Colorado Environmental Law Journal

I. Introduction Three hours east of Phoenix, Arizona, the Colorado River Indian Tribes (“CRIT”), a federally recognized tribe that includes over 3,700 enrolled members of Mohave, Chemehuevi, Navajo, and Hopi descent, occupies a reservation nearly 300,000 acres in size.[2] The CRIT was one of five tribes to have its water rights confirmed in the landmark case of Arizona v. California,[3] and therefore has senior rights to 719,248 acre-feet of Colorado River water, nearly one-third of Arizona’s allocation.[4] How the CRIT came to be a single Continue reading →

I. Introduction Crude oil reservoirs often contain dissolved natural gas and when oil companies produce crude oil for sale, natural gas is often unintentionally produced as well.[2] Ideally, this natural gas is separated from the crude oil stream and piped to a market or re-injected into the oil reservoir. Perhaps the least desirable handling method is disposing of the natural gas by burning it, which is commonly referred to as “flaring.”[3] Oil producers in Nigeria are notorious for flaring this natural gas instead of putting Continue reading →

“The future depends on what you do today.” − Mahatma Gandhi I. Introduction The Great Lakes are an invaluable resource for the United States and Canada. The Great Lakes waters contain roughly twenty percent of the world’s fresh surface water and almost eighty-five percent of North America’s fresh surface water.[2] Indeed, if we were to take this water and spread it evenly across the contiguous United States, it would be nearly ten feet deep.[3] There is a tendency to describe the Great Lakes as a Continue reading →

I. Introduction The problem of how to develop and promote sustainable agricultural practices has been at the center of the larger debate over sustainable development since the 1980s.[2] As international awareness expanded about sustainable development and sustainable agriculture, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (“UNESCO”) called on nations to create “conditions for sustainable agriculture” to ensure adequate and nutritious food for a growing global population while “conserving and rehabilitating” natural resources in the early 1990s.[3] UNESCO has continued to promote sustainable agriculture into Continue reading →

I. Introduction Hydrocarbon development in the Arctic is no longer a “what if” situation; it is the here and now. The future will bring more development, as evidenced by the actions and plans of the Arctic states. Policy statements from the Arctic states suggest one unified goal for the future: protecting the environment while pursuing development.[2] The environmental risks of Arctic hydrocarbon development can never be completely eliminated, but they can be managed by efficient use of the existing regulatory framework. Currently, overlapping legal and Continue reading →

[1]*[2]**Model Law A BILL To promote the development and deployment of clean cookstoves to save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women, and combat global warming by creating a thriving global market for clean, affordable, and efficient household cooking solutions, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the [legislative organ] of the [developed country] assembled, § 1. Short Title This Act may be cited as the “Clean Cookstoves Support Act of 201[_].” § 2. Findings [Legislative organ] finds that: (1) [Name of country] is a member Continue reading →

 Introduction This Essay introduces the framework for deliberation and legislative drafting undertaken at the workshop: Drafting Model Laws on Indoor Pollution for Developing and Developed Nations on July 12-13, 2012, in Boulder, Colorado. There are a number of fundamental premises upon which the workshop was based, and this Essay refers to the most salient among them. Jurisprudential Foundation The first premise lays the jurisprudential foundation for asserting that law, as a normative construct, can and should respond to social problems. The jurisprudential premise underlying such Continue reading →

[1]*I am pleased to be here this evening to present the Fifth Annual Schultz Lecture here at the University of Colorado. I appreciate the invitation of the Law School and the generosity of the Schultz family in supporting this lecture series. I am glad to see and recognize Scott Miller, who was a key member of my staff at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and who worked on a wide range of issues relating to public lands, forestry, and renewable energy. The University Continue reading →

Abstract Roughly half the world’s people use solid biomass fuel for cooking and heating. Most cook over open fires or with stoves that burn the fuel incompletely. Nearly two million people, mostly women and children, die prematurely from inhaling the smoke and particulates. Millions of others are sickened or disabled from chronic or acute disease or disfiguring burns. The cookstoves problem also has other serious consequences. The search for fuel obliges women and children to spend much of their time gathering fuel, often in dangerous Continue reading →

I. Introduction The controversial Keystone XL pipeline (“Keystone XL” or “pipeline”), if approved, will have effects for years to come. The potential effects are not only environmental. If the pipeline is permitted and constructed, it will affect the United States’ policy on matters such as whether the nation will support the development of “dirty” tar sands oil in neighboring countries, what other sorts of pipelines the government will allow, what sort of review applications for transboundary pipelines will receive, and after the applications are approved, Continue reading →