Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 24th, 2012
On February 21st, the Supreme Court in New York found that local governments are empowered to regulate hydrofracking under their delegated zoning and land use authority, despite preemptive language in the state’s Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Law (“OGSML”). To fully understand the importance of this holding, some context is helpful.
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 23rd, 2012
Today’s unanimous Supreme Court decision in PPL Montana v. Montana rejected Montana’s claim to title to miles of Missouri River riverbed that had been converted to hydropower reservoirs, finding that the navigability test for state title to underwater lands must be applied segment by segment, and not to the navigability of the river as a [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 16th, 2012
Perhaps the most interesting revelation from the leaked Heartland Institute documents is the climate denial think tank’s plan to develop a public school curriculum designed to counter the climate science consensus and perpetuate the false controversy about the state of climate science. This is particularly interesting in light of efforts by several states that have [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 14th, 2012
Posted on behalf of Dean Emeritus Richard Ottinger: To the Editors, The New York Times: Joe Nocero’s two recent Op Ed columns on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline demonstrate a disturbing disregard of the overwhelming dangers of climate change that threaten sea level rise; food shortages and starvation, spread of tropical diseases; economic disruptions; [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 9th, 2012
The Adirondack Park Agency has just approved a massive 6,500 acre, 650 housing unit resort and vacation home development in an area bounded by “Forever Wild” Adirondack Park lands. The “Adirondack Club Resort” would include 15 30-50 acre “great camp” lots — a sprawling vacation home development in wild forest areas — as well as [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 1st, 2012
Last week, Supreme Court Westchester County (the nisi prius level of the New York court system) threw out the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation’s general permit for municipal stormwater systems. A copy of the opinion can be downloaded here. NRDC and several Waterkeeper environmental groups challenged the general permits on the grounds that they essentially [...]
