Environmental Law and Policy

by Salzman, James; Thomson, Barton H., Jr.

• ISBN13: 9781599410883
• ISBN10: 1599410885
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-12-31
• Publisher: Foundation Pr

Summary

Environmental Law and Policy is a user-friendly, concise, inexpensive treatment of environmental law. Written to be read rather than used as a reference source, the authors provide a broad conceptual overview of environmental law while also explaining the major statutes and cases. The book is intended for four audiences ? students (both graduate and undergraduate) seeking a readable study guide for their environmental law and policy courses; professors who do not use casebooks (relying on their own materials or case studies) but want an integrating text for their courses or want to include conceptual materials on the major legal issues; and practicing lawyers and environmental professionals who want a concise, readable overview of the field. The first part of the book provides an engaging discussion of the major themes and issues that cross-cut environmental law. Starting with the first chapter?s brief history of environmentalism in America, the second chapter goes on to explore the importance and implications of basic themes that occur in virtually all environmental conflicts, including scientific uncertainty, market failures, problems of scale, public choice theory, etc. It then presents three dominant perspectives in the field that drive policy development ? environmental rights, utilitarianism, and environmental justice. Chapter Three fills in the remaining legal background for understanding environmental protection, reviewing the theory of instrument choice, the basics of administrative law, core concepts in constitutional law (e.g., takings, the commerce clause), and the doctrines associated with how citizen groups shape environmental law (such as standing). The second part of the book examines the substance of environmental law, with separate sections on each of the major statutes. International issues such as ozone depletion, climate change, and transboundary waste disposal are also addressed. These chapters build on the themes and conceptual framework laid down in the first part of the text in order to integrate the discussion of individual statutes into a broad portrait of the law.

Table of Contents

PREFACE	V
PART I TOOLS OF THE TRADE
CHAPTER 1 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY	1
I. Why Study Environmental Law?	1
II. A Short History of Environmental Protection in America	3
A. Natural Resources	3
B. Pollution	9
CHAPTER 2 PERSPECTIVES ON ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY	13
I. Basic Themes of Environmental Law	13
A. Scientific Uncertainty	13
B. Market Failures	16
1. Public Goods	17
2. The Tragedy of the Commons	18
3. Collective Action and Free Riders	19
4. Externalities	19
C. Mismatched Scales	21
D. Cognitive Biases	23
E. Sustainable Development	25
F. Protected Interests	27
II. Three Analytical Frameworks	28
A. Environmental Rights	29
B. Utilitarianism and Cost—Benefit Analysis	32
C. Environmental Justice	38
CHAPTER 3 THE PRACTICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION	43
I. Instrument Choice	43
A. The Regulatory Toolkit	44
1. Prescriptive Regulation	46
2. Property Rights	46
3. Financial Penalties	49
4. Financial Payments	50
5. Persuasion	51
B. Putting the Toolkit to Work	51
C. Instrument Design Issues	53
D. Where to Go from Here?	55
II. The Administration of Environmental Protection	57
A. Basics of Administrative Law	58
1. Rulemaking	60
2. Adjudication	64
III. Constitutional Issues in Environmental Policy	65
A. Congressional Powers	65
B. Legislative Delegation	68
C. Regulatory Takings	70
IV. How Citizen Groups Shape Environmental Law	75
A. Lobbying for Legislative and Administrative Action	76
B. Citizen Suits	77
C. Standing	79
PART II POLLUTION LAW
CHAPTER 4 AIR POLLUTION	87
I. The Clean Air Act	87
A. National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)	90
1. State Implementation Plans (SIPs)	94
B. New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) and Grandfathered Sources	96
C. Mobile Sources and Technology-Forcing	98
D. Trading	100
E. Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD)	108
F. Air Toxics	109
G. The CAA of Tomorrow	110
II. Ozone Depletion	111
A. The Science of Ozone Depletion	111
B. International Controls	113
C. Developing Countries	117
D. Remaining Challenges	118
E. Lessons Learned	118
III. Climate Change	120
A. The Science of Climate Change	120
B. Impacts of Climate Change	125
C. Legal Responses	127
D. Climate Change Policies — No Regrets, Trading, Joint Implementation, and the CDM	129
E. Sub-National Activity	133
F. The Future of the Climate Regime	135
CHAPTER 5 WATER POLLUTION	137
I. An Overview of Water Pollution	138
II. A Brief History of Water Quality Regulation	140
III. The Clean Water Act	142
A. Regulation of Point Sources	143
1. NPDES Permits	144
2. Publicly Owned Treatment Works	145
3. Industrial Point Sources	146
4. Existing Point Sources	148
5. New Point Sources	149
6. Industry-by-Industry Determination	150
7. Indirect Sources	151
8. Criticism of the Technological Approach	152
B. The Non-Regulation of Nonpoint Sources	153
C. Escaping Regulation as a Point Source of Pollutants	154
1. What Is a Point Source?	155
2. When Does a Point Source "Add" "Pollutants"?	156
D. Water Quality Standards	158
E. Always Cleaner, Never Dirtier	161
F. Interstate Water Pollution	162
CHAPTER 6 REGULATING TOXIC SUBSTANCES	165
I. The Difficulties of Regulating Toxic Substances	166
A. Is "Tolerable Risk" an Oxymoron?	166
B. The Problem of Uncertainty	169
1. A Paucity of Information	169
2. The Difficulty of Determining Cancer Risks	171
3. Regulating Under Uncertainty	173
II. Major Regulatory Options	175
A. Pure Health-Based Statutes	175
B. Feasibility Statutes	177
C. Risk-Benefit Statutes	179
1. Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act	179
2. Toxic Substances Control Act	180
3. "Paralysis by Analysis"	180
4. Criticisms	182
D. Informational Approaches	183
1. The Toxic Release Inventory	183
2. California's Proposition 65	185
CHAPTER 7 WASTE MANAGEMENT	188
I. The Resource Conservation Recovery Act	188
A. What is It?	190
1. Solid Waste and Strategic Behavior	190
2. Solid Hazardous Waste and Closing Loopholes	194
B. Who am I?	196
1. Generators, Transporters and TSDs	196
2. The Land Ban and Regulatory Hammers	198
C. Subtitle D	200
D. The Challenge of Pollution Prevention	202
II. The Dormant Commerce Clause and Waste Disposal	203
III. The Basel Convention	209
IV. The Comprehensive Emergency Response, Compensation and Liability Act	215
A. The Cleanup Process	218
1. Listing and Prioritization of Sites	218
2. Responses	218
B. Compensation for Response Actions	220
1. Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs)	221
2. Liability Standards	221
C. Defenses	223
1. Acts of God, War, or a Third Party	223
2. Divisibility	223
3. Small Contributors	224
4. Municipalities	224
5. Lenders	225
6. Innocent Landowners	226
7. Settlement Strategies	226
D. Brownfields	227
E. How Clean Is Clean?	228
F. Superfund Reform	230
PART III TRADE
CHAPTER 8 TRADE AND ENVIRONMENT	233
I. The Trade Debate	234
II. The GATT and WTO	237
A. Like Products and PPMs	240
B. Multilateral Environmental Agreements	245
III. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)	246
A. Environmental Provisions	248
B. Environmental Side Agreement	249
C. Chapter 11	251
IV. The Trade in Chemicals	254
PART IV NATURAL RESOURCES
CHAPTER 9 WETLANDS, ENDANGERED SPECIES, & THE PUBLIC TRUST	261
I. The Nation's Diminishing Resources	261
II. The Public Trust Doctrine	262
III. Protecting Wetlands	265
A. Rivers & Harbors Act of 1899	266
B. Section 404 of the Clean Water Act	267
1. What Are "Navigable Waters"?	267
2. What is a "Discharge" of Material?	270
3. Special Exceptions	271
4. The Permitting Process	272
5. General Permits	274
6. EPA Vetoes	275
7. Constitutional Takings Challenges	275
C. Incentive Programs	276
IV. The Endangered Species Act	277
A. Listing Species	281
B. Limits on Federal Agency Actions	283
C. Private Violations	288
1. The Prohibition on "Takings"	288
2. Incidental Take Permits	290
3. Administrative Reform Efforts	291
4. Criticisms of Section 9	292
5. Constitutional Takings Challenges to Section 9	293
D. Recovery Plans & Other Provisions	294
E. Does the ESA Work?	295
CHAPTER 10 ENERGY & WATER	298
I. The Tragedy of the Commons	298
II. Conservation	301
III. Renewable Energy	304
PART V ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENTS
CHAPTER 11 THE NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT	309
I. NEPA Grows Teeth	310
II. When Must An Agency Prepare An EIS?	313
A. Major Actions	313
B. Significantly Affecting the Human Environment	315
III. Timing	315
IV. Adequacy of the EIS	317
V. Does It Work?	320
TABLE OF CASES	323
INDEX	327