The Obama administration is taking a preeminent role in improving the environment and combating climate change. One avenue for change, under a directive from President Obama, is an expansion of the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Most recently, the EPA has set forth a plan to regulate GHG emissions from existing power […]

Across the country, there is a growing trend of local governments, businesses, and non-profits taking the lead on addressing climate change by making their communities more sustainable. With the lack of Congressional support for climate change legislation[1] and the challenges facing the EPA’s recent emissions regulations,[2] local initiatives and partnerships may be among the most […]

A video called “How Wolves Change Rivers” was posted on YouTube in February 2014.[1] It was about how wolves reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in 1995 completely changed the ecosystem in a very complicated process called trophic cascade. Trophic cascade is “an ecological process which starts at the top of the food chain and tumbles […]

Following the expansion of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and horizontal drilling techniques, the United States has now entered the so-called “shale era”—a period of increased production of oil and gas from shale rock. Accompanying this shift in production is a transformation in production regulatory policies. Questions of which level of authority—federal, state or local—should regulate this […]

With the frequency of environmental litigation today, we often take for granted important judicial advancements that helped facilitate successful environmental law claims. Standing, the right to bring suit, is a fundamental element of being able to bring a claim, yet it once stood in the way of citizens and environmental organizations who sued to protect […]