Environmental Policy & Law

This is the year for two notable, and related, anniversaries. As we observe the 200th birthday of the national anthem of the United States, “The Star-Spangled Banner” by lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key, there’s a second anniversary to remember. It’s a dark stain for our country, but one that few recall in these early decades of the 21st century. It’s the 100th annual observance of the global extinction of the Passenger Pigeon, at one time the most abundant bird in North America, and possibly the world.

The state Department of Environmental Protection is facing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit over its refusal to provide a public interest law firm with a slice of agency data that shows recent water pollution levels at coal-mining operations across West Virginia. Lawyers from Appalachian Mountain Advocates sued DEP in Kanawha Circuit Court after the agency turned down their request for “discharge monitoring report,” or DMR, data that mine operators are required to file with the agency to disclose pollution levels under state and federal clean water laws.

Dustin Mulvany recently provided analysis and testimony on behalf of the Sierra Club on Utah's net metering debate.

Posted July 16, 2014 - HONOLULU - Gov. Neil Abercrombie today announced the nominations of Jonathan Scheuer to the Land Use Commission (LUC), as well as Rona Fukumoto and Edwin Taira to the Board of Directors of the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation (HHFDC), effective immediately. All are interim appointments subject to state Senate approval. Scheuer was appointed to an at-large seat and is the first LUC appointee to fill vacancies left by five recent resignations on the nine-member commission.