Environmental Law – Page 28 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Water and People Conference

Post author:Matthew J. Parlow
Post published:February 15, 2010
Post category:Business Regulation Environmental Law Marquette Law School Speakers at Marquette Wisconsin Law & Legal System

On Friday, February 26, 2010, Marquette University Law School (MULS) will hold its annual Public Service Conference at the Alumni Memorial Union on the Marquette University campus on the increasingly important topic of water law. The conference, entitled “Water and People,” will address water issues in Wisconsin (as well as nationally and internationally), development and the environment, regulation, and water ethics. Statewide leaders from business, government, and non-profit served on a steering committee that worked with Assistant Dean for Public Service, Dan Idzikowski, and myself (I coordinate the MULS water law program) to plan the conference. Based on the group’s efforts, experts from Wisconsin, around the United States, and from Canada will gather to talk about some of the most important topics in the field of water law. The conference will also feature a keynote address by Cameron Davis, senior advisor to the United States EPA Administrator for Great Lakes Restoration. You can learn more about the conference and register for the conference at http://law.marquette.edu/cgi-bin/site.pl?2130&pageID=4303.

While no blog post can truly capture all that this conference will entail, here is a preview of the panels and topics.

The EPA Power Grab

Post author:Matthew Fernholz
Post published:January 8, 2010
Post category:Environmental Law

epa_logo My thanks to Prof. Slavin for inviting me to serve as student blogger of the month. I shall do my level best to maintain the high standards set by the MULS Faculty Blog.

Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a finding that greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, constitute a threat to human health and welfare as defined under the Clean Air Act (CAA). This is significant because the CAA allows the EPA to regulate any pollutant that the EPA finds a danger to human health and welfare. As EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson stated, “[i]f we don’t act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the planet we will leave to the future will be very different that then one we know today.” If the EPA does decide to act, the same statement will apply to the U.S. economy.

Learning (At Last) to Value Water

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:December 9, 2009
Post category:Environmental Law Speakers at Marquette

wel In 1774, Ben Franklin said, “When the well’s dry, we know the worth of the well.”

“He was wrong,” author Robert Glennon told an audience of about 100 Tuesday at the Alumni Memorial Union at Marquette University. Even as wells and water supplies move ominously closer to dry in parts of the United States, the public and many policy makers are not responding in ways that could avert major impacts, warned Glennon, whose books include Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What to Do About It, published last spring.

“We don’t value water in the United States,” Glennon told the session, part of the “On the Issues” series hosted by Mike Gousha, Marquette Law School Distinguished Fellow in Law and Public Policy.

Wisconsin is not standing at the precipice of a water crisis to the same degree as metropolitan Atlanta and much of the western United States, but it would still be wise to undertake public education efforts here and to make more effective water use decisions, Glennon said.