Natural Resources Law and Policy
Authors:
Eagle, Josh / Salzman, James E. / Thompson Jr., Barton H.
Edition:
1st
Copyright Date:
2017
23 chapters
have results for Oil and Gas
Chapter 11. Fossil Fuels 91 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Few landowners drill their own wells, but instead contract with private companies to explore and drill for wells under
- Despite the correlative rights doctrine, conservation laws, and unitization, the rule of capture nonetheless remains the bedrock of oil and gas law in the United States and continues to encourage competitive drilling and overproduction of oil and gas. A telling statistic: although the United States accounts for less than 15% of the world’s oil production, it has more than 80% of the world’s oil wells.
- The rule of capture, of course, creates a commons—with all the tragic consequences that follow. All property owners overlying an oil and gas reservoir have an incentive to extract the resource as quickly as possible—before their neighbors do. Overlying owners will continue to pump, moreover, even if the oil and gas market is currently saturated. This can lead to investments that would be unnecessary if everyone were not in a race to capture the oil and gas before others do (a problem known as “overinvestment”). To get as much oil out of the ground as quickly as possible, overlying owners will construct more wells than needed. If no one currently wants to buy the oil and gas, moreover, the owner will need to store the resource, requiring the owner to pay money for a storage facility. The glut of oil being produced from the field will also reduce the price at which everyone can sell the oil and gas, whether now or in the future, reducing everyone’s profits (although benefitting...
- governs the leasing of federal land for oil and gas development. Approximately 570 million acres of federal land in Alaska and the continental United States, including most BLM lands and national forests, are open for oil and gas leasing. In deciding which lands to lease within this vast territory, the BLM follows the standards for multi-use planning discussed in Chapter 9—balancing the public benefits of oil and gas leasing against alternative uses of the land, including recreational and environmental uses. Oil companies frequently suggest lands that they believe should be leased, after which the BLM will examine the lands to see if leasing the lands for oil and gas purposes is appropriate.
- Oil and gas rights are a form of real property known as a A landowner can separate, or sever, the mineral estate from the rest of his or her land and transfer the mineral estate to another party. By doing this, the landowner creates two separate property interests: a surface estate and a mineral (or subsurface) estate. The mineral estate, of course, is only valuable if the owner also has the right to access the oil and gas. As a result, when a landowner conveys the mineral estate to a third party, that party also receives the right to use as much of the surface as necessary to access the oil and gas, even if he does not own the surface estate.
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Chapter 12. Energy Policy 61 results (showing 5 best matches)
- United States production of energy looks very similar to the nation’s consumption. Fossil fuel production dominates over both renewables and nuclear energy, although the production of renewables has grown over 40% in the last decade—led primarily by an increase in wind power. As Figure 12–2 shows, natural gas production leads the way among the fossil fuels, with production levels almost double those for either coal or petroleum. Over the last decade, the nation’s production of natural gas, aided by various new technologies (including fracking), has increased substantially, while coal production has shrunk. Petroleum production is up too. Indeed, from 2011 through 2015, the United States was the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world. The United States remains a net importer of petroleum, given the nation’s huge demand for it, although the United States now exports oil to some countries. The nation has long been a net exporter of both coal and natural gas.
- These various concerns do not always point to the same solutions. The federal government and a number of states, for example, currently subsidize the U.S. production and sale of biofuels, including corn-based ethanol. This policy reduces, at the margin, our reliance on foreign oil and thus may help address national security concerns. Because fossil fuels are needed to grow and process corn, however, greenhouse gas emissions from corn-based ethanol is at best only slightly better than gasoline for climate change, and some studies suggest that greenhouse gas emissions are actually greater in the case of corn-based ethanol when examined over its entire lifecycle. Because biofuel prices are linked to oil prices in the global market, greater reliance on biofuels also fails to insulate the United States from economic disruptions.
- Energy conservation offers one of the cheapest and fastest ways of reducing the nation’s use of fossil fuels. In many cases, energy conservation pays for itself in reduced energy costs. Energy conservation, moreover, addresses all three of the long-term energy concerns outlined in the last section. Conservation reduces greenhouse gas emissions, lowers our reliance on foreign oil, and softens the impact of increased oil prices. Energy conservation is thus a win-win-win solution.
- President Donald Trump entered office denying the existence of climate change and calling for greater fossil fuel production in the United States. In President Trump’s view, the answer to petroleum insecurity and fluctuating prices is to achieve energy independence. Greater production of fossil fuels in the United States will also help increase employment, particularly for blue-collar workers, a major goal of the Trump administration. In 2016, the oil and gas industry and coal industry each employed approximately 200,000 workers. Employment in the fossil fuel industries, however, was significantly off its peak. (None of this is to say that renewables are not also good sources of employment. In 2016, employment in the solar industry exceeded employment in fossil fuel extraction for the first time ever.)
- A final energy concern is the impact of high oil prices, and large swings in those prices, on the nation’s economy. From the mid-1980s until the first several years of this century, oil generally sold on the world market for less than $25 per barrel, and average gasoline prices in the United States were less than $1.50 per gallon. Oil prices broke through $30 per barrel in 2003, however, and ultimately rose to almost $150 per barrel in July 2008 (with average gasoline prices climbing over $4 per gallon), until the economic recession of late 2008 and 2009 helped bring the price back down. Over the last five years, the price of oil has ranged from over $100 per barrel to less than $30 per barrel. At the time this book went to press, the oil price hovered slightly over $50 per barrel, but no one knows which direction it will head next.
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Index 57 results (showing 5 best matches)
Chapter 9. Federal Public Lands and Ocean 97 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Forests supply timber for construction, offer a wide variety of recreational opportunities, and help store and cleanse fresh water as it makes its way downstream. Remote and vast expanses of desert are home to endangered species, mining, multihued canyons, solar farms, and priceless petroglyphs. The ocean surrounding our country produces millions of tons of seafood, hundreds of millions of barrels of oil, and billions of cubic feet of natural gas, while at the same time providing acre upon acre of habitat for fish, seabirds, and marine mammals.
- The federal government uses contracts, leases, and permits to grant resource extraction rights on the public lands. The Forest Service, for example, uses contracts to grant timber harvest rights. The BLM leases the right to explore for and extract oil and gas on its lands. Both the Forest Service and BLM issue permits for grazing. The government generally can cancel a permit without liability. Where the government has issued a formal sale or lease contract, however, the purchaser or lessee typically can sue the government for breaches, as explained in Chapter 3.
- gives nearby states the right to object to, although not to override, federal permits for oil and gas activities between three and 200 nautical miles. Moreover, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act gives some coastal states a direct share of oil royalties generated by production in the EEZ.
- In addition to managing federal public lands, the United States also manages public use in the ocean areas from three to 200 nautical miles off its shores. (Congress has given the states primary responsibility for managing use out to three nautical miles.) Under international law, the United States has the exclusive right to take natural resources such as fish, oil, and natural gas in this area, known as the “Exclusive Economic Zone” or EEZ. The United States’ EEZ includes more than two billion acres, making it about the same size as the entire, terrestrial United States!
- Process is the gateway for public input into agency decisions. Public input generally helps agencies make better decisions for several reasons. First, the public can provide agencies with information that they do not already possess. This information can be scientific or economic (e.g., how many people use a wilderness area or data on the impact of oil and gas exploration on wildlife protection). The public also can bring new information to an agency’s attention, such as new or potential public uses of an area of public land.
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Table of Cases 4 results
Table of Contents 18 results (showing 5 best matches)
Summary Of Contents 9 results (showing 5 best matches)
Chapter 13. Hardrock Mining 57 results (showing 5 best matches)
- One of the most common forms of mineral rights is the mineral lease. Mineral leases are very similar to oil and gas leases. A lease provides a possessory right to develop a mineral deposit, generally for a set term of years, but the term is usually extended indefinitely during mineral production. As a possessory right the lessee may exclude others from the leased land. The mineral lessee receives the right to extract minerals along with any necessary rights of access and surface use. The landowner receives compensation for the lease in the forms of bonus payments, royalties, and/or rentals, and retains ownership of the land. Once the lease term expires, the right to full use of the land returns to the landowner.
- The discovery also needs to be staked so that it is readily identifiable and its boundaries can be readily traced. In practice, this means placing markers on the ground at sufficient points—usually each corner, and in some case, the center of the sidelines—to identify the boundaries of the claim. And the claim must be recorded in the county recorder’s office for the county in which the claim is situated and in the local BLM office, along with the names of the locators, the date of the location, and a description of the claim.
- for example, McClarty located a mining claim on a deposit of stone that fractured naturally into geometric shapes so that little additional cutting by stonemasons was necessary. This made the stone immediately useable for construction and different than stone from other deposits that had to be shaped. The Common Varieties Act does not apply to deposits that have “some property giving it distinct and special value.” That was surely the case here and the court held that the deposit was therefore an uncommon variety. By contrast, in Henderson argued that the sand and gravel on his claim occurred in a mixture that was nearly perfect for construction uses. This allowed Henderson to sell the material right out of the pit. Furthermore, the concrete made from this sand and gravel was unique in that it could be ground and polished to produce an attractive stone that looked like marble. Nonetheless, the reviewing court held that “[t]he fact that these sand and gravel deposits may have...
- Historically, hardrock mining has been subject to very little environmental regulation. The goal was to make the lands productive and get the West settled, and that meant promoting mining activities rather than restricting them to protect streams and landscapes. As a result, the General Mining Act of 1872 contained no mention of the environment, and the Forest Service and BLM were reluctant to interfere with what had been historically perceived as the miners’ right to mine. What little regulation existed was a matter of state laws and regulations, which varied considerably in their content and implementation.
- require minerals. Food? We need tractors and harvesters to work the farm fields and refrigeration to keep the produce fresh. Transportation? Try getting around without cars, trains, ships or planes. Communication? Good luck without phones, tablets or computers. Health? Try surgery without a scalpel or looking inside your body without X-ray machines. Water? It couldn’t get to you without pipes. Iron, copper, aluminum, nickel, chromium, zinc, gold, silicon. These and many other minerals surround and support us virtually every moment of the day, and that has been the case for millennia.
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Chapter 3. The Practice of Managing Natural Resources 114 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Looking beyond these examples, private rights to natural resources are far more common than public ownership in the United States. Indeed, the United States parts way with most other countries in its fondness for creating private rights in natural resources. Virtually all nations, for example, own the oil and gas found within their borders, even when underlying private land. But in the United States, landowners overlying a petroleum field, not the government, own the contents of the field. U.S courts have long taken their property law seriously and, until recently, closely adhered to the English principle, expressed for good measure in Latin terms, “ for short). “Whoever’s is the soil, it is theirs all the way to Heaven and all the way to hell.”
- States do actually own some resources. States, for example, own navigable waterways and tidelands, as well as all petroleum and other resources underlying them. The original colonies owned these lands and resources when they entered the Union, while other states gained ownership to them upon becoming a state under the (which ensures later states the same status as earlier states). Under federal law, states also own the oil, gas, and other resources underlying the ocean up to three nautical miles off their shores. The ability to lease the development of these resources has been an important source of funding for many states, and they have sometimes sued each other and the United States to determine the exact dividing line between their territories and thus the profitable resources under them. ...Union, moreover, Congress granted them thousands of acres of land to support public schools. States lease much of this “school trust land” for grazing and mining, providing another valuable...
- It should be noted, of course, that extractive industries have very effective nongovernmental organizations of their own. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, for example, has strongly defended the interests of grazing on public lands and the American Petroleum Institute pushed for oil exploration.
- Administrative law is held up as one of the great inventions of the American experience and, in many respects, it truly is. Administrative law makes government activity more open, accountable, and responsive to the public than in any other country. Administrative law concerns —the processes and procedures they use to perform their functions—and the —the competitive relationship and respective powers between the legislative and executive branches of government and the role of courts in refereeing this constant battle. Writ large, the field is about government, what government does, and what it can and can’t do. In some ways, administrative law represents the flip side of corporate law. Just as corporate law regulates the conduct of private organizations, administrative law serves as the law of public organizations.
- The federal government owns and controls many of the resources found on and under its land. For example, the federal government owns all the petroleum, hard minerals, and timber found on and under its property. The federal government similarly controls the grazing resources on its lands. While it often leases these resources for exploitation by private businesses, it is the ultimate owner and manager. It can decide to protect the resources and the conditions under which the resources are developed. The Supreme Court also has held that the federal government has limited rights to water flowing through national forests, national parks, and other federal lands that have been reserved for specific purposes (although it must use the water to support the purposes of those lands).
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Chapter 1. An Introduction to Natural Resources Law and Policy 49 results (showing 5 best matches)
- 1. What should be the goal of natural resources law? More specifically, should the goal of managing oil and coal, or fish and deer, or parks and coral reefs, be to protect these resources from development? To maximize their market value? To achieve some balance between the two? What does it even to protect oil, fish, or a park?
- The long-time debate over drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is no less challenging. On the one hand are the arguments that drilling could bring much needed economic development to impoverished Inuit communities, that it will reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil and that, with modern technology, it may be possible to drill with little impact on the landscape. Opposed are those who counter that drilling will threaten the Porcupine Caribou Herd and, even with best efforts and technology, despoil one of America’s great remaining natural areas. How can the law mediate between these opposing views? And why do opponents of drilling care so much, given the fact that it’s unlikely they’ll ever meet someone who has ever been to the Refuge, much less go themselves?
- Ask someone to make a list of natural resources and it can get long pretty fast—living things like snakes, a coral reef, or maple trees; minerals such as oil, coal, or copper; air and water, of course; soil; and maybe even landscape features like a wetland, Victoria Falls, or Yellowstone. While coming up with the list may be pretty easy, identifying what these resources all have in common is less so. What does a fish share with a mountain top?
- Application of these laws has proven controversial, often pitting environmentalists against property rights advocates who argue that restrictions on the use of property should be compensated. Nor has passage of these laws resolved the conflict between conservationists and preservationists. The decade-long debates over oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and logging in private, old growth forests are proof of that.
- Instead of laboring over a precise definition, pick up today’s newspaper and see if you find any of the following types of headlines—“Farms and Cities Clash over Water Restrictions From Continuing Drought,” “Proposed Wind Farm Threatens Endangered Species Habitat,” “Indian Nation Defeats Oil Development on Sacred Land,” or “Are We Loving Our Parks To Death?” Natural resources law and policy is a part of everyday life. It spans far beyond protecting cuddly whales. Indeed the field cuts a remarkably broad swath—taking in renewable energy, water management, wetlands conservation, wildlife protection, green spaces, international trade, Native American rights, etc.
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Chapter 2. Perspectives on Natural Resources Law and Policy 95 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Even where costs and benefits are commensurable, moreover, should society balance the costs to some members of society against the benefits to others? Where the government permits oil development on land that a Native American nation considers sacred, oil producers and consumers benefit while Native Americans bear the cost. Is it ethically permissible to balance these costs and benefits?
- 4. The last population of the endangered Tiger-eye Whale spends three months every year in a bay to give birth and rear calves. Some tourists come for whale watching cruises but that generates little revenue. Rights to drill for oil in the bay were recently leased to an oil company. Employment from the drilling operation will help resuscitate the coastal town’s economy, hit hard by the recession. Wildlife groups are concerned that an oil spill could seriously harm the whales. The oil company pledges to use state-of-the-art technology and commissions a scientific study concluding that any risk of a spill is tiny. Prior to drilling, the oil company requires a permit from the agency you direct.
- are those resources we take out of nature and use. When most people talk about natural resources, they are thinking about extractive resources. Such resources include plants, animals, fish, oil, coal, water, and mineral resources.
- In truth, though, some nonrenewable resources are not quite as scarce as may first appear because they are recyclable. And the usable stock of some nonrenewable resources can effectively increase over time because of improvements in technology (e.g., as more oil is discovered or extracted through improved exploration and drilling technologies such as fracking).
- As a provocative alternative, Anderson proposes privatizing public lands. Public land share certificates (similar to shares of stock) would be distributed equally to all Americans. They could be freely exchanged and sold in auctions. Oil companies and forest product companies would surely be active in purchasing shares, but Anderson argues that the Sierra Club, local land trusts, and hedge fund billionaires interested in conservation would be just as active, if not more so. Whoever purchases the tracts of land, the tracts would then be managed more purposefully and carefully.
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Chapter 4. Limits on Governmental Action 57 results (showing 5 best matches)
- a. The U.S. government leases the right to explore for and develop petroleum on a tract of federal land to the ABC Oil Company. Six months later, the price of oil doubles. Feeling that some of the increased value of any oil should go to U.S. citizens, the government insists that ABC pay it more money than provided in the lease if ABC wishes to continue to explore for oil. What if the government instead imposes a new tax on any revenue that ABC earns from the petroleum lease?
- State laws that give local residents or business preferred access to a natural resource or that prohibit exports of the resource are therefore almost always invalid. In 1923, for example, the Supreme Court invalidated a West Virginia law that gave state residents a preference for natural gas produced in the state.
- Many states also have expanded the doctrine to protect modern environmental and recreational interests (not just the traditional public trust purposes of navigation, commerce, and fishing). California law illustrates this expansion. In Marks owned tidelands bordering Tomales Bay in Northern California. When Marks threatened to fill and develop the tidelands, a neighboring property owner who would have lost access to the bay sued. The California Supreme Court held that, except in limited ...tidelands holds title subject to the state’s public trust. Any member of the public, moreover, can bring a lawsuit to enforce the public trust and enjoin actions that would violate the trust. Most importantly, the purposes of the public trust “are sufficiently flexible to encompass changing public needs.” According to the court, one of the most important purposes of the public trust today is to preserve tidelands “in their natural state, so that they may serve as ecological units for scientific...
- In 1984, David Lucas became involved in Wild Dunes, a real estate development project involving 2500 condominiums and several golf courses and marinas on a South Carolina barrier island known as the Isle of Palms. Lucas sold his interest in Wild Dunes in 1986, but bought back two waterfront lots—one for a personal residence, and the other for investment. The land was in an “unstabilized inlet” and had suffered over the years from flooding and erosion. In the face of growing concerns over beach erosion, South Carolina subsequently passed a Beachfront Management Act that prohibited construction or reconstruction in a no-build zone extending 20 feet landward of the point of furthest erosion over the previous three decades. Large portions of Lucas’ land fell within the no-build zone.
- First, the government must show that the law or regulation is “public and general” and that its impact on the contract is “merely incidental to the accomplishments of a broader governmental objective.” The Endangered Species Act, for example, is a general public law and any impact on governmental contracts is incidental to the act’s broader goal of protecting imperiled species. In , by contrast, the CVPIA was not “general” and its impact on the water contracts was direct. According to the court in that case, the CVPIA was “directly aimed at the contracts and Reclamation’s duties under them, nullifying the rights of the Districts to receive water under the contracts.” Second, the government must show that the sovereign act made it “impossible” for the government to meet its contractual obligation and was “contrary to the basic assumption of the parties.”
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Preface 6 results (showing 5 best matches)
- AND P (4th ed. 2014) (background law, the Endangered Species Act, wetlands, and energy); and B , AND C (2d ed. 2014) (water, conservation easements, and oil and gas).
- Natural resources law is critically important, deeply controversial, and endlessly fascinating. In many parts of the world, it’s hard to pick up a newspaper without some mention of conflicts involving water, endangered species, logging, mining, fracking, offshore drilling, wetlands, or multiple other resources. The attention of the United States was riveted in 2015 when an armed group occupied Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in a remote region of Oregon, protesting that the federal government’s management of public lands was threatening their grazing livelihood, indeed their way of life. While the occupants’ actions were denounced by many, a jury later refused to convict, finding them not guilty on all charges. One of the biggest U.S. news stories of 2016 was the fight by the Standing Rock Sioux to prevent an oil pipeline from crossing a Missouri River reservoir next to its reservation, which the Sioux claimed would traverse sacred lands and threaten its water supply. While the...
- In many law books, the important concepts and issues underlying regulatory schemes can get lost amid a myriad of legal details. The purpose of this book is to provide a conceptual overview of natural resources law and policy in a concise, readable style that conveys just how fascinating the field can be. The book covers all of the major U.S. statutes and cases, as well as several relevant international treaties. But the book takes a broader and more policy oriented perspective than traditional casebooks, hornbooks, treatises, and student guides. Our goal is to introduce the reader to the major themes and frameworks of natural resources law, not to overburden the reader with minutiae. The book should be useful as a basic text for courses and seminars on natural resource law and policy, as a readable and stimulating supplement to traditional law school casebooks, and as a primer for professionals wishing a quick, ...courses that cover both pollution and resource issues... ...and...
- The first three chapters of this book introduce the major themes and issues that cross-cut natural resources law, such as scientific uncertainty, market failures, and problems of scale. They also cover major legal concepts and perspectives in the field such as standing, citizen suits, and administrative procedure. Later chapters use the themes and conceptual framework introduced in the first chapters to integrate the discussions of individual statutes into a broader portrait of the law. Chapters 4 and 5 review cross-cutting laws and doctrines that arise in natural resource conflicts in the United States but are not resource-specific, such as the public trust doctrine, various constitutional principles (such as regulatory takings), and the National Environmental Policy Act. Chapters 6 and 7 examine living resources—endangered species, fisheries and whaling. Chapter 8 turns to water, explaining the doctrines of prior appropriation and riparianism as well as groundwater management....
- Finally, we are indebted to our colleagues in law schools throughout the nation, who have helped develop the theories and analysis on which the nation’s resource policy and this book are built, and to our students, who keep the field fresh and alive. We hope this book conveys the excitement that we have long felt in teaching in this area. As always, we welcome suggestions for ways to improve the book in future editions.
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Chapter 5. The National Environmental Policy Act 35 results (showing 5 best matches)
- This makes good sense for some of the categorical exclusions provided by the Department of the Interior, for example, which cover personnel actions, internal organizational changes, and routine financial transactions. recently in the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, where a British Petroleum oil rig drilling the Macondo Well caught fire, killing eleven workers, blowing out its seabed drilling equipment, gushing oil into the Gulf for 87 days and ultimately releasing almost five million barrels of oil. The Minerals Management Service (MMS) had provided categorical exclusions for oil exploration plans in the central and western Gulf of Mexico and therefore had completed no meaningful NEPA review of the Macondo well.
- rationalization for decisions already taken—simply going through the bureaucratic motions. And there certainly is reason to fear that this may happen in some instances. After all, conflicts of interest run to the very core of NEPA. Placing agencies in charge of conducting an EIS that may challenge their proposed actions, some have commented, is like placing the fox as guard of the hen house. As Joe Sax has memorably commented on NEPA, “I think the emphasis on the redemptive quality of procedural reform is about nine parts myth and one part coconut oil.” Given the concrete statutory mission of an agency with dedicated budgets, organized lobbies, and congressional pressure, on the one hand, and the requirements of NEPA to consider environmental impacts of a range of actions, on the other, one might reasonably be doubtful of NEPA’s influence. After all, there have traditionally been few political reward for forests not cut or range lands not grazed.
- Despite all these reasons to dismiss NEPA, it has achieved a great deal and continues to do so. Compared to the state of agency transparency at the time of its passage, NEPA has played an important role in opening agency decision making to the public. NEPA has provided constant pressure on agencies to broaden their missions to consider and adopt environmental values. And it has spurred agencies to modify proposals and mitigate adverse impacts.
- NEPA has enjoyed far-reaching influence, inspiring similar requirements in 16 states (including the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR) in New York, and the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) in Washington State) and over 130 nations. Even when the federal government and thus NEPA are not involved in a resource decision, a state equivalent might apply. While some are weaker than NEPA, others, like CEQA, are actually stronger. While this Chapter looks at how NEPA operates, many of the observations and issues are equally applicable in the state setting.
- NEPA also created the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to oversee the NEPA process and its implementation. Section 309 of the Clean Air Act authorizes the EPA to review and comment on EISs prepared by other agencies, rating them as Adequate, Inadequate, or Insufficient Information for review. The comments and ratings are publicly available. Roughly 500 EIS are reviewed annually by the EPA.
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Chapter 7. Marine Life 83 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Humans have hunted whales through much of history as a source of food, oil, building and artistic materials. A strong whaling industry existed throughout much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but threats to whale populations increased by an order of magnitude as technology improved through the development of steam ships and the invention of the harpoon gun by a Norwegian, Sven Foyn, in 1868. There was no regulation of whaling. As with fisheries, when stocks of one species declined, whalers turned to others. Five species of large whales were hunted, four to the brink of extinction.
- The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act governs federal management of ocean fisheries. Although it was born during an era of groundbreaking federal environmental laws, the original 1976 Act was neither very federal nor very environmental. Although the resources in question—marine fish populations, or “stocks”—were under federal jurisdiction and publicly-owned, but some in Congress believed that the states and fishing industry should play leading roles in controlling them. Thus, instead of giving regulatory power to a federal agency, Congress chose to put decision-making authority in the hands of eight regional fishery management councils, composed almost entirely of state officials and members of industry. The Act delegated some responsibilities to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a federal agency, and its National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), ...fishing to protect ocean ecosystems and the marine environment. The law’s environmental...
- Each of these options has advantages and disadvantages from the perspectives of the different fishing “sectors” and of society. Trawlers, who can fish most quickly and cheaply, would benefit from the derby system and prefer it to the other options. Recreational fishermen, believe it or not, would likely prefer an auction: Studies show that recreational fishermen are willing to pay more for the opportunity to catch a fish than the price at which a commercial fisherman could sell it. Pole-and-line fishermen would obviously prefer Option 4 to the derby. Both trawlers and pole-and-line fishermen would be opposed to Option 3.
- Humming Fish managers would certainly consider these group preferences (after hearing about them during a contentious notice-and-comment period). However, Humming Fish are a publicly-owned resource, and therefore ought to be managed in a way that maximizes benefits to society. Each of the four allocation options presents a laundry list of social costs and benefits. Both Options 1 and 2, for example, have lower administrative costs than Options 3 and 4, which require government officials to process and make difficult decisions about how to divvy up fish among competitors. Options 3 and 4 also open the door to lobbying by fishermen, which from society’s perspective, wastes resources. At the same time, derbies result in losses to society—for example, by encouraging excessive investment in fishing equipment. Auctions would be undesirable unless they are structured to ensure that fishing in a way that imposes costs on society, e.g., by killing sea turtles, do not have advantages. However,
- Under Article V, the IWC may amend the Schedule by adopting regulations for the conservation and utilization of whale resources, including open and closed seasons, designation of sanctuary areas, and gear specifications. Any amendments must be necessary to carry out the objectives and purposes of the Convention and provide for the conservation, development, and optimum use of whales. Amendments must be based on scientific findings and not restrict the number of whaling ships or land stations where the whale meat is butchered. Furthermore, regulations must take into consideration the interests of the consumers of whale products and the whaling industry. Pro-whaling States have contended that pro-conservation States have ignored these requirements.
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Chapter 8. Water Resources 91 results (showing 5 best matches)
- If water is to be bartered and sold, then the public should not give streams away, but should auction them off to the highest bidder… . The doctrine that air, water, and sunshine are gifts from God should not be lightly set aside even in arid lands… . The growth and danger of monopolies in oil, copper, coal, and iron afford a warning of the greater danger of permitting monopolies in water… . [Moreover, water in a republic belongs] to the people, and ought forever to be kept as public property for the benefit of all who use [the water], and for them alone, such use to be under public supervision and control.
- Finally, what is the role of the private sector in supplying water? In the United States, public agencies supply 85 percent of domestic water. The role of the public sector in water is in stark contrast to other utilities, such as electricity, natural gas, and telephone service, where investor-owned utilities dominate. In the 1990s, a sizable number of cities considered “privatizing” their water supply systems by selling their systems to a private company or bringing in a private company to run or partner in the management. While the interest in privatization has tapered off since then, many cities still consider privatizing their water systems every year.
- Groundwater and surface water often are hydrologically connected. Groundwater extraction can reduce flows in connected surface streams, and vice versa. Ideally, states should manage interconnected groundwater and surface water as one water system and use the same allocation scheme for the entire system. Historically, however, most states generally treated groundwater and surface water as totally different resources and, as you have seen, often used very different bodies of law to allocate the two types of water. States allowed new groundwater pumping so long as it complied with state groundwater law, even if the groundwater withdrawals reduced the amount of surface water available for surface right holders. As wags have put it, states took the hydrologic cycle and turned it into a hydrologic bicycle.
- Along with air, water is humanity’s most crucial natural resource. And people consume a lot of it. Humans need water to survive, but the two quarts of water the average person drinks each day is just the start. Today the typical American uses about 100 gallons a day at home—cooking, washing, and watering lawns. Counting the water needed to produce food, energy, clothing, and other goods and services, the average American consumes 2000 gallons of water per day—or the equivalent of almost 33,000 glasses of water!
- States, not the federal government, play the primary role in allocating water in the United States. How a state allocates water depends in part on the water’s origin. The law bifurcates water sources into two main categories: surface water (lakes, estuaries, rivers, streams, and wetlands) and groundwater (underground aquifers). Almost 80 percent of all the water currently used in the U.S. comes from surface water. Groundwater, however, is extremely important in many regions and sectors. Groundwater provides roughly a third of the water used for domestic needs in the nation and over 40 percent of the water used for irrigation and livestock. During droughts, when surface water is scarce, groundwater becomes even more important.
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Chapter 6. Wildlife Protection 101 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Neither section 9(a)(1) nor section 9(a)(2), moreover, directly applies to threatened species. Section 4(d) of the ESA authorizes the FWS to issue regulations for the protection of threatened species, and the FWS has used this authority to extend the protections of section 9(a)(1) to most threatened species. In a few instances, however, the FWS has used its discretion under section 4(d) to exempt certain species, such as threatened salmon and steelhead, from some or all of the provisions of section 9(a)(1). Although the FWS has argued that other programs adequately protect these species, politics almost certainly has played a role here as it has in listing decisions and implementation of section 7. In listing the polar bear as a threatened species, for example, the FWS used section 4(d) to avoid the risk that the listing might enable environmental groups to argue that emissions of greenhouse gases are an unlawful taking under the ESA.
- As hunting, fishing, and deforestation reduced wildlife populations, and as human settlements multiplied and grew, states responded in four different ways. First, and most importantly, they adopted regulations designed to reduce the amount of wildlife taken each year. In the process, states pioneered wildlife management. States would try one form of regulation, and if that did not do the trick, strengthen it or add another approach.
- Biodiversity (which constitutes the overall community of organisms within a habitat and the physical conditions under which they live) also provides a wide range of ecosystem services of immense importance to humans. These services include detoxification and decomposition of wastes, purification of air and water, generation and renewal of soil and soil fertility, pollination of crops and natural vegetation, control of harmful agricultural pests, support of cultural activities, and the provision of aesthetic beauty and pleasure. Economists estimate that the overall value of these services is immense, totaling in the trillions of dollars. The contribution of any individual species to ecosystem service values, however, is typically uncertain and, in many cases, may be insignificant.
- Today Congress can rely on a broad set of constitutional provisions to protect wildlife—not only the Treaty Clause, but also the Commerce Clause, the Taxing and Spending Clause, and the Property Clause. The early history of federal wildlife legislation, however, highlights the policy debate that still exists today between those who favor state wildlife regulation (largely on grounds of expertise and understanding of local issues) and those who believe that only the federal government has the ability and willingness to protect imperiled wildlife.
- Humans are the major cause of the current wave of extinctions. Through habitat degradation, introduction of exotic species, and overhunting, humans threaten the continued existence of a growing number of species. Habitat destruction and modification are the major threats in the United States. Urban sprawl and such commercial land uses as farming, ranching, and silviculture reduce the amount of habitat usable by endangered species and fragment what habitat remains. Competition from exotic species for food and habitat is a growing threat. Some exotic species purposefully have been introduced into the United States, while others have snuck in as uninvited guests on cargo ships, airplanes, and other objects. Overhunting and overfishing of species are of less importance than habitat destruction and exotics, but still threaten a significant number of species ranging from various runs of salmon to assorted species of freshwater mussels. Species also face a variety of other ..., and...
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Chapter 10. Private Lands 97 results (showing 5 best matches)
- In the early 1970s, some members of Congress grew concerned that coastal lands were developing in a haphazard manner that not only negatively affected property values, but also caused harm to public trust lands. Legislators were also concerned that coastal land-use decisions often did not take into account national interests, such as the need for adequate port facilities and oil refineries. At the time, several states had passed laws making it very difficult to build or expand ports and refineries. In response, Congress passed the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1976 (“CZMA”),
- State consistency power applies to federal actions conducted in areas inside a state’s coastal zone and, if they might impact the coastal zone, to federal actions further inland or beyond state ocean waters. Federal actions subject to consistency review include many kinds of controversial permits, such as those required for the dredging and filling of wetlands, the construction of ports and marinas, and the extraction of petroleum and other natural resources.
- a California real estate developer purchased a large ranch with the intent to convert the ranch into vineyards and orchards and then subdivide it into upscale residential parcels. During rainy periods of the year, a shallow layer of impermeable clay formed vernal pools, swales, and other intermittent wetlands on portions of the ranch. Problems arose when the developer started to “deep rip” these areas to accommodate the deep roots of the vineyards and orchards. Deep ripping, in which tractors drag lengthy metal prongs through the soil, tears the clay layer and thus can destroy the wetlands. By a 2–1 vote, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ignored the D.C. Circuit’s earlier decision and held that deep ripping moves and redeposits soil and thus constitutes a “discharge.” The Supreme Court granted review, but then affirmed by an equally divided vote without opinions.
- Determining compensatory mitigation on a permit-by-permit basis is not ideal. The resulting restoration and preservation efforts are often piecemeal and uncoordinated, and the costs of monitoring and enforcing the mitigation are high. For these reasons, the Corps has encouraged mitigation banking in which private or public organizations restore, enhance, or create wetlands on a coordinated basis in a region and use the mitigation “credits” to satisfy the 404 mitigation requirements for individual development projects. In private mitigation banks, developers themselves create and operate banks in order to generate credits for their future development plans. In commercial or public mitigation banks, third parties develop the bank and then sell or transfer the resulting credits to developers wishing to meet their 404 mitigation requirements. Today wetlands mitigation banking resembles a commodity market, with freewheeling, entrepreneurial wetlands banks offering for sale (and often...
- Wetlands, however, have been under threat for centuries. Hydrologic alterations such as dams and water diversions, urban development, new marinas and harbors, mosquito control programs, peat mining, and agriculture all have contributed to a dramatic decline in wetlands acreage. In the 1600s, the lower 48 states enjoyed over 220 million acres of wetlands; today, fewer than half remain. Both California and Iowa have lost about 90 percent of their wetlands. During the peak wetland loss in the 1950s and 1960s, the United States was losing over 450,000 acres of wetlands on average each year. The wetlands that remain today are often degraded, reducing their ability to provide the valuable services described above.
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Editorial Board 7 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Gordon Bradford Tweedy Professor Emeritus of Law and Organization andLohse Chair in Water and Natural Resources
- Distinguished Service Professor and Austin Wakeman Scott Professor of Law and Former Dean of the Law School
- Sho Sato Professor of Law and Director, Environmental Law Program
- Barbara Nachtrieb Armstrong Professor of Law and
- Sterling Professor of International Law and
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Copyright 2 results
- Concepts and Insights Series
- The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal or other professional advice, and this publication is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. If you require legal or other expert advice, you should seek the services of a competent attorney or other professional.
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Title Page 3 results
- Publication Date: July 14th, 2017
- ISBN: 9781628103984
- Subject: Natural Resources
- Series: Concepts and Insights
- Type: Hornbook Treatises
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Description:
Natural Resources Law and Policy is a user-friendly, concise, inexpensive text on how we manage our valuable resources. Written to be an enjoyable and informative guide to natural resources, rather than used as a dry reference source, the authors provide a broad conceptual overview of natural resource management while also explaining the major statutes, cases, and doctrines. The book is intended for three audiences - students (both graduate and undergraduate) seeking a readable study guide for their natural-resource and environmental courses; professors who do not use casebooks (relying on their own materials or case studies) but want an integrating text or want to include conceptual materials on the major legal issues; and practicing lawyers and professionals who want a readable overview of the field.
The first part of the book explains the major themes and issues that cross-cut natural resources law as well as the relevant legal doctrines from administrative law, constitutional law, and standing. The second part of the book explores the management of specific natural resources – from fisheries, forests and frogs to national parks, oil and water, and others. A series of problem exercises run throughout the book, describing a legal or policy conflict in detail and asking students to identify and assess solutions. Textual boxes out set out the details of important judicial opinions.
