Colorado Environmental Law Journal

    Introduction In the late nineteenth century, Pierre de Coubertin proposed the revival of the Olympic Games, which came to life in 1896 as the modern Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.[2] The widely popular ancient Olympic Games ceased in 393 or 394 A.D., when Roman Emperor Theodosious I rejected them as a celebration of Zeus and obstructive to the growing Christian empire.[3] When de Coubertin proposed the modern Olympic Games (the “Games”), he suggested that the heart of the Games shift from Zeus and Continue reading →

Introduction From 2006 to 2016, 60 people died, 17,000 were injured, 500,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes, and more than $2 billion in property damage occurred as a result of 15,000 incidents related to chemical plant operation safety in the United States.[2] This Note examines several of the factors that contribute to high accident rates by examining the specific events at one chemical facility during a natural disaster. Part I of this Note describes the events that occurred at the Arkema facility in Continue reading →

 Abstract Much like a pirate blockade, trade wars and tariffs slow commerce and can hurt certain industries. The current United States trade war with China has created economic stressors in the steel, aluminum, and solar industries. This Note will examine the history of tariffs in the United States and the powers of the president to shape the economic future of the country. This Note will also discuss how the steel, aluminum, and solar industries are impacted by the trade war and the possible legal paths Continue reading →

Introduction In March 2017, Congress invoked a twenty-one-year-old law—previously used only once—to invalidate a broad swath of late Obama-era regulations. The Congressional Review Act (“CRA” or “Act”), is a once obscure law that now features prominently in the national spotlight.[2] It seems apparent that until recently, few realized exactly how powerful the CRA could be. [3] Before this recent wave, the CRA was viewed as an unduly burdensome and largely useless procedural hoop.[4] Critics of the Act opine that it has little use because it Continue reading →

  Introduction On November 5, 2018, the United States Supreme Court heard arguments for Virginia Uranium, Inc. v. Warren,[2] in which a would-be uranium-mining company challenged Virginia’s thirty-year-old uranium mining ban[3] as preempted under the Atomic Energy Act (“AEA”).[4] The AEA, which governs federal regulation of nuclear materials and technology, expressly exempts uranium mining from control by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (“NRC”), making the preemption argument unlikely on its face. The petitioners nonetheless advanced several variations of their preemption claim, all dependent on a purpose-driven Continue reading →

Indian treaty fishing rights scored an important judicial victory recently when an equally divided U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Ninth Circuit’s decision in the so-called “culverts case,” which decided that the Stevens Treaties of the 1850s give the tribes a right to protect salmon migration obstructed by barrier road culverts. The implications of that decision on other habitat-damaging activities have yet to be ascertained, but even prior to the resolution of the culverts case there were significant indications that federal, state, and local administrative agencies Continue reading →

“Cui bono?” Cicero As part of the radical transformation of the mineral regime of South Africa, the African National Congress (“ANC”) government introduced the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002 (“MPRDA”) on May 1, 2004. The MPRDA not only vested mineral resources in the custody of the state but also provided for application of new rights on merit by any applicant. The MPRDA also recognized prospecting rights, mining rights, and mineral rights of the previous mineral law dispensation as old order rights Continue reading →