Category: Printed
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Out With the Old and In With the New: Modernizing Liquefied Natural Gas Regulations
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…
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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
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…
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Fire, Flood, Famine, and Pestilence: Climate Change and Federal Crop Insurance
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…
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Not Under My Backyard: The Battle Between Colorado and Local Governments Over Hydraulic Fracturing
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…
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Tribes, Treaties, and the Trust Responsibility: A Call for Co-Management of Huckleberries in the Northwest
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…
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The Case for the Creation of an International Environmental Court: Non-State Actors and International Environmental Dispute Resolution
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…
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Regional Cap-and-Trade Program to Bring “Fracking” States into 2015 Ozone Attainment
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…
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Speech: Limiting Building Height: The Story of a Citizens Initiative to Preserve Mountain Vistas and a City’s Future
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…
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Rethinking Electric Vehicle Incentives
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…
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All We Really Need to Know We Learned in Kindergarten: Share Everything (Agricultural Water Sharing to Meet Increasing Municipal Water Demands)
INTRODUCTION ♣[1]†With continuing population growth and a changing climate, Colorado’s finite water resources face unprecedented pressure. Current projections indicate that Colorado’s population will increase from the current 5.2 million people to between 8.3 and 9.2 million by 2050.[5] As a result of population growth, 2050 municipal water demand is predicted to swell by 600,000…