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Subcontractor Coverage Under the Christian Doctrine

Subcontractor Coverage Under the Christian Doctrine

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By: John Kashuba, Associate   Problem: Recent litigation has produced ambiguity as to whether subcontractors are covered under the Christian doctrine. If this is indeed the case, practitioners advising clients bidding or negotiating for procurement work containing clauses espousing requirements as to the kinds of materials that must be used, or other clauses containing compliance mandates with environmental laws and regulations are strongly encouraged to be hyper-vigilant as to the wording, text, form, and structure of the contract. Any omissions…

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Columbia River Treaty’s 49th Anniversary: Preparing for Upcoming Re-negotiations

Columbia River Treaty’s 49th Anniversary: Preparing for Upcoming Re-negotiations

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By: Lauren Moldawer, Associate This September marks the forty-ninth anniversary of the United States and Canada’s Columbia River Treaty (Treaty),[1] which is one of the most sophisticated and important natural resource treaties to share in the world.[2] The Treaty provides the United States with “assured flood control” in exchange for providing Canada financial support for dam development and fifty percent of the hydropower produced downstream.[3] When ratified in 1964, the treaty was impermeable to change and could not be modified…

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LNG Exports: Why Permits to Non-FTA Countries Need Expediting

LNG Exports: Why Permits to Non-FTA Countries Need Expediting

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By: Brody Miles, Notes Editor Recently, liquefied natural gas (LNG)[1] export permits have been a point of contention. This has become newsworthy since the United States has been extracting natural gas at record levels.[2] By using the method of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), private industries have been able to obtain previously unattainable reservoirs of natural gas.[3] With an abundance of natural gas, domestic prices have gone down[4]—a result that is simultaneously good for consumers and bad for business. To achieve better…

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The Coal Residual Reuse and Management Act

The Coal Residual Reuse and Management Act

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By: Elizabeth Elliott, Associate On June 3, 2013, the U.S. House of Representatives (“House”) introduced the Coal Residual Reuse and Management Act of 2013. While two similar bills previously died in the Senate, Senator McKinley, who introduced the failed bills, stated that this time is different because the House bill was written with input from the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”).[1] When coal is burned at power plants, a byproduct known as coal ash is produced. Coal ash, also known as…

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Regulating Fracking by Protecting Plants and Wildlife

Regulating Fracking by Protecting Plants and Wildlife

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By: Rose Wilkinson, Article Editor The potential environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) as they relate to human health have been discussed at great depth, but there are relatively few major federal laws governing fracking activities.[1] Paradoxically, much less has been written on the potential implications of fracking on endangered species of plants and nonhuman animals, but the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) could serve as a strong legal tool for the regulation of fracking.[2] The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service…

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Closing Thoughts from the 2013 Shapiro Conference: The Way Forward to a Sustainable Energy Future

Closing Thoughts from the 2013 Shapiro Conference: The Way Forward to a Sustainable Energy Future

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This year’s J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Conference finished strong at GW Law on Thursday with a lively concluding dialogue.[1] Centered on a big picture discussion of where we are headed in the realm of sustainable energy development, this event was a culmination of the conference’s eight previous panels. Over the course of two days, attendees were exposed to an impressive breadth of speakers and diversity of topics. Panelists included environmental and energy law practitioners, professors, policy experts from NGOs…

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Protecting the Environment: It’s Not Just about Saving the Whales

Protecting the Environment: It’s Not Just about Saving the Whales

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Environmental issues are not just environmental issues anymore.[1] Increasingly, the human population has come to recognize that working to protect the world from global climate change is not important merely because we think that that two-degree-Celsius change might make it a little more necessary to don a pair of shorts and show off legs we think are less than ideal.[2] Or because we think that protecting the rain forest from rampant deforestation is only important because we need to go…

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Repealing Renewable Portfolio Standards: A Raw Deal for North Carolina

Repealing Renewable Portfolio Standards: A Raw Deal for North Carolina

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North Carolina has become the central front in a national offensive aimed at rolling back renewable portfolio standards (RPSs), the state laws that require utilities to obtain a certain percentage of the electricity they distribute from technologies that use renewable fuel sources like our rivers, woods, and wind.[1]  While RPS adversaries argue that these standards hurt the economy by increasing consumer costs, they ignore the many jobs created by the renewable energy industry as well as the benefits conferred by…

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The 2012 WTO’s Appellate Body Tuna-Dolphin Decision: The End of a Saga, the Beginning of a Stronger Dolphin-Safe Label Regime?

The 2012 WTO’s Appellate Body Tuna-Dolphin Decision: The End of a Saga, the Beginning of a Stronger Dolphin-Safe Label Regime?

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On May 16, 2012, a twenty-year old tuna-dolphin dispute culminated with the World Trade Organization (WTO) Appellate Body (AB) ruling that the U.S’s dolphin safe labeling program discriminates against Mexican tuna imports, violating the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT).[1] As a threshold matter, Mexico claimed that the labeling regime was a mandatory technical regulation of a process or production method (PPM).[2]  There was no question that the labeling requirements applied to a PPM rather than a product,…

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Frackademia? Does Industry Have a Role to Play in University Studies of Hydraulic Fracturing?

Frackademia? Does Industry Have a Role to Play in University Studies of Hydraulic Fracturing?

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The University of Texas (“UT”) Energy Institute (“Energy Institute”) released a report in February 2012 purporting to have found no definitive link between hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and groundwater contamination.[1]  Instead, the report blamed supposed instances of contamination on faulty well construction or potential surface spills of wastewater produced during shale gas drilling.[2]  Such a report from a research institute at a major university garnered significant attention as industry groups seized upon this supposed good news.[3]  However, in July 2012, an…

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