The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) was designed "to facilitate the prompt clean up of hazardous dumpsites by providing a means of financing both governmental and private responses and by placing the ultimate financial burden upon those responsible for the danger." CERCLA establishes a trust fund, known as the "Superfund," that can be used to finance government response actions.

Editors' Summary: The Superfund liability scheme has been heavily criticized for creating needless litigation among potentially responsible parties (PRPs) and for generating inordinately high costs and extended delays in cleaning up hazardous waste sites. This Article discusses the transaction costs and delays arising at each step in the Superfund process from initial listing of a site on the CERCLA national priorities list, through the search for PRPs, to the formation and maintenance of PRP committees and the remedial investigation/feasibility study processes.

Editors' Summary: To practice environmental law in the 1990s, it is necessary to be familiar with international trade. Trade concerns affect every aspect of environmental law from agricultural subsidies to the disparate impact of pollution abatement regulation on pricing. The following two Dialogues present an overview of the issues and insight on the relationship between international trade and the environment. The first, by a member of the Trade and Environmental Committees of the U.S.

MARK C. SCHROEDER: Let me begin by putting in context the activities and mission of the U.S. Department of Energy. I will then review the current state of regulation of radionuclides and source, special nuclear, and by-product material, and will conclude with a discussion of the future directions at the Department.

Everyone would agree that the national defense and foreign policy have been exclusively in the federal domain, and that they typically do not admit of state intervention.

Editors' Summary: On November 15, 1990, President Bush signed into law the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, the first comprehensive changes to the Act in 13 years. During the intervening months since its enactment, EPA has geared up, streamlined, and commenced its rulemaking processes to accommodate the regulatory burden the new law places on the Agency. As amended by the 1990 amendments, the Clean Air Act instructs EPA to promulgate 27 rules during each of the first two years.

Editors' Summary: On November 15, 1990, President Bush signed into law the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, the first comprehensive changes to the Act in 13 years. During the intervening months since its enactment, EPA has geared up, streamlined, and commenced its rulemaking processes to accommodate the regulatory burden the new law places on the Agency. As amended by the 1990 amendments, the Clean Air Act instructs EPA to promulgate 27 rules during each of the first two years.

Editors' Summary: On November 15, 1990, President Bush signed into law the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, the first comprehensive changes to the Act in 13 years. During the intervening months since its enactment, EPA has geared up, streamlined, and commenced its rulemaking processes to accommodate the regulatory burden the new law places on the Agency. As amended by the 1990 amendments, the Clean Air Act instructs EPA to promulgate 27 rules during each of the first two years.

Editors' Summary: In this second of a three-part series on the Clean Air Act and the 1990 amendments, the authors analyze the background of several key Clean Air Act sections, including the prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) program, new and modified source review, the national emission standard for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) program, acid deposition control provisions, and mobile source controls. The authors explore the evolution of the PSD program from its origins in Sierra Club v.

Editors' Summary: This Article is the third in a three-part series on the Clean Air Act and the 1990 amendments. The authors analyze the new permit program mandated by the 1990 amendments, which requires the creation of a state-administered permit program. The authors also analyze the enforcement mechanisms available under the Clean Air Act that are applicable to stationary sources, and the administrative procedures and judicial review provided for in the Act.

Editors' Summary: At the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992, participating nations agreed that the compatibility of environmental protection and economic development is critical to sustainable development.