Great Lakes Law

Great Lakes Environmental Law Center and other conservation organizations join with Manitoba and Canada in opposing U.S. water diversion project in court

The Great Lakes Environmental Law Center has filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief in the U.S. District Court for Washington D.C. in Government of the Province of Manitoba v. Ken Salazar, et al. The case involves a challenge by Manitoba, joined by Canada and several conservation organizations, to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Environmental Impact Statement for the Northwest Area Water Supply (NAWS) Project. The NAWS Project is the first United States... Read more →

Federal appeals court allows climate change nuisance case to go forward against power companies; EPA issues final greenhouse gas reporting rule

It was a big week in the rapidly developing field of climate change law. First, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (based in New York) allowed a nuisance case brought by states, New York City, and nonprofit environmental groups against five major power companies that operate coal fired power plants to go forward. The decision, Connecticut et al. v. American Electric Power Co. et al., is a huge victory in the legal... Read more →

Putting the Civil Rights Act to Work for Environmental Justice

This guest post is by Chris Winter, Co-Executive Director & Staff Attorney of the Crag Law Center in Portland, Oregon. Chris and I went to law school together, and despite his Pittsburgh roots, he moved out west after graduation. After several years in private practice with Stoel Rives LLP, Chris founded the Crag Law Center to provide affordable legal assistance to groups working on environmental and natural resource issues. Chris had a huge victory this... Read more →

Protecting Freshwater Resources in the Era of Global Water Markets: Lessons Learned from Bottled Water

My most recent article, Protecting Freshwater Resources in the Era of Global Water Markets: Lessons Learned from Bottled Water, will be published in the next volume of the University of Denver’s Water Law Review and a prepublication draft is now available online. The article covers a brief history of bottled water, the business of bottled water, and opposition to bottled water, along with a short summary of international trade law and federal food law as... Read more →

Property Assessed Clean Energy - A Bright Spot in Michigan’s Economic and Environmental Future

The following guest post is by Eric Jamison, a law student at Wayne State University Law School who is working with the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center to assist local and state government leaders in developing a Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Program for Michigan. Eric is an “environmental capitalist” preparing to spend his career finding business solutions that are environmentally sustainable and economically viable for clients. Eric’s legal work is focused on state and... Read more →

After nearly a decade of legal battles and precedents, controversial coal train project is nixed

Nearly a decade ago, the Dakota Minnesota & Eastern Railroad Corp. (DM&E) tried to build and upgrade a rail line between Wyoming and Minnesota. While I’m usually a big fan of trains, the problem with this project wasn’t the train itself, but what the train would be carrying. By design, it would carry 100 million tons of coal annually from Wyoming’s Powder River Coal Basin to the Midwest, enough to power about 50 average sized... Read more →