In June 2017, President Donald Trump confirmed that the United States will withdraw from the Paris Agreement.

China is working hard on an ambitious policy to become a world leader in addressing climate change, with plans to transform its energy policy primarily using carbon emissions trading. The National Development and Reform Commission announced on December 19, 2017, that it was deploying its National Carbon Emissions Trading Market Construction Plan for the Power Generation Industry.

The U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently proposed comprehensive changes in how the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is implemented. These address the species listing process, critical habitat designations, and the §7 consultation process. If approved, these rules could have a significant impact on species conservation in the United States. On July 31, 2018, ELI hosted a webinar that highlighted reactions to the proposed changes.

The law has been slow to acknowledge the unprecedented nature of sea-level rise. Unless and until the law adapts, past case law on coastal hazards exacerbated by sea-level rise provides the best guidance. This Article critically examines a Florida case that addressed local government liability for coastal erosion damage to a road and dramatically altered Florida law in two key respects. First, the case altered and expanded the concept of “maintenance” of road infrastructure by a local government as the baseline duty that must be met to avoid potential legal liability.

Section 404(b) of the Clean Water Act authorizes a “practicable alternatives” requirement for dredge and fill permits. EPA has adopted guidelines that set out and interpret that requirement, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has substantial discretion in deciding its application to specific sites, and there can be significant variation in practice.

With this Article, ELR News & Analysis concludes our year-long series of excerpts from Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States, forthcoming from ELI Press. We believe the urgency and importance of this topic, coupled with the book’s original, policy-oriented treatment of it, warranted extensive advance coverage. Previous installments examined an array of specific sectors across the entire U.S. economy, with many more included in the published volume.

Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement in July has the potential to significantly affect the field of environmental law for years to come. The Supreme Court’s 2019 docket includes cases that cover a litany of environmental issues, and his replacement will play a key role. For the past three decades, Justice Kennedy was a crucial swing vote on a variety of issues, including the 5-4 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA and 4-1-4 decision in Rapanos v. United States. These examples illustrate the changes that could lie ahead.

California’s marine conservation regime is a model for the world, and includes a statewide network of marine protected areas and other marine managed areas (MMAs). But management authority remains distributed across multiple government entities, potentially compromising ecosystem-based approaches and adaptive management. The University of California, Irvine School of Law's Center for Land, Environment, and Natural Resources conducted extensive interviews and roundtable discussions to explore the current framework for managing coastal water quality and monitoring in the context of MMAs.

This Article, excerpted from Michael B. Gerrard & John C. Dernbach, eds., Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States (forthcoming in 2018 from ELI Press), discusses legal impediments and solutions for customer, community, and third-party financing of behind-the-meter and community-scale clean energy generation, storage, and energy efficiency. Current levels of investment by utilities and independent power producers fall well below levels needed to meet deep decarbonization goals.

On the first Earth Day in 1970, Sen. Edmund Muskie (D-Me.) called for “a total strategy to protect the total environment.” More than 50 years later, the parameters of a “total strategy” are at last coming into view.