Environmental Law

Living the good life has often meant finding ways to allow for growth and construction while ostensibly protecting the natural environment on which we depend. Want to build a housing development, but there’s a wetland in the way? Mitigate the harm by building a new one somewhere else. Want to dam a river, but there’s a salmon run in the way?

The Supreme Court's recent climate change decision has been characterized by legal observers as "seismic" "transformational" and "a bombshell." All of those descriptions are apt.

This week, news emerged of a State Senate plan that would spend upwards of $1.5B to purchase senior water rights from California growers. Under California’s first-in-time, first-in-right water allocation system, senior water rights are filled first, before more junior right holders get their water. The proposal is ostensibly promising.

There’s a water fight brewing on the Kern River. The State Water Resources Control Board’s handling of the conflict will be telling for the future of California’s streams and rivers. 

If the water board takes seriously its duty to protect the public interest, this conflict could lead to better water management statewide.

In 2021 the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals remained -- save only the U.S. Supreme Court -- the most important court in the United States when it comes to environmental law. This year the 9th Circuit also maintained its role as the most prodigious source of key environmental decisions of any federal appellate court -- issuing nearly one per week.

With apologies for any perceived sins of omission, here's my chronological list of the 9th Circuit's 10 most important environmental law decisions of 2021:

In October, outrage erupted when San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted down a proposal to build nearly 500 new homes — many affordable — on a downtown site at 469 Stevenson St. now being used for valet parking.

Professors Ruhl and Craig paint a vision of a 4ºC world marked by “discontinuous and often unpredictable transformation.” Nature, from climate to ecosystems to species, is hard to predict in the best of times. It’s a wild beast in a 4ºC world. This means that we will have to give up our efforts to tightly control nature and instead give her room.

Western water rights reflect a short and stable climate history, but that period of stability is ending. Looming climate change of 4°C will produce not only higher temperatures, but decreased snowpack, shifts in runoff patterns, and the dramatic shrinkage of giant reservoirs.

A cattle rancher in North Dakota has culled half his herd, since there's little grass left to graze.

This summer, Harvard researchers working on a project called Scopex were supposed to fly a literal trial balloon over Sweden. This would have been the first step toward testing a potential method to moderate global warming by releasing small quantities of particles into the atmosphere. Early on, Harvard established an independent advisory committee to provide advice on the science and risks of the proposed experiment, as well as on the need for stakeholder engagement.