Volume 46, Issue 1

Wildfires have ravaged California in recent years. In 2018, blazes across the state killed eighty-six people and caused more than $9 billion in property damage. The year before, in 2017, wildfires killed forty people and caused at least $10 billion in property damage. California’s inverse condemnation law holds Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), the…

Those who follow Supreme Court litigation know that the Court is prone to let issues percolate in state and lower federal courts before granting certiorari. Environmental litigation is no exception. Knowing this, it seems only a matter of time before the Court revisits an intensely-litigated issue it last addressed twelve years ago—the remedies available to…

Water flows in an intricate system—a system that distributes water from high elevation landscapes, through watersheds, where it interacts with vegetation or is absorbed through soil, percolating down to groundwater aqueducts, then continues its path to the ocean where it evaporates, thus renewing the cycle. Water, as a system, is never sedentary, and it reacts…

Not only are utilities at the center of the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by using renewable energy resources to generate electricity, they also play an instrumental role in transportation electrification. Regulators across the country view utility investments in electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure as the key to igniting increased EV ownership and use. According…

The United States Declaration of Independence states that “all men . . . are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” But should any such rights extend to nonhuman entities? This paper argues that a proper allocation of an entity’s rights derives from the entity’s value to humanity. Part II provides an overview of…

“We are on the cusp of changing the legal relationship between nonhuman animals and humans. The time is now to push even harder, as hard as we can. And keep pushing until we win.” Public concern for animals has dramatically increased in recent years, particularly in the United States and other Western nations. There has…

This case note reviews Sinclair v. EPA. A case in which the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals applied Skidmore deference to review whether the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) exceeded congressional authority when the agency interpreted “disproportionate economic hardship” into the Renewable Fuel Standards program exemption extension review process. This note argues that the majority opinion…

“We are quite in the electric way. We boast that we have made electricity our slave, but the slave whom we do not understand is our master. And before we know him we shall be transformed.” —Charles Dudley Warner “The Electric Way” “We will all burn together when we burn.” —Tom Lehrer “We Will All…