The Tulane Environmental Law Clinic (TELC) is a legal clinic that Tulane Law School has operated since 1989 to offer law students the practical experience of representing real clients in actual legal proceedings under state and federal environmental laws. [1]
TELC's mission is to 1) train effective and ethical lawyers by guiding law students through actual client representation; 2) expand access to the legal system, especially for those who could not otherwise afford competent legal help on environmental issues; and 3) bolster community members' capacity to participate effectively in environmental decisions. [2]
TELC is part of Tulane University School of Law's environmental law program and has become one of Louisiana's premier public interest legal services organizations, known especially for its work on environmental justice issues. [3] On behalf of their clients, TELC students [4] and supervising attorneys litigate environmental citizen suits to abate industrial pollution, [5] appeal permits for environmental pollution or destruction of wetlands, [6] challenge agency regulations that fall short of legislative mandates, [7] and prod agencies to perform statutory duties. [8] Louisiana state courts, [9] and most federal courts in Louisiana, [10] have adopted "student practice" rules that allow TELC students to appear and argue in court. [11]
The American Bar Association honored TELC as co-recipient of its first "Award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy" in 2000. [12] In 2010, the New Orleans chapter of the Federal Bar Association honored TELC with its Camille F. Gravel Jr. Pro Bono Award [13] In addition, TELC was a runner up for the National Law Journal's Lawyer of the Year award in 1998. [14]
Attorney Suzanne S. Dickey has explained that TELC student attorneys have "handled cases involving all aspects of environmental law, including air pollution, conservation of natural resources, urban land use and siting of waste facilities." [15] Some examples appear below.
In addition to funding from Tulane Law School, TELC relies on donations by individuals, families and corporations, foundation grants, [58] and attorney-fee recoveries. [59]
Many of TELC's cases involve large corporations or issues of community, statewide, or national concern. [60] For this reason, TELC's work on behalf of its clients can be controversial. [61] John R. Kramer, the law school's dean at the time of TELC's inception, publicly defended TELC's work when it frustrated Louisiana chemical and oil companies during his tenure through 1996. [62]
Largely as a result of these events, the Times-Picayune has described TELC as the bane of former Governor Mike Foster and business groups. [69] Even after EPA's objection to the polyvinyl chloride plant, however, Governor Foster met cordially with a TELC student attorney on Clean Water Act issues in January 2003. [70]
Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into a comprehensive public university as the University of Louisiana by the state legislature in 1847. The institution became private under the endowments of Paul Tulane and Josephine Louise Newcomb in 1884 and 1887. Tulane is the 9th oldest private university in the Association of American Universities. The Tulane University Law School and Tulane University Medical School are, respectively, the 12th oldest law school and 15th oldest medical school in the United States. Tulane has been a member of the Association of American Universities since 1958 and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".
In the United States, federal mandates are orders that induce "responsibility, action, procedure or anything else that is imposed by constitutional, administrative, executive, or judicial action" for state and local governments and/or the private sector.
River Bend Nuclear Generating Station is a nuclear power station on a 3,300-acre (1,300 ha) site near St. Francisville, Louisiana in West Feliciana Parish, approximately 30 miles (50 km) north of Baton Rouge. The station has one sixth generation General Electric boiling water reactor that has a nominal gross electric output of about 1010 MWe. Commercial operation began on June 16, 1986.
The Waterford Steam Electric Station, Unit 3, also known as Waterford 3, is a nuclear power plant located on a 3,000-acre (1,200 ha) plot in Killona, Louisiana, in St. Charles Parish, about 25 miles (40 km) west of New Orleans.
In the United States, a citizen suit is a lawsuit by a private citizen to enforce a statute. Citizen suits are particularly common in the field of environmental law.
Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984), was a landmark case in which the United States Supreme Court set forth the legal test for determining whether to grant deference to a government agency's interpretation of a statute which it administers. The decision articulated a doctrine now known as "Chevron deference". The doctrine consists of a two-part test applied by the court, when appropriate, that is highly deferential to government agencies: "whether the agency's answer is based on a permissible construction [emphasis added] of the statute", so long as Congress has not spoken directly to the precise issue at question.
The Agriculture Street Landfill was a dump located in the Desire Area of New Orleans, Louisiana. The area was later developed for residential use, with unfortunate environmental consequences. It became a Superfund cleanup site in 1994.
Suzanne Haik Terrell is the first and only Republican woman elected to statewide office in Louisiana. A practicing attorney, Terrell was the state's final commissioner of elections, a position which she held from 2000 to 2004. In 2002, she was the Republican nominee for United States Senate, losing a hotly contested and closely watched race against incumbent Senator Mary Landrieu. In 2005, U.S. President George W. Bush appointed Terrell to a position as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the United States Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration. Terrell is currently a partner with the New Orleans law firm of Hangartner, Rydberg, and Terrell.
Charity Hospital was one of two teaching hospitals which were part of the Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans (MCLNO), the other being University Hospital. Three weeks after the events of Hurricane Katrina, then Governor Kathleen Blanco said that Charity Hospital would not reopen as a functioning hospital. The Louisiana State University System, which owns the building, stated that it had no plans to reopen the hospital in its original location. It chose to incorporate Charity Hospital into the city's new medical center in the lower Mid-City neighborhood. The new hospital completed in August 2015 was named University Medical Center New Orleans.
There is no national law in the United States that mandates recycling. State and local governments often introduce their own recycling requirements. In 2014, the recycling/composting rate for municipal solid waste in the US was 34.6%. A number of U.S. states, including California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon, and Vermont have passed laws that establish deposits or refund values on beverage containers while other jurisdictions rely on recycling goals or landfill bans of recyclable materials.
Tulane University Law School is the law school of Tulane University. It is located on Tulane's Uptown campus in New Orleans, Louisiana. Established in 1847, it is the 12th oldest law school in the United States.
John M. Barry is an American author and historian who has written books on the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the influenza pandemic of 1918, and the development of the modern form of the ideas of separation of church and state and individual liberty. He is a professor at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and Distinguished Scholar at Tulane's Bywater Institute.
John R. Kramer served as the 19th dean of the Tulane University Law School from 1986 to 1996, and previous to that was an associate dean at Georgetown University. At Tulane he started a law clinic to serve low-income people in New Orleans and made Tulane the first law school in the United States to require a specific number of community service hours for graduation. Under his leadership, African American students came to constitute a greater percentage of the law school student body than in any other non-historically black law school.
Entergy Corp. v. Riverkeeper, Inc., 556 U.S. 208 (2009), is a decision by the United States Supreme Court that reviewed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) interpretation of the Clean Water Act regulations with regard to cooling water intakes for power plants. Existing facilities are mandated to use the "Best Technology Available" to "minimize the adverse environmental impact." The issue was whether the agency may use a cost–benefit analysis (CBA) in choosing the Best Available Technology or (BAT) to meet the National Performance Standards (NPS).
Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, 566 U.S. 120 (2012), also known as Sackett I, is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that orders issued by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Water Act are subject to the Administrative Procedure Act. The Court ruled that because the Environmental Protection Agency's orders constitute "final agency action" under the Administrative Procedure Act, federal courts may hear appeals from its orders.
Climate change has had a number of impacts on the US state of Montana. Heat waves are becoming more common, snow is melting earlier in the spring, and trees are dying as a result of drought, forest fire, and increased prevalence of forest insects. In the next few decades in Montana, climate change is most likely to impact water availability, agricultural yields, and wildfire risk. State and local governments have taken legislative steps, such as establishing a renewable energy portfolio and creating climate action plans, to mitigate the effects of climate change.
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Beverly Wright is an American environmental justice scholar and the founder of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University. Her research considers the environmental and health inequalities along the Mississippi River Chemical Corridor. Her awards and honours include the Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Justice Achievement Award.
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