12.13.2010
The Environmental Symposium Series: Highlighting U.S.-Israel Research & Development Cooperation in Green Technology
12.09.2010
Criminal Charges for Brooklyn Businesses, Dumping Raw Sewage
Four individuals and four businesses at a Brooklyn shopping center face criminal charges over dumping raw sewage and restaurant grease into Sheepshead Bay. The charges are punishable with charges of $75k per day and up to three years imprisonment.
12.01.2010
Groups Applaud NY State Assembly for Passing a "Timeout" on Fracking for Natural Gas
Yesterday, the New York State Assembly voted to protect NY's watershed by passing legislation that puts a timeout on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas. By passing this bill, A.11443, the Assembly has taken a stand, and recognizes the potential hazards of fracking activities.
The bill suspends the issuance of permits to hydraulically fracture natural gas wells in New York State until May 15, 2011.
For more info, check out this EarthJustice Press Release.
11.29.2010
Norfolk, VA Prepares for Rising Sea Levels
I sure hope other coastal cities (ahem...NYC...) follow suit. This is not a drill, people!
11.22.2010
Save the date! 2/9/10 @12:50pm - Mike Gerrard will be speaking!
I know, I know. I'm being ridiculous, but I'm really excited about this one. Thank me later.
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The NYLS Center for Real Estate Studies & the Environmental Law Society of NYLS invite you to---
Lunch with Michael E. Gerrard: Climate change, its impacts on New York and where lawyers fit into this whole mess.
Michael E. Gerrard is the leading legal-theorist on Climate Change and the Law. He is Director of Columbia Law School's Center for Climate Change Law, and teaches courses on environmental law, climate change law, and energy law.
He has written or edited eight books, including Global Climate Change and U.S. Law, the leading work in its field. His eighth book, The Law of Green Buildings (with Cullen Howe), was published in August 2010. Since 1986 he has been an environmental law columnist for the New York Law Journal.
Join us, as we discuss climate change.
Wednesday, February 9th / 12:50pm - 1:50pm / Room: TBD (but at NYLS)
Lunch will be provided.
------------------Please RSVP so that we don't waste food!------------------
11.18.2010
NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection: We need Spring and Summer Interns!
DEP legal interns will have the opportunity to work on a number of legal and administrative issues, including: statutory research, conducting administrative hearings before the Environmental Control Board (ECB), drafting appeals against adverse ECB decisions, and assisting DEP attorneys on any matters that may arise.
Spring Internships are unpaid, part-time positions (no more than 20-hours per week based on your schedule). Summer Internships are 10-to-12 week full-time positions. Funding may be available for the summer positions, either through DEP directly or your school's financial aid office.
For more information, please contact Jose Almanzar (jose.almanzar@law.nyls.edu).
11.17.2010
Corporations Aren't People
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund has been working for years to teach communities how to reclaim their rights from major corporations. On November 16, they won a major victory.
This morning, the Pittsburgh City Council became the first municipality in the United States to ban natural gas extraction within its boundaries. The ordinance isn’t just a ban – it consists of a new Bill of Rights for Pittsburgh residents (which includes a right to water along with rights for ecosystems and nature), and then proceeds to ban those activities – including natural gas extraction - which would violate those rights.The CELDF has promoted a number of legal measures for use by small, resource-rich, communities over the years, including stripping corporations of their legal personhood and guaranteeing constitutional rights for the natural environment. While "Pittsburgh's Community Protection from Natural Gas Extraction Ordinance" does not attempt to overturn the manifold rights of personhood guaranteed to corporations, it does protect the right to water, the rights of natural communities, the right to self-government, and the people as sovereign.
The City Council of Pittsburgh finds that the commercial extraction of natural gas in the urban environment of Pittsburgh poses a significant threat to the health, safety, and welfare of residents and neighborhoods within the City. Moreover, widespread environmental and human health impacts have resulted from commercial gas extraction in other areas. Regulating the activity of commercial gas extraction automatically means allowing commercial gas extraction to occur within the City, thus allowing the deposition of toxins into the air, soil, water, environment, and the bodies of residents within our City.
Meaningful regulatory limitations and prohibitions concerning Marcellus Shale natural gas extraction, along with zoning and land use provisions, are barred because they conflict with certain legal powers claimed by resource extraction corporations. The City Council recognizes that environmental and economic sustainability cannot be achieved if the rights of municipal majorities are routinely overridden by corporate minorities claiming certain legal powers.Industry representatives have, predictably, attacked the ban as "short-sighted," while
City Councilman Doug Shields, the bill's sponsor, talked about what he called the "arrogance of this industry" that he said puts money ahead of trying to figure out the health, environmental and municipal effects of drilling.Buffalo's City Council was set to vote on a similar ordinance on November 10, while another ban was rejected in Fort Worth. Good start.
EPA Releases the 2010 Fuel Economy Trends Report
WASHINGTON - For the sixth consecutive year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is reporting a decrease in average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and a slight increase in the average fuel efficiency for new cars and light duty trucks, according to EPA’s annual report “Light-Duty Automotive Technology, Carbon Dioxide Emissions, and Fuel Economy Trends: 1975 through 2010”.
EPA projects a small improvement in 2010, based on pre-model year sales estimates provided by automakers, to 395 grams of CO2 per mile and 22.5 miles per gallon (mpg), though there is uncertainty in these projections as they were made during the atypical automotive market in 2009. The 2010 final data will be available in next year’s report.
For 2009, the last year EPA has final data from automakers, the average CO2 emissions from new vehicles were 397 grams per mile and the average fuel economy value was 22.4 mpg.
See below for more on this report...
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