Environment Energy And Resources Law

This comprehensive volume of the Elgar Encyclopedia of Environmental Law provides an overview of the major elements of energy law from a global perspective. Based on an in-depth analysis of the energy chain, it offers insight into the impacts of climate change and environmental issues on energy law and the energy sector. This timely reference work highlights the need for modern energy law to consider environmental impacts and promote the use of clean energy sources, whilst also safeguarding a reliable and affordable energy supply.

The law of energy and natural resources has always had a strong focus on property as one of its components, but there are relatively few comparative, book-length, treatments of both property law and energy and natural resources law. The aim of this edited collection is to explore the multiple dimensions of the contemporary relationship between property and energy and natural resources law. Its genesis was the growing resurgence of global interest in questions of property in energy and resources and how it manifests itself across legal regimes around the world. With an international and comparative character, the collection seeks to capture differences in the meaning of property, and the different views about the role it should play in a diverse range of contexts: civil law and common law; the law of indigenous communities; public law and private law; and national and international law. Key issues discussed include private rights and common property situations, privatization and regulation, competition for land use and resources, the role of property rights in environmental protection, and the balance between national sovereignty and the security of foreign investment. The collection thus has relevance for a wide readership interested in the legal dimensions of property as an increasingly important aspect of the law for energy and resources across diverse countries, and at the international level. The contributors are established experts in the energy and natural resources law field, and the collection builds upon a body of previous collaborative work in this area.

Unsustainable practices worldwide in energy production and consumption have led to a plethora of environmental problems. Until recently environmental law largely overlooked the relevance of energy production and consumption; energy was seen to be of little significance to the advancement of sustainable development. This has changed since 2000 with the global concern attached to climate change, the publication by the United Nations of the World Energy Assessment and the detailed consideration given to this issue at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002. Australia has been seen to be lagging behind the other major industrialised nations of the world in addressing sustainable energy issues. This book was first published in 2006.

Despite bringing prosperity, industrialisation generally leads to increasing levels of pollution which has a detrimental impact on the environment. In response, legislation which seeks to control or prevent such impact has become common. Similarly, climate change and energy security have become major drivers for the regulatory regimes that have emerged in the energy field. Given the global or regional scope of many environmental problems, international cooperation is often necessary to ensure such legislation is effective. The EU and the UK have contributed to the development of the environmental and energy law regimes currently in force, spanning across international, transnational and national levels. At the same time, practical responses to environmental and energy problems have largely been the focus of engineers, scientists and other technical experts. Environmental & Energy Law attempts to bridge the knowledge gap between legal developments designed to achieve environmental and/or energy-related objectives and the practical, scientific and technical considerations applicable to the same environmental problems. In particular, it attempts to convey a broad range of topical issues in environmental and energy law, from climate and energy regulation, technology innovation and transfer, to pollution control, environmental governance and enforcement. In addition the book outlines key sector specific legal regimes (including water, waste and air quality management), focusing on issues or topics that are particularly relevant to both environmental and energy lawyers, and engineering, science and technology-oriented professionals and students. In this vein, the book guides the reader on some basic practical applications of the law within scientific, engineering and other practical settings. The book will be useful to all those working or studying in the environmental or energy arena, including law students, legal professionals, engineering and science students and professionals. By adopting a multi-disciplinary approach to environmental and energy law, the book embraces all readerships and helps to address the often thorny problem of communication between scientists, engineers, lawyers and policy-makers.

Combining the two main approaches to teaching this broad area, this volume examines environmental law, including pollution control, and the natural resources law course covering conservation, energy and other aspects. This expansion of coverage promotes a fuller understanding of these complex issues, and can provide either a once-through general understanding of this area of law, or a foundation for more intense future study. resource law, and then discusses pollution control and remediation. Administrative law and environmental litigation issues are covered in less depth, as they can be treated in depth in other courses. The text includes discussion of the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act and in-depth treatment of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Superfund Law (CERCLA). An accompanying teacher's manual provides additional pedagogical insight and a documents supplement offers relevant additional materials.

This comprehensive, current examination of U.S. law as it relates to global climate change begins with a summary of the factual and scientific background of climate change based on governmental statistics and other official sources. Subsequent chapters address the international and national frameworks of climate change law, including the Kyoto Protocol, state programs affected in the absence of a mandatory federal program, issues of disclosure and corporate governance, and the insurance industry. Also covered are the legal aspects of other efforts, including voluntary programs, emissions trading programs, and carbon sequestration.