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Environmental Law Prof Blog 

Coverage includes agriculture, timber, energy, mining, fisheries, land use, forests, marine resources, water resources, water quality, air quality, climate change, endangered species, biodiversity, environmental impact assessment, NEPA, environmental science, physical and social science, policy, legislation, law, case law, governance, management, and international law. News and analysis of environmental law; upcoming colloquia, conferences, and meetings; abstracts of working papers and recently-published scholarship in law, natural sciences, social science, economics; book reviews; career moves; other items of interest to faculty in the area.
Post Frequency: 2.8/day Last Entry: March 31, 2011 at 14:15:36 Recent Entries: 466
By Susan Smith
Go to Environmental Law Prof Blog, find other Environmental Law blogs, or browse all law blogs.
By any measure, oil hits historic high price over $ 104
Posted on March 05, 2008In 1980, when OPEC used its monopoly power to dramatically cut the supply of oil, oil prices reached an inflation-adjusted high between $ 90 and $ 103. The wide variation reflects the difficulty in those times of establishing the market...
SCOTUS commentary on Exxon Valdez argument
Posted on March 03, 2008The SCOTUS blog commentary seems to track my view that SCOTUS will limit punitives. SCOTUS blog The context in which the Supreme Court is deciding the case, maritime law, is interesting. The court is acting as a common law court...
Settled Science
Posted on March 03, 2008Willamette University's March Dempsey lecture will feature Stephen H. Schneider of Stanford spe aking on "Global Warming: Is the Science Settled Enough for Policy?" I understand that his answer is yes. But I'll let you know more next week.
Petition Filed Seeking CEQ Guidance on Climate Change Analyses Under NEPA
Posted on March 02, 2008On Thursday, the International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and Sierra Club filed a formal legal petition with the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) seeking to assure that climate change analyses are included in all...
More expert commentary on Exxon Valdez -- Sturley on vicarious liability
Posted on February 29, 2008The Wall Street Journal Law Blog posted comments by Michael Sturley who helped prepare ExxonMobil's brief.WSJ Law Blog He didn't make predictions, but did highlight the vicarious liability argument that EM should not be held liable for Hazelwood's actions because...
Expert commentary on the Exxon Valdez Argument -- Prof. Amy Wildermuth on the Court's "affinity for the trinity"
Posted on February 29, 2008Professor Amy Wildermuth, University of Utah, worked on an amicus brief in support of the respondents in the Exxon case and has offered these extensive comments on the argument Wildermuth reaction. In sum, her commentary agrees with my conclusion that...
Barack Obama and Faith in Politics
Posted on February 28, 2008Here's an excerpt of a column in Sojomail, a faith and spiritually e-zine, written by Jim Wallis about Barack Obama and the rumors and inuendos that have been circulated about Obama's faith stance. I found, unsurprisingly, that when I read...
The $ 3 Trillion Dollar War
Posted on February 28, 2008Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz estimates the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the United States alone will exceed $ 3 trillion -- yes that is not a typo, that is a "t" trillion. His new book,...
The Exxon Valdez argument -- what's law got to do with it, got to do with it?
Posted on February 28, 2008At least for our result-oriented friend Justice Scalia, its all about the money. Yesterday when the Exxon Valdez punitive damages case was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, plaintiffs' counsel Jeffrey Fisher suggested hopefully that the justices had agreed to...
Judge Redden Approves Steady State Order on the Columbia River dam operations
Posted on February 27, 2008Judge Redden signed an order continuing the 2007 FCRPS operations through 2008. US DOJ proposed the rollover in order to allow National Fisheries to focus on producing a solid final biological opinion. The order and other information on the federal...
SCOTUS hears lengthy argument on Exxon Valdez punitives
Posted on February 27, 2008The Supreme Court will hear extended arguments in Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker (07-219) today, but has refused a request by the state of Alaska to argue. The case involves Exxon?s challenge to the $2.5 billion punitive damages verdict awarded...
Oil Prices Exceed $ 101/barrel Today
Posted on February 26, 2008The intraday high for crude reached $ 101.15/barrel today and ultimately settled to $ 100.88. MarketWatch link And this is in the midst of a recession! Seems like OPEC may have manipulated the rest of us into an awfully tight...
The Orchestrated Campaign to Deny Human-Caused Global Warming
Posted on February 25, 2008Little more than a week ago, I posted a portion of John Mashey's paper on the orchestrated campaign to deny that humans are causing significant global warming. The entire paper is now published here as a service to those who...
Election 2008 -- The Candidates Speak in Their Own Words -- Part III:John McCain
Posted on February 25, 2008During the last year, Foreign Affairs published a series of pieces on the 2008 presidential election, allowing candidates to frame their foreign policy in their own words. Foreign Affairs Election 2008 I am reviewing those pieces for discussions of global...
LCV Scorecard on Presidential Candidates Clinton, Obama, and McCain
Posted on February 23, 2008The League of Conservation Voters issued its Congressional Scorecard this week. This year, Obama and Clinton are both well above 50%, but neither were at the top of the heap, mostly because they missed 4 votes that LCV deemed critical....
Foreign Affairs -- Election 2008 -- The Candidates Speak in Their Own Words -- Hillary Clinton
Posted on February 23, 2008During the last year, Foreign Affairs published a series of pieces on the 2008 presidential election, allowing candidates to frame their foreign policy in their own words. Foreign Affairs Election 2008 I am reviewing those pieces for discussions of global...
2008 Elections - Website Resource
Posted on February 23, 2008Wow! I came across an incredible resource on the 2008 elections -- the State Department website for foreign press. Go take a look! State Department election 2008 site
IUCN 6th Annual Colloquium on poverty alleviation and environmental degradation
Posted on February 23, 2008Call for Papers: IUCN Academy 6th Meeting Metropolitan Autonomous University?Azcapotzalco, Mexico City will host the Sixth Annual Colloquium of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, which will focus on poverty alleviation in the context of the law relating to environment...
ExxonMobil Deliberately Misled Blogosphere About Funding Global Warming Denialists
Posted on February 18, 2008Yesterday's post on ExxonMobil highlighted that it had funded the Frontiers of Freedom and its Center for Science and Public Policy (CSPP link ) during 2006, contrary to its claim that it was not funding global warming denialists. You may...
Foreign Affairs - The Candidates in Their Own Words --
Posted on February 18, 2008During the last year, Foreign Affairs published a series of pieces on the 2008 presidential election, allowing candidates to frame their foreign policy in their own words. Foreign Affairs Election 2008 I am reviewing those pieces for discussions of global...
Exxon Continued to Fund Climate Change Denial Campaign in 2006
Posted on February 14, 2008Most of us are convinced now that anthropomorphic climate change is based on sound, virtually unassailable science, that all but a few climate scientists agree with that assessment, that the questions to be answered now are: how quickly and by...
Carbon Offsets
Posted on February 14, 2008For the last two or three years, I've been purchasing TerraPass and Carbon Fund carbon offset products. The obvious question is "when will the cost of offsets start rising?" since the cheap offsets should be exhausted at some point and...
State and Regional Climate Initiatives: ABA SEER quick teleconference
Posted on February 14, 2008American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Ecosystems Committee Cosponsored by Renewable Energy Resources Committee; International Environmental Law Committee; New York City Bar Association;...
D.C. Circuit vacates the delisting and mercury rules
Posted on February 08, 2008The D.C. Circuit just vacated the Delisting and Clean Air Mercury Rules. New Jersey v. EPA decision I have not read the whole decision. But one of the implication I am most interested in is the court's vacating the delisting...
FY2009 Budget -- the bad news and the good
Posted on February 08, 2008Although all of the big chunks of the President's budget are no doubt meaningless, given Bush's lame duck status and Democratic control of Congress, there still may be nuggets within the smaller agency budgets. For your midnight reading enjoyment, visit...
Candidates Compete for Green Title
Posted on February 06, 2008After the Bush administration legacy, it is refreshing to see both Democratic and some Republican candidates competing for the title of Mr. or Ms. Green. See the comparison in Grist.
Exxon Mobil Profits Exceed $ 117 for 2007 4th Quarter!!!!
Posted on February 01, 2008Dow Jones Marketwatch reported that Exxon Mobil had its most profitable quarter ever, earning 18 cents a share more than the incredible $ 1.95 profit than analysts had projected and 44 cents per share more than last year's fourth quarter....
Focus the Nation
Posted on February 01, 2008Didn't. With the right kind of press, the right kind of hype, perhaps focus the nation could have reached people other than those already concerned about climate change. But it didn't. What it did do, at least at Willamette, was...
Oregon Global Warming Commission appointed
Posted on January 26, 2008Here's the announcement of Oregon's Global Warming Commission January 24, 2008 Governor Kulongoski Announces Global Warming Commission and Outlines 2009 Climate Change Agenda Governor calls for Commission to develop long-term policy recommendations to combat global warming for future legislatures and...
Climate Change Resources
Posted on January 26, 2008Here's a great link. This is Michael Gerrard's Arnold & Porter site on climate change. Climate Change Litigation
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If a person defames me and threatens me to pay a bill that they made and it is posted to others besides myself, can I sue ?
The documentation of your actions in this case pretty much preclude any legal ac...
Is it libel to write blog posts and/or online reviews about a local business that defames one's reputation?
Libel is the form of defamation expressed in fixed-- usually written form. Sland...
How can I make my blog more popular?
You have to write and submit articles, with backlinks to your blogsite....

If a person defames me and threatens me to pay a bill that they made and it is posted to others besides myself, can I sue ?
The documentation of your actions in this case pretty much preclude any legal ac...
Is it libel to write blog posts and/or online reviews about a local business that defames one's reputation?
Libel is the form of defamation expressed in fixed-- usually written form. Sland...
How can I make my blog more popular?
You have to write and submit articles, with backlinks to your blogsite....








