth century, it was interpreted to require federal “consultation” with the tribes under a series of executive orders beginning in the 1970s and the National Historic Preservation Act (“NHPA”). However, this government-to-government consultation has Continue reading →