Great Lakes Law

The Volkswagen scandal and environmental law – guest post by Karinne Marcolini

The following guest post on the Volkswagen scandal is by Karinne Marcolini, an associate at Goren, Goren & Harris. Karinne is a recent graduate of Wayne Law, where she was president of the Environmental Law Society. While in law school, Karinne worked for the US EPA’s Gasoline Engine Compliance Center in Ann Arbor. She served in the compliance division, applying the Clean Air Act’s mobile-source regulations for vehicles, and thus has significant experience and expertise... Read more →

Wayne Law student wins Environmental Law Institute’s Beveridge & Diamond writing competition for paper on state energy policy and the dormant commerce clause

Paul Stewart, a second-year student at Wayne State University Law School, has won the Environmental Law Institute’s national 2013-14 Beveridge & Diamond Constitutional Environmental Law Writing Competition. His winning entry, The Overlooked Vulnerabilities of State-Level Greenhouse Gas Regulations Under Pike Balancing and Possibilities for Addressing Those Vulnerabilities, assesses the viability of state regulations on greenhouse gas emissions in the face of legal challenges under the Dormant Commerce Clause, a legal doctrine that restricts states from... Read more →

The Law of Adaptation to Climate Change: United States and International Aspects

The American Bar Association has just published The Law of Adaptation to Climate Change: United States and International Aspects. This massive volume (just under 900 pages), edited by Michael B. Gerrard and Katrina Fischer Kuh, has twenty-five chapters covering the landscape of legal issues regarding climate change adaptation. Here’s the publisher’s description: The laws that attempt to reduce climate change are well known. But what about laws to deal with the climate change that will... Read more →

New study predicts more moderate effects of climate change on Great Lakes water levels

A new study led by Dr. Brent Lofgren of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory offers a more moderate prediction of the effects of climate change on Great Lakes water levels. Previous studies indicated that climate change would result in significantly lower water levels in the Great Lakes due to increased air temperatures and higher rates of evapotranspiration. Most notably, a 2002 study (also led by Dr. Lofgren) reported that... Read more →

The U.S. Fuel Economy Standard “Deal” – Guest Post by Professor Brandon Hofmeister, Part 2

Energy law expert Professor Brandon Hofmeister of Wayne Law continues his guest post on the Obama Administration’s announced agreement on consensus fuel economy standards for U.S. cars and light trucks. For background on Professor Hofmeister and the first part of his analysis, see the prior post. Auto Politics Some have suggested that the reason the auto industry agreed to a fairly high standard for fuel economy was that they didn’t want to aggressively pick a... Read more →

The U.S. Fuel Economy Standard “Deal” – Guest Post by Professor Brandon Hofmeister

Buried in the national news about the debt ceiling fiasco during the last week of July was an announcement that the Obama Administration had reached an agreement with the State of California and a number of automakers on consensus fuel economy standards for U.S. cars and light trucks. These new standards will cover cars and light trucks for Model Years 2017-2025, requiring performance equivalent to 54.5 mpg in 2025. As Professor Brandon Hofmeister writes in... Read more →

U.S. Supreme Court holds that the Clean Air Act displaces federal common law claims regarding greenhouse gas emissions

Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in American Electric Power (AEP) Co. v. Connecticut (8-0, with Justice Sotomayer recused) holding that the Clean Air Act displaces federal common law with regard to nuisance claims for alleged injuries from greenhouse gas emissions. While any decision from the nation’s highest court on our most complex and challenging environmental issue is worth noting, this ruling was expected and doesn’t really change the legal... Read more →

Interstate Water Compacts and Climate Change Adaptation

I’ve just published a new article – “Interstate Water Compacts and Climate Change Adaptation” in the Environmental & Energy Law & Policy Journal. As the name suggests, the article looks at the major interstate water compacts in light of expected climate change impacts on water resources. The article may also be a useful resource for water policy wonks, as it includes short summaries of every interstate water allocation compact (27 in all) and brief analyses... Read more →

Framing Water Policy in a Carbon Affected and Carbon Constrained Environment

With Prof. Robert Abrams, I’ve published a new article that focuses on the challenges for water management as climate change affects water resources and climate change mitigation policy affects water allocation decisions. The article, “Framing Water Policy in a Carbon Affected and Carbon Constrained Environment”, was published in a special Fiftieth Anniversary edition of the Natural Resources Journal (citation - 50 Natural Resources Journal 3 (2010)). Here’s the abstract, and the full article is available... Read more →

City of Ann Arbor agrees to environmental study of parking supply in settlement with Great Lakes Environmental Law Center

Last year, the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center sent several letters (May 14, 2009 and May 29, 2009) and eventually filed a complaint in state court over concerns about increased air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the city of Ann Arbor’s massive new parking structure. The city had completely ignored the potential environmental impacts from building more parking supply, which would likely lead to more cars, more congestion, more air pollution, and more greenhouse... Read more →