Category: Volume 32
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The BLM’s Duty to Incorporate Climate Science into Permitting Practices and a Proposal for Implementing a Net-Zero Requirement into Oil and Gas Permitting
Introduction: “Climate risk is investment risk.” The statement applies to asset managers, whether the investment is money or land. “Climate risk is investment risk,” announced Larry Fink in a letter to CEOs this January.[4] Mr. Fink is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock, the largest money-management firm in the world, with…
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Monuments in Name Only: The Delay Between Designation and Protection of National Monuments
Introduction Public lands are some of America’s most valuable resources. To many, they embody the idealized, picturesque version of the wild and connect us to the land. For others, public lands are a means for industry, with cheap access to grazing or mineral deposits. Because these public lands belong to everyone, the government,…
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Reimagining What is Necessary: Using Active Management in Wilderness Areas to Mitigate High-Loss Wildfires
Introduction Denver Water is a water utility that serves a million and a half customers in and around the Denver Metro Area.[2] Much of its supply comes from surface water, which originates as rain and melting snow from the Rocky Mountains and travels through streams and rivers. This gives the utility significant…
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Reducing Emissions Through Renewable Energy: EU and U.S. Energy Policy Frameworks in the Age of Natural Gas
Calls to combat climate change are reaching deafening levels across the international community. Study after study shows the links between anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and the devastating effects on our planet’s changing climate. Catastrophic species loss, fundamental changes in ecosystems across the globe, and food and water scarcity forcing millions into poverty are…
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Citizen Suits for Mobile Sources: Enforcement Against Incidents of Emissions Cheating
Introduction Section 203(a)(3)(A) and (B) of the Clean Air Act (“CAA” or “the Act”) contain provisions that prohibit tampering with any vehicle’s emission control device or installing a “defeat device” which would render the vehicle’s emission controls inoperative.[2] The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has been the primary authority for detecting such emissions…
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Priority Disputes Between Holders of Old Order Mineral Rights and Holders of Prospecting Rights or Mining Rights Under the MPRDA in South Africa: Aquila has Landed (Continued)
“Oh no, I see a darkness”[2]¥ As part of the radical transformation of the mineral regime of South Africa, the African National Congress government introduced the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002 (“MPRDA”) on May 1, 2004. In a previous contribution, the transitional provisions of the MPRDA were discussed within…
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Political Accountability and Judicial Review in the Context of Climate Change Regulation
Introduction In the absence of comprehensive climate change legislation, federal agencies are left to use the regulatory tools granted to them by existing environmental laws to address the challenges posed by greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions and climate change. These laws, including the Clean Air Act (“CAA”), the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”), and…
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What’s Mine is Yours: An Analysis of the Federal Laws Used to Compensate the Navajo Nation and Remediate Abandoned Uranium Mines and Mills on the Reservation
Introduction The United States monopolized radioactive ore during the Cold War era, incentivized uranium mining on the Navajo Nation, and manipulated the Navajo government into approving mining leases. This Note argues that the United States should remediate the numerous radioactive waste sites on the Navajo Reservation and compensate the Navajo Nation for…
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The Little Colorado River Project: Is New Hydropower Development the Key to a Renewable Energy Future, or the Vestige of a Failed Past?
Introduction The Colorado Plateau consists of a series of stunning plateaus and mesas, all situated within a larger basin.[2] Despite being categorized as an arid region, perhaps the most crucial element in shaping the Plateau’s geography, as well as its human past, is its hydrology. The principal water body on the…
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Let My People Go Fishing: Public Stream Access and Navigability on Colorado’s Rivers
Introduction Every year in June, as snow in the high country melts and fills Colorado’s rivers, there is a gathering in the small mountain town of Salida. The festival is known as FibArk, and people from all over the country bring rafts, kayaks, tubes, and all manner of vessels to float down…