The Hallett Decrees and Acequia Water Rights Administration on Rio Culebra in Colorado

November 10, 2022 by Will Davidson[1]* & Julia Guarino[2]†
No comments
Figure 1: Colorado River Basins[3] I. Introduction The San Luis Valley (“the Valley”) is a broad, high-altitude valley in south-central Colorado, extending southward to the New Mexico state line. Two mountain ranges—the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east and the San Juan Mountains to the west—border the Valley. The Rio Culebra flows westward from its source in the Sangre de Cristos through the southeastern portion of the Valley toward the Rio Grande, to which it used to be tributary. A number of smaller tributary Continue reading →

Out With the Old and In With the New: Modernizing Liquefied Natural Gas Regulations

November 10, 2022 by Brenna Lee Wolcott[1]*
No comments
I. Introduction Testifying before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce in 2003, then Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan cautioned, “Today’s tight natural gas markets have been a long time in coming, and futures prices suggest that we are not apt to return to earlier periods of relative abundance and low prices anytime soon.”[2] By 2008, U.S. natural gas prices soared to a record high of $10.79 Mcf.[3] Entrepreneurs turned to Liquefied Natural Gas (“LNG”) imports to satisfy demand. During this period, the Federal Energy Continue reading →

In a Rising Sea of Uncertainty: A Call for a New International Convention to Safeguard the Human Rights of Citizens of Deterritorialized Asia-Pacific Small Island-States

November 10, 2022 by Shaun McCullough*
No comments
I. Introduction The planet is warming, both on the surface and in the oceans.[1] Warmer surface temperatures result in faster rates at which ice caps and glaciers melt, while warmer ocean temperatures lead to thermal expansion of salt-water molecules.[2] The cumulative effect of increased melting and thermal expansion is significantly higher sea levels, with a predicted global mean rise of twenty-six to eighty-two centimeters by 2100.[3] Sinking beneath these rising seas are the small island-states of the Asia-Pacific region (“APSISs”).[4] All are least developed countries Continue reading →

Fire, Flood, Famine, and Pestilence: Climate Change and Federal Crop Insurance

November 10, 2022 by Paul Janda*
No comments
I. Introduction It takes over one gallon of water to grow a single almond in California.[1] California farmers raise $5 billion of the nuts annually,[2] but because of the 2014 drought farmers let almond orchards die and bulldozed productive trees for firewood.[3] According to the United States Drought Monitor, nearly seventy-five percent of the state was blanketed by “extreme” or “exceptional” drought[4] that affected products from melons to cattle.[5] President Obama pledged nearly $200 million of relief.[6] Democratic legislators proposed hundreds of millions more in Continue reading →

Not Under My Backyard: The Battle Between Colorado and Local Governments Over Hydraulic Fracturing

November 10, 2022 by Katherine Toan*
No comments
In measure, however, history has repeated itself . . . . To all these places the oil derrick has come like a conquering army driving all before it. Farms, fields, orchards, gardens, dooryards, and even homesteads have been given over to the mad search for oil. In nearly all appear the same steps of progress; a lucky strike, the rush for leases, sudden wealth to the fortunate ones, boom towns, stock companies, and sooner or later the inevitable decline.[1] I. INTRODUCTION The State of Colorado owes a great deal Continue reading →

Tribes, Treaties, and the Trust Responsibility: A Call for Co-Management of Huckleberries in the Northwest

November 10, 2022 by Lauren Goschke[1]
No comments
  INTRODUCTION Our ancestors biggest fear, what they feared most at treaty time, was a loss of the ability to hunt, fish, and gather foods like they’d always done. That’s why they asked for these things to be included in the treaty. – Warm Springs Tribal Member[2] The first foods are the most important thing to us. When we lay out the first foods on the table it is like laying out your life, because the first foods are what sustain you. – Umatilla Tribal Continue reading →

The Case for the Creation of an International Environmental Court: Non-State Actors and International Environmental Dispute Resolution

November 2, 2022 by Alessandra Lehmen[1]*
No comments
ABSTRACT This Article aims to investigate how environmental governance unfolds in the globalized world and how the increasing level of participation of non-state actors impacts the so-called “new governance”— a process involving many levels of international, domestic, regional, and local levels of decision-making, often without the participation of governments or formal international organizations. In one respect, the instruments of the new governance are inclusive; thus, in a field where multilateral efforts have reached a stalemate and the “treaty congestion” phenomenon has developed, they could represent Continue reading →

Regional Cap-and-Trade Program to Bring “Fracking” States into 2015 Ozone Attainment

November 2, 2022 by Hannah M. Oakes[1]*
No comments
In 2015 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revised its National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone from 75 ppb to 70 ppb. This increasingly stringent standard will test the abilities of certain areas to maintain attainment, particularly areas that project continued or increasing oil and gas extraction activities in the future, like states in the Rocky Mountain region. These states have a history of wavering in and out of attainment with the ozone NAAQS and have developed sophisticated strategies to achieve attainment. However, maintaining Continue reading →

Speech: Limiting Building Height: The Story of a Citizens Initiative to Preserve Mountain Vistas and a City’s Future

November 2, 2022 by Ruth M. Wright[1]*, Charles Wilkinson[2]†
No comments
PROLOGUE This piece, a story that has long needed to be told in full, traces the evolution of the historic 1971 decision by the citizens of the City of Boulder, Colorado to place a height limit of fifty-five feet on all future buildings. Ruth Wright is the perfect person to recount this fascinating episode. She was deeply involved in accomplishing this City Charter amendment and also happens to be a careful and objective scholar as well as a writer who knows how to present an Continue reading →

Rethinking Electric Vehicle Incentives

November 2, 2022 by Michael Miller[1]*
No comments
This Note analyzes whether policies designed to promote the use and adoption of electric vehicles serve two important values: (1) that a policy’s benefits should exceed its costs and (2) that a policy furthers—or, at minimum does not frustrate—distributive justice goals. Using these two values, this Note analyzes the Colorado and federal tax credits for electric vehicle purchases, and it also analyzes a proposed government-funded interstate electric vehicle charging corridor. Although electric vehicles offer many potential environmental advantages over conventional vehicles, the tax incentives and charging Continue reading →