Vermont Law School Releases Inaugural Top 10 Environmental Watch List, Spotlights Policy Issues of 2010

(PR Newswire) Vermont Law School (VLS) today releases its inaugural Top 10 Environmental Watch List spotlighting the nation's most critical environmental law and policy issues of 2010 and how they may play out in 2011. Below is the Top 10 list, which is produced by the nation's top-ranked environmental law school. The full report is available at http://watchlist.vermontlaw.edu/. The report evaluates 10 judicial, regulatory, legislative and other actions that significantly affect humans and the natural world.

"We can continue our short-sighted addiction to fossil fuels or we can adopt innovative, healthier, more sustainable practices," said VLS Dean Jeff Shields. "The Environmental Watch List will help improve public understanding of how to use the law to take action on the critical issues of our time."

1. Congressional failure to enact climate change legislation: Professor Gus Speth, a pioneer of the environmental movement, explores what went wrong and whether the EPA and state and local lawmakers will step forward in 2011.

2. The nation's worst oil spill: Associate Professor Betsy Baker, an expert in the law of the sea, examines the legal and policy fallout from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

3. First U.S. greenhouse gas rules: Professor Pat Parenteau, whose expertise includes climate change, looks at whether the EPA's efforts to restrict global warming pollutants will survive judicial and political challenges.

4. Climate change in the courts: Associate Professor Martha Judy, an expert in environmental liability, delves into a Supreme Court case that would allow public nuisance lawsuits against major air polluters.

5. California's climate law dodges a bullet: Professor John Echeverria, whose expertise includes climate change, looks at what's next for the Golden State's landmark anti-global warming law that survived a challenge at the ballot box.

6. EPA clamps down on mountaintop removal coal mining: Professor Mark Latham, an expert in environmental enforcement and regulation, examines the EPA's crackdown on the coal industry's practice of tearing off mountain peaks.

7. Wind and solar projects make breakthroughs: Assistant Professor Don Kreis, an expert in energy efficiency, law and regulation, examines plans for the nation's first offshore wind projects and the largest solar energy projects on public lands.

8. Supreme Court reviews genetically modified crops: Professor Jason Czarnezki, whose expertise includes food law and agricultural policy, scrutinizes the Supreme Court's first ruling on so-called Frankenfoods.

9. EPA's water transfer exemption remains in force: Assistant Professor Laura Murphy, an expert in the Clean Water Act, explores the conflict over transferring polluted water from one water body to another.

10. U.S. military going green: Professor Stephen Dycus, an expert in national security law and environmental law, delves into the Pentagon's efforts to use more renewable energy and decrease its reliance on fossil fuels.

Bonus—The Accidental Environmentalist: Professor John Echeverria, whose expertise includes Constitutional law, reflects on the retirement of U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.

SHOCK: Lax Coal Ash Recycling Practices Including Use for Golf Course to School Carpeting Filler is An Outrage (VIDEO)

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Lesley Stahl on Sunday's "60 Minutes" took an in-depth look at the problems with the by-products of coal production, which is commonly known as coal ash. Coal ash contains many toxic metals, including arsenic, which can be extremely hazardous to breathe, if it is unchecked and seeps into ground water. It is shocking that coal ash isn't labeled as a hazardous waste by the EPA and it is currently being used as filler in everything from golf courses to carpeting in schools.

Obama Administration Refuses To Clamp Down On Cow Burps

Cow burps, a big contributor to global warming -- bigger than coal mines, landfills and sewage treatment plants -- is being omitted from efforts by the Obama administration and House Democrats to limit greenhouse emissions. I know, many people didn't give this a second thought, but it's a big issue. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, belching from the nation's 170 million cattle, sheep and pigs produces about one-quarter of the methane released in the United States each year. That's a big deal because they are the largest source of heat-trapping gas.

In part because of an adept farm lobby campaign that equates government regulation with a cow tax, the gas that farm animals pass is exempt from legislation being considered by Congress to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

The EPA under President Barack Obama has said it has no plans to regulate the gas, even though the agency recently included methane among six greenhouse gases it believes are endangering human health and welfare.

The message circulating in Internet chat rooms, the halls of Congress and farm co-ops had America's farms facing financial ruin if the EPA required them to purchase air-pollution permits like power plants and factories do. The cost of those permits amounted to a cow tax, farm groups argued. Source: The Huffington Post

The Administration and House Democratic leaders have tried to assure farm groups that they have no intention of regulating cows. That's a big mistake. You can't just pick and choose which contributors to greenhouse gas emissions you regulate. They should all be regulated for the good of everyone.

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE .

The EPA Unveils a New Hit List, A Roster of 23 Environmental Fugitives

The EPA has unveiled a new kind of most-wanted list -- a hit list for environmental fugitives accused of assaulting nature. These fugitives have allegedly smuggled chemicals that eat away the ozone layer, dumped hazardous waste into the oceans and rivers, as well as trafficked in polluting cars.

This list, which is similar to the FBI's most wanted list, is the first to focus on environmental crimes, the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday unveiled a roster of 23 fugitives, complete with mug shots and descriptions of the charges on its Web site.

Pete Rosenberg, a top EPA enforcement official, said the people on the list represent the "brazen universe of people that are evading the law." Many face years in prison and some charges could result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

"They are charged with environmental crimes and they should be brought before the criminal justice system and have their day in court," said Pete Rosenberg, a director in the agency's criminal enforcement division. Source: MSN

So, who are the unlucky stiffs to make the list? According to the EPA, the list includes

• Mauro Valenzuela, who in 1996 is alleged to have illegally transported hazardous waste oxygen generators onboard ValuJet flight 592 without proper markings and other safety measures. The jet crashed, killing all 110 passengers and crew onboard. Valenzuela failed to appear in federal court nine years ago.

• John Karayannides, who allegedly helped orchestrate the dumping of 487 tons of wheat tainted with diesel fuel into the South China Sea in 1998. Karayannides is believed to have fled to Athens, Greece.

• The father and son team of Carlos and Allesandro Giordano, who were arrested in 2003 as the owners of Autodelta USA, a company that was illegally importing and selling Alfa Romeos that did not meet U.S. emission or safety standards. The two men are believed to be hiding out in Italy.

• Raul Chavez-Beltran, who ran an environmental cleanup company in El Paso, Texas, that is accused of transporting hazardous waste from factories along the Mexican border and improperly disposing and storing it in the U.S. In one case, he allegedly stockpiled mercury-laced soil from an environmental spill in a warehouse.

The Web site also lists captured fugitives, among them David Allen Phillips, who escaped prison in 2005 after being convicted of Clean Water Act crimes in Montana. He fled to Mexico, was turned over by Mexico last March and now awaits further sentencing. David Ortiz fled after appealing of his conviction for Clean Water Act crimes in 2004. He was captured last March in Colorado and is currently in prison.

I think this list will help in some way. The EPA's criminal enforcement has waned in recent years. According to media reports, in fiscal 2008, the EPA opened 319 criminal enforcement cases, down from 425 in fiscal 2004. And criminal prosecutors charged only 176 defendants with environmental crimes, the fewest in five years. It is important for them to beef up their ranks to fight environmental crime.