Transboundary Air Pollution: The Legal Framework

12 pages (includes illustrations). Contains footnotes

Best Regulatory Practices for Deep Seabed Mining: Lessons Learned from the U.S. Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act

Mining operations around the globe are responsible for significant environmental problems. These problems often stem from poor planning, inadequate regulatory standards, and a failure of regulatory oversight, particularly with respect to inspection and enforcement regimes. Mining regulators are often hamstrung, however, by inadequate information about potential impacts before operations commence. This problem is particularly daunting when considering mining on ocean floors where information about the environment is limited, and the impacts of mining are poorly understood. As the International Seabed Authority (ISA) develops a comprehensive regulatory program for deep seabed mining, they should draw on the experience gained in regulating terrestrial mining, subject, of course, to the caveat that deep seabed mining poses unique challenges that will require different and sometimes innovative regulatory solutions. In reviewing regulatory programs for terrestrial mining operations, one would be hard-pressed to find a program that is more thorough and creative than that established by the U.S. Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA). For reasons that are related primarily to the contentious politics surrounding coal mining regulation in the United States, SMCRA has never lived up to its promise. Nonetheless, the law remains largely intact and, despite its implementation challenges, affords a useful framework for thinking about an appropriate strategy for regulating deep seabed mining. This case study outlines the contours of the regulatory program established under SMCRA insofar as it may be relevant to regulating deep seabed mining. It acknowledges some of SMCRA’s flaws and omissions, and where appropriate, it suggests regulatory practices that go beyond SMCRA. Nonetheless, and despite SMCRA’s limitations, the program established under this law reflects modern thinking about the procedures that should be followed in managing mining activities in challenging environments, and thus offers a useful lens for designing a regulatory program for deep seabed mining

Accounting for Climate Impacts in Decisionmaking

Every significant decision made by government agencies, and many made by private organizations, impacts climate change. Ignoring those impacts is increasingly unacceptable. But how to account for a decision’s impact on the climate is far from clear. This article seeks to answer that question in the context of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that will likely result from a proposed action and begins with a detailed description of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process. EIA is crucial to understanding the likely consequences of a proposed action, including the climate-related consequences. EIA also serves as the primary vehicle for estimating GHG emissions and assessing the social cost associated with those emissions. While EIA is most commonly used by government decision makers, tools like EIA work equally well, and are at least as useful in evaluating private actions and their climate impacts. The article then considers how the environmental assessment should address the difficult questions associated with quantifying GHG emissions. To what extent, for example, should indirect emissions count, and how should decision makers calculate them? Once decision makers quantify GHG emissions, they must quantify their cost to society. The social cost of carbon or, more specifically, the “social cost of greenhouse gases” (SC-GHG), is an increasingly popular tool that provides an estimate of that cost and helps ensure that cost receives fair consideration when an agency is choosing among available options. Finally, the article considers the growing movement towards corporate social responsibility as reflected in the push for investment firms and corporations to adopt environment, social, and governance (ESG) policies. While ESG standards are currently lacking clear definition, and while the idea that corporations should follow ESG policies is controversial within some conservative circles, the movement towards ESG policies in the private sector offers an excellent opportunity to focus organizations on their responsibility to account for the climate impacts associated with every important decision that they make

Transboundary Air Pollution: The Legal Framework

12 pages (includes illustrations). Contains footnotes

The Water Transfer Process as a Management Option for Meeting Changing Water Demands, Volume II

1 v. : ill. ; 28 cm V. 2.: Water transfers in Arizona / Gary C. Woodard, Cara S. McCarthy -- Water transfers in California : 1981-1989 / Brian E. Gray -- Transfers of water use in Colorado / Lawrence J. MacDonnell, Charles W. Howe, Teresa A. Rice -- Transfers of water use in New Mexico / F. Lee Brown, Charles DuMars, Michelle Minnis, Sue Anderson Smasal, David Kennedy, Julie A. Urban -- Review of the water rights transfer process and activity in Utah / Chris C. Hogge, Paul G. Hansen, J. Paul Riley, Ray J. Davis -- Water rights transfers in Wyoming / Mark Squillacehttps://scholar.law.colorado.edu/books_reports_studies/1092/thumbnail.jp

The Water Transfer Process as a Management Option for Meeting Changing Water Demands, Volume I

1 v. : ill. ; 28 cm V. 1.: Introduction -- Summaries of state reports -- Findings and comparative analysis -- Summary and conclusionshttps://scholar.law.colorado.edu/books_reports_studies/1091/thumbnail.jp

The discovery of potent, selective, and reversible inhibitors of the house dust mite peptidase allergen Der p 1: an innovative approach to the treatment of allergic asthma.

Blocking the bioactivity of allergens is conceptually attractive as a small-molecule therapy for allergic diseases but has not been attempted previously. Group 1 allergens of house dust mites (HDM) are meaningful targets in this quest because they are globally prevalent and clinically important triggers of allergic asthma. Group 1 HDM allergens are cysteine peptidases whose proteolytic activity triggers essential steps in the allergy cascade. Using the HDM allergen Der p 1 as an archetype for structure-based drug discovery, we have identified a series of novel, reversible inhibitors. Potency and selectivity were manipulated by optimizing drug interactions with enzyme binding pockets, while variation of terminal groups conferred the physicochemical and pharmacokinetic attributes required for inhaled delivery. Studies in animals challenged with the gamut of HDM allergens showed an attenuation of allergic responses by targeting just a single component, namely, Der p 1. Our findings suggest that these inhibitors may be used as novel therapies for allergic asthma