What's New in Environmental Law

Tim Hill / Pixabay By Beebs Hartzell, F22 Environmental Clinic Student Over the past decade, as climate activism has risen to the forefront of the national stage, there has been a correlative rise in attention to environmental justice. The goal of environmental justice, according to the EPA, is to provide… read more 

John Englart / Flickr By Yuyan Pu, F22 Environmental Clinic Student The playbill for September’s political theater featured the surprising appearance of immigration amid record-breaking inflation and accelerating setbacks to reproductive rights. Taking the spotlight are Republican governors of Florida, Texas, and Arizona who have all created their respective state-funded… read more 

Roy Luck / Flickr By Blake Welborn, F22 Environmental Clinic Student Most federal environmental statutes, such as the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, allow individuals to sue polluters to force them into compliance with laws they may be breaking.… read more 

Fred Murphy By Chloe Gossett, F22 Environmental Clinic Student All communities have the right to a fair distribution of environmental burdens and benefits. But in reality, this is not typically the case. A disproportionate amount of minority and low-income communities bear the burden of environmental hazards and are denied access… read more 

By Evan Kudler, Spring 2022 Environmental Clinic Student The story of the COVID-19 coming from a bat in a Chinese wet market spread almost as fast as the virus itself. While the wet market may have been the place of spillover, it is not where or how the pandemic began.… read more 

By Bee Thompson, Spring 2022 Environmental Clinic Student On March 22, 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that New York has over 1 gigawatt of installed community solar capacity, making it the first state to reach this milestone. This achievement will help the state reach its clean and renewable energy goals… read more 

By Jaime Villareal, Jr., Spring 2022 Environmental Clinic Student At the intersection of environmental and international law, lies the Rio Grande in Deep South Texas. For many, the Rio Grande Valley, or simply the RGV, – the southernmost region of Texas named after the 1,885-mile river that divides the United… read more 

By Trevor Mathes, Spring 2022 Environmental Clinic Student The shift from Trump to Biden saw a decisive turn in the Executive Branch’s environmental and administrative policy. Predictably, opponents of this new policy turn have mounted legal challenges to Biden-era regulations. One of the chief theories underlying these legal challenges has… read more 

By Johann Sarna, Spring 2022 Environmental Clinic Student Earlier this month, a landslide killed at least 17 workers at a jade mine in northern Myanmar. Tragically, incidents like this are not uncommon in the country’s resource-rich areas. In 2020, and again in 2021, hundreds of miners died in landslides within… read more 

By Claudia Gutierrez, Spring 2022 Environmental Clinic Student When people think of environmental issues, the first thought that comes to mind is climate change due to greenhouse gases or air pollution created by new infrastructure. While that may be true, the fashion industry is often overlooked. More and more people… read more