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Vibrant Environment
Biodiversity | Climate Change and Sustainability | Environmental Justice | Governance and Rule of Law | Land Use and Natural Resources | Oceans and Coasts | Pollution Control
Innovating Environmental Protection for the Future
By Kasantha Moodley , Environmental Research Specialist, ELI Innovation Lab
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
On the first Earth Day in 1970, Sen. Edmund Muskie called for “A total strategy to protect the total environment.” At that time – and for several decades – the overarching approach was one of regulatory compliance, largely directed by government. But the next 50 years of environmental protection will not look like the first 50—they will be driven by technology as much as by regulation.
Updates on New York’s Proposed Consumer Product Labeling Requirements
By Claire Mathis, Senior Associate Health Scientist, Cardno ChemRisk, and Allison Killius, Associate Health Scientist II, Cardno ChemRisk
Monday, September 23, 2019
On August 27, the New York Supreme Court struck down the New York Household Cleansing Product Information Disclosure Program (HCPDIP), which requires manufacturers to list chemical ingredients of concern on their website. The court struck down the HCPDIP on the basis that the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) did not follow proper procedures under the State Administrative Procedures Act (SAPA). The court stated that though the department issued it as a "guidance," it was in fact a binding rule and did not follow the proper procedures in creating a formal law. The HCPDIP was declared "null and void" and remitted back to the DEC for compliance with the SAPA. In light of the court’s ruling, cleaning product manufacturers no longer have to comply with listing requirements by January 2020.
Climate Gentrification and Resilience Planning: What Is at Stake for At-Risk Communities?
By Anna Beeman, Research Associate
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
It is estimated that over 800 million people will be at risk from the impacts of rising sea levels by 2050, concentrated among 570 coastal cities across the world. Some of these cities have already started to experience the impacts of sea-level rise and storm surges, which has catalyzed efforts by governments and individuals to begin preparing for more projected effects.
ESA Implementing Regulations Revised & Released
By Barbara D. Craig, Partner, Stoel Rives LLP, and Cherise M. Gaffney, Partner, Stoel Rives LLP
Monday, September 16, 2019
On August 12, 2019, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (together the “Services”) jointly announced final revisions to their regulations for listing and delisting species, making critical habitat designations, and undertaking consultations with federal agencies under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The final rules are here. These rules become effective 30 days from publication.
Data and Information Technology for the Environment: The Earth’s Environment Needs the Best Tools Too
By Wayne S. Balta, Vice President, Corporate Environmental Affairs & Product Safety, IBM Corporation
Friday, September 13, 2019
Our world is flooded with data, and the amount of data continues to increase exponentially. In a prior era, data primarily meant numbers. They were rather orderly, and they would typically be presented in a relatively structured way. That’s not the case today, however.
Data now are far more diverse and unstructured: words from a document that has been scanned into a computer; content of texts and tweets; website URLs; and photos and videos and more. And the continued generation of these data is what’s normal in our world today. If you’re a young adult, a student, or a child, this characterizes the world into which you were born, and it’s normal to you.
Bearing Witness: The Environmental Law Institute at Age 50
By Nicholas A. Robinson, University Professor on the Environment, Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
In the 1960s, a time of extreme air and water pollution across America, governments manifestly were failing to sustain a healthy environment. The conservation victories of the late 19th century and of the Progressive era in the 1920s had proven to be necessary but not sufficient. In April of 1965, the Conservation Foundation (CF) scoped out the growing threats to the North American environment with a conference at Airlie House just outside of Washington, D.C. Clearly, policies and laws were lacking.
Federalism as a Zero-Sum Game?
By ELR Staff
Monday, September 9, 2019
In recent years, “competitive federalism” between U.S. states and the federal government has spread to encompass environmental regulation. After EPA issued the Clean Power Plan in 2015, more than one-half of the states filed lawsuits alleging that EPA’s plan encroached upon state authority to determine energy policy. Between 2009 and 2017, Texas alone sued the Obama Administration at least 48 times, many of those suits over EPA action regarding air and water quality standards. While the pollution control laws passed in the 1970s were founded upon “cooperative federalism,” competitive federalism has resulted in a zero-sum rhetoric that pits environmental protection against economic growth.
In Search of "Bricklayers": Building and Reinforcing the Foundations of Private-Sector Sustainability
By Alan B. Horowitz, Co-Founder, Green Street USA and Principal and Managing Director, Trusted Companies LLC
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
I have a confession: I can’t stand the “what’s your occupation” question—credit card applications, cocktail parties, whatever. I find it limiting and often irrelevant. Truth be told, I haven’t known how to answer the question for years. “Environmental, Health, and Safety Executive?” “Sustainability Leader?” “ESG Champion?” The reality is that my default answer has become “recovering environmental lawyer” but I worry that’s insensitive . . . !
Trade, Tourism, and Trophies—The Elephant in the Room
By John Cruden, Principal, Beveridge & Diamond, P.C., Catherine Novelli , President, Listening for America, and Dan Ashe, President, Association of Zoos and Aquariums
Friday, August 30, 2019
Elephants are amazing animals and perhaps our most enduring mental image of Africa—large, untamed, inexhaustible. That image can also distract us from the unpleasant historical and current realities of colonization and exploitation of Africa and Africans, including African elephants. Evidence of this is like air, it’s all around us. So, like air, it goes unseen, like the fresco above the south entrance to the Federal Trade Commission building, here in Washington, D.C., portraying an obviously western man, extending a money bag to an apparently African man, who is on bended knee and holding an ivory tusk.
Single-Use Plastic Bans Bring Unintended Consequences for People Experiencing Homelessness and Developing Countries
By Cynthia R. Harris, Staff Attorney; Director of Tribal Programs; Deputy Director of the Center for State, Tribal, and Local Environmental Programs
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
First plastic bags, then straws, and now . . . miniature toiletries.
In a world where half the plastic produced globally is packaging we use just once, and only nine percent of all plastic is recycled, a consumer tide against single-use plastics is sweeping up grocery retailers, restaurants, and now the hospitality industry.
