Colorado Environmental Law Journal

      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 more than six trillion dollars in assets under management.[5] Each year, Mr. Fink sends a letter to CEOs signaling BlackRock’s investment priorities. This year Mr. Fink warned companies that climate Continue reading →

    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, as land manager, must balance a diverse set of competing interests. Although there are national parks and wilderness areas that skew management in favor of conservation, the vast majority of Continue reading →

      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 interest in the management and health of large areas of forested land,[3] which are prone to naturally occurring and human-made wildfires. Issues regarding Denver Water’s assets arose after the 1996 Continue reading →

    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 only a few effects of unchecked climate change. Among developed and developing nations alike, electricity generation creates a substantial amount of greenhouse gas emissions. This fact has led to a Continue reading →

      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 cheating and for bringing enforcement actions against any known perpetrators.[3] However, a citizen group recently brought an action to enforce Section 203(a)(3) using the Act’s citizen suit provision—the first reported Continue reading →

    “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 the context of the rights of holders of old order rights (“OORs”) to convert their transitional rights to, or to apply for, new prospecting rights or mining rights under the Continue reading →