VJEL Newsroom
Announcing VJEL’s 2024 Top 10 Environmental Watch List
By VJEL
December 18, 2023
The Vermont Journal of Environmental Law (VJEL) is pleased to announce the publication of its 2024 Top 10 Environmental Watch List. VJEL Staff Editors work closely with a faculty member or subject-matter expert to select a topic based on what is considered within the “Top 10” most pressing environmental law issues for the upcoming year and to propose creative solutions for those problems. This year’s list includes a diverse array of topics, from concerns over our energy and transportation infrastructure; housing and land conservation; international and local climate change; food security and contamination; and water quality of our world’s oceans.
2024 Top 10 Environmental Watch List:
By: Michael Murphy and Professor Genevieve Byrne
The number of wildfires each year is increasing, which cost billions of dollars in damage and take hundreds of lives. Many of these fires begin because of power grid failuresyet power utilities neglect to update the grids, as many regulators reject plans because they are “gold plating,” or only making “improvements” strictly for profit rather than truly upgrading the grid, in order to charge customers higher rates. But energy regulation does not have to take this form, instead, states are adopting “performance-based regulation” that instead compensates utilities for making targeted outcomes to enhance grid performance, rather than the traditional rate-of-return structure charged to customers.
#2: Americans Must Shift Car Culture: Transportation Policy Can Help
By: Margaret Chafouleas and VJEL Editor-in-Chief Monica Nerz
In the United States, over 91 percent of households have at least one vehicle, and the daily American life relies on these vehicles. But these vehicles are killing our planet. Not only are vehicles the number one emitter of greenhouse gas emissions, but car accidents are also the leading cause of death for those aged 1-54 in the country. Unfortunately, transportation lobbying is preventing meaningful change. Recent legislation, such as the Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act (IIJA) helped create some changes and added funding to transportation upgrades, however it still is not enough, as the law still reinforces the car-centric culture. Instead, the U.S. should focus on shifting its policies away from individual cars, and more to mass transit, walkable and bikeable cities, and doing more to increase road safety.
#3: Backlogged Projects May Actually See [and Use] the Light of Day in the Near Future
By: Laura Arboleda Bowie and South Royalton Legal Clinic Attorney Chester Harper
Renewable energy storage, such as solar, wind, and battery storage waiting to interconnect to major grids total more than what is currently generated on the nation’s gridyet they still await a lengthy review and permitting process by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Because of this backlog, FERC promulgated Order 2023 – RM22-14-000 to speed up this process. Key points to the rule include changing the process from a “first-come, first-serve” to a “first-ready, first-served cluster study process”; speeding up the interconnection queue processing by loosening procedural costs and deadlines; and incorporating technological advancements in the interconnection process. Despite the positives, there are some concerns that Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs), who manage about 60 percent of the U.S. electric power supply, and other independent system operators, may impose steep tariff provisions to recover the costs related to interconnection study penalties previously issued by the old rule or whether utilities can even come into compliance with the new rule within 90 days. Nonetheless, the new rule is a step in the right direction to a greener path towards 80 percent clean energy by 2030.
#4: The Global Stocktake Report: Ensuring Our Future
By: Yanissa Rodriguez and Professor Derek Walker
Under Article 14 of the Paris Agreement, parties must share an assessment of their implementation of the Agreement, known as the “Global Stocktake” (GST)the first of which took place at this year’s recent COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. While many had high hopes, there was a common theme: parties need laws that work while considering the practical concerns of individuals on the ground to implement the Paris Agreement’s goals. Currently, the global community is only reducing emissions by 15-30 percent, so the GST synthesis report created further recommendations ahead of COP28. Such recommendations include further implementing domestic policy, focusing more on mitigation and adaptation measures, and achieving all of these in a just manner, leaving no one behind. With this new information, parties have another five years to adequately respond to achieve Paris goals.
#5: Balancing the Need for Housing and Conserved Land in Vermont
By: Nathaniel Launer and VT State Senator Kesha Ram Hinsdale
Rural states and communities are trying to balance housing concerns with land conservation, including Vermont. In June, the state passed two important pieces of legislation, the Housing Opportunities Made for Everyone (HOME) Act, which amends planning and permitting requirements to address the housing crisis, and the Community Resilience and Biodiversity Protection Act (CRBPA) to conserve one-third of Vermont’s land by 2030, and half by 2050. Naturally, these two Acts come into contention, but they both require cooperation by various agencies to achieve both goals. But each of these have their own costs and benefits from conserving land, addressing the housing crisis, and environmental concerns. Through the state’s environmental justice policy, however, Vermont can create a path that balances the two programs in a just manner that also protects Vermont’s wild lands.
By: Alexander Arroyo and Professor Laurie Beyranevand
We all need to eat to survive, but is there a “right” to food? In Maine, it is. Maine passed a constitutional amendment in 2021, called the “Right to Food” amendment, to address the high amount of food insecurity and users of state and federal food assistance programs that are vulnerable to political shifts, funding, and increasing disruptions to food systems caused by climate change. But despite producing enough food to support its 1.3 million residents, much of the local food supply is shipped outside the state or consumed by correctional facilities and schools, while importing most of the food used to feed the general population. The amendment promotes individuals to grow crops, raise livestock, and forage and huntdespite the ever-growing threat by industrial agriculture and corporatization to take over local farms and food systems. Nonetheless, this is a critical first step for Maine to address its fight against hunger in a just and resilient manner and serves as a guide for the rest of the nation.
By: Alexander Hume and Professor Yanmei Lin
Nuclear power provides 10 percent of the world’s energy and can be pivotal in helping countries achieve net-zero emissionsbut lack of safe and effective permanent solutions to nuclear waste are roadblocks to further developing energy generation. Adding to this is the volatility of Japanese nuclear reactors, which are susceptible to earthquakes, flooding, and other natural disasters, which could lead to disastrous nuclear meltdowns, as well as emergency response introducing nuclear waste into the world’s oceans. Since the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster in 2011, Japan had been “treating” the collected wastewater to remove radionuclides (except tritium, a radioactive hydrogen isotope that is near impossible to remove). But concerns are growing over whether tritium and other contaminants in the water could have global impacts to fish and other marine species. Japan has an international obligation not to pollute the ocean, but classifying this water as “treated” raises many health and legal questions that need swift assessment and action.
#8: Rising Waters, Rising Solutions: Navigating the Path to Flood Resiliency in a Changing Climate
By: Hannah Weisgerber and Professor Christophe Courchesne
In 2011, Vermont experienced devastating flooding after Hurricane Irene, and in 2023, torrential downpours inundated the state in floodwaters after an unusually wet season. Both resulted in lost lives, damaged communities long after the events, and severe environmental degradation. And these events are becoming more common across the country. In response, states are developing flood resiliency plans, including the Enhancing Flood Resiliency of Vermont State Lands plan. But legal structures are lacking in land planning and such projects can be significant time and financial investments. But since Hurricane Irene, Vermont reacted by cities purchasing properties in flood zones; rebuilding infrastructure like roads, bridges, and culverts; increased publication of educational materials and outreach through public websites; and encouraged municipalities to take initiative to address flood resilience. Even with these lofty goals, the state still fell short, including no mention of flood resiliency in its Acceptable Management Practices and no established conservation targets for state lands and hydrologic resource zones. This comes as a stalemate between prioritizing forests as working forests for logging or for conservation.
#9: Natural, Native Solutions to Fire
By: Joseph Gerngross and Professor Mark James
Wildfires pose new risks to communities that they did not previously during pre-Columbian North America, as indigenous cultures had a regular cycle of controlled burns to remove any buildup of highly flammable organic matter. Instead, governments spend billions on fire suppressionthough this is changing amidst the growing number of large crown fires in the Western United States, like the Camp Fire in Northern California in 2018, to instead conduct over 50 million acres of controlled burns by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). Indigenous cultures became keystone species to managing healthy ecosystems with controlled burns, but this clashed with settlers’ views of property ownership. Now, some indigenous tribes are working cooperatively with local governments to bring back controlled burnsbut this is not enough. Despite the growing recognition of these traditional fire practices, their widespread use is almost nonexistent, even with USFS’s goal to create a safer fire regime for Americans.
#10: Bon Appétit: Regulating the Microplastics You Eat
By: Hanna Walker and Environmental Justice Clinic Director and Professor Mia Montoya Hammersley
Plastic is present in nearly every aspect of our lives: food packaging, clothing, and cosmetic products, to name a few. Each year, over 400 million tons of plastic ends up in landfills, water bodies, and the environment, and this amount could triple by 2060. Despite the sheer volume of plastics, recycling is not enough to reduce waste, especially as oil-rich nations continue to push for more production. Plastic pollution is so prolific that the United Nations is in the midst of drafting a new global agreement addressing it. As plastics accumulate in the environment, they break down into smaller pieces called microplastics, which can enter the human body in ways most could not imagine, such as chopping vegetables on plastic cutting boards, twisting the cap off and drinking from a soda or water bottle, or drinking from contaminated water suppliesmost commonly found in environmental justice communities. These plastics act as inhibitors for beneficial bacterial growth in our digestive system and are endocrine disruptors that interfere with the body’s natural hormones for growth, reproduction, metabolism, sleep, and stress response. Addressing plastics has occurred at all political levels, from cities, states, to the federal government, all at varying degrees, however more efforts are needed to address the large volume of plastic in our daily lives, including the upcoming UN treaty and domestic policies.
VJEL would like to thank the faculty members and co-authors for their expertise and assistance to the Staff Editors during the drafting process to produce the 2024 Top 10 Environmental Watch List. Their contributions continue to add to exemplary and accessible work to the environmental law field.