Keeping Up-to-Date with the Environmental Law Reporter: A Guide to Legal Updates

The Environmental Law Reporter Explained

The Environmental Law Reporter is a dominating force in coverage of environmental law developments. Its carefully assembled database of statutes and regulations has been available since 1971, and the analysis has been a primary research tool for environmental attorneys and other experts for decades. ELR is a digital legal research tool that allows professionals, academics , and policymakers to access a number of key resources in environmental law, including federal laws and regulations, state legal resources, and full text of law review articles pertaining to environmental law. Using Environmental Law Reporter will keep you at the forefront of developments in environmental law, allowing your work to remain relevant in the ongoing evolution of law and policy in this important field of expertise.

The Environmental Law Reporter’s Key Features

The Environmental Law Reporter is designed to provide readers with a comprehensive overview of legal trends, developments, and analysis. It covers case law, legislation, and rulemakings with an eye toward the practical, providing users with the relevant statutes and regulation text and the language of all applicable federal and state rules. It also offers solutions-oriented content in the form of flowcharts, checklists, and guidance for a wide range of environmental matters. Environmental Law Reporter also features key e-Alerts that focus on practice areas such as air, climate, water, waste, and energy. It gives readers access to complete Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules in addition to federal legislation, and includes decisions from several U.S. district and appellate courts. Additionally, Environmental Law Reporter will help attorneys stay informed. Whether you are looking for recent Supreme Court cases on the Clean Air Act, recent decisions in the Federal Circuit on the Clean Water Act, decisions from the Second Circuit on accidental releases under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-know Act, recent decisions in the Tenth Circuit on exposure claims, or recent decisions in the Court of Federal Claims on judgments against the government for taking of wetlands, Environmental Law Reporter has them.

How to Make Use of the Environmental Law Reporter

Subscribers can utilize the Environmental Law Reporter to keep informed about the latest developments in environmental law and policy. Subscribers to ELI’s flagship service, the ELR subscription, can quickly access the latest analyses by ELI’s senior staff. This "In the Loop" bulletin typically covers recent judicial decisions, new legislation, and emerging trends in environmental policy, including recent publications and upcoming trainings and seminars. The "In the Loop" resource contains a summary that directs subscribers to the most relevant and pertinent articles within the ELI website. Subscribers can receive this service as part of the ELR subscription, or they can subscribe directly to the "In the Loop" service separately. With summaries provided by ELR authors and other senior ELI staff, the "In the Loop" is a valuable way to stay up to date on important developments regarding environmental law.
The "Featured" section of the ELR subscription home page contains publications of primary importance offering in-depth discussion and analysis on recent and on-going issues in environmental law. ELR articles come from—among other sources—expert analytic newsletters, in-depth special reports, and monthly journals.
Subscribers can stay current on new content within the ELR Byline, which has space to elaborate on new case developments, key articles, references, and other content. The Byline component of the ELR subscription also includes an ‘Editor’s Choice’ section. This portion of the service focuses on a specific article of note, highlighting the content and directing readers to a full reading of the article or the electronic publication it is in. Subscribers receive all new content in the Byline via email.
The Conservation Law Reporter is a rich resource for those who are looking for comprehensive and up-to-date data regarding legislative and policy developments on a national and local level for the conservation of natural resources. Subscribers can utilize this resource to track and stay up to date with the latest environmental law developments and those that relate to a specific point in time.

Reviewing Major Environmental Cases

As you delve into the pages of the Environmental Law Reporter, you’ll find yourself at the forefront of some of the most consequential environmental litigation in our history. Whether you’re a litigator, a regulatory advisor, or a public interest advocate, the ELI database is your window into our legal past – and present. Even now, as we face unprecedented challenges in combating climate change, it’s evident that the cases being decided today will establish precedents that shape the way in which environmental laws are enforced and interpreted for years to come. Let’s take a look at some key landmark cases: United States v. Morton Salt Co. This 1963 case, argued before Justice William Brennan, established and reaffirmed the broad enforcement powers of the Bureau of Land Management in protecting the nation’s public lands. The law known as the Taylor Grazing Act, passed in 1934, prohibited the unauthorized use of public lands and drove home the point that these lands are resources for everyone, not personal stock to be consumed in the name of profits. Teenage Market, Inc., v. Haley A watershed moment for emissions standards, this 1971 case wrestled with the question of whether automobile manufacturers could be exempt from emissions standards under state law because of federal regulations. Although the court ultimately upheld the preemption, finding that national emission standards were intended to be general, the case set a precedent for regulating emissions and upholding the states’ rights to implement their own emissions standards in coordination with the federal standards.

Latest Developments in Environmental Law

The Environmental Law Reporter’s Policy Alert section stays abreast of any major developments in local, state and federal legislation. The past several months have resulted in numerous legislative actions affecting a wide range of environmental issues.
Vermont has become the first state in the nation to pass a law banning hydraulic fracturing. Although the new law will not be effective until July 1, 2014, its enactment represents a significant step towards the utopia of fracking-free America. Supporters of the law contend that the moratorium goes far beyond the health concerns associated with hydraulic fracturing, and acts as a precursor to Vermont’s ongoing goal of passing legislation that would serve as a model for how to turn the state’s energy consumption 80 percent renewable by the year 2050.
Arizona recently introduced laws aimed at easing the permitting process for developers. Under Arizona’s new laws, Arizona will be the first state to implement a system that automatically issues permits for clean water projects. The new laws also ties the certification of storm water discharge permits to the federal permit cycle required by the Clean Water Act. The Arizona foreclosure crisis has largely hampered Arizona’s development. Since 2009, there has been a 50 percent decline in the number of new water permits, which largely accounts for the recent 12 percent increase in the unemployment rate in Arizona, as well as corresponding strikes to the local economy.
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management announced that the average price for solar power to be generated on public lands came to $13 . 48-per-megawatt/hour, the equivalent of nearly 1.4 million MW of electrical capacity. The BLM’s announcement marks the first average electricity price set by the federal government for renewable energy projects. Despite setting the lowest baseline rate for solar energy on 78 million acres of public land, including an array of solar energy projects lead by industry giants NextEra Energy Resources LLC, First Solar Inc., and NRG Solar along the California-Nevada border, critics and environmental groups continue to take issue with President Obama’s clean energy program for its impact on the desert tortoise.
On several occasions, the Environmental Law Reporter has addressed the lack of transparency that local governments face regarding the ELD. In a recent article, Reluctant Participants: Local Governments’ Role in the Brownfields Revolution, the author discusses the benefits and challenges to a local governments’ decision to enter into brownfields programs. Many cities and towns are unaware of the vast opportunities set forth by the Federal Brownfield’s Program; in fact, more than half of the approximately 2878 players in the national brownfield’s list are local governments. But with the increased opportunity comes increased liability, and one that many local governments are unprepared to address without further federal assistance. The national brownfields list is organized by the EPA, but there are no publication requirements other than those set forth in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The publication requirements that exceed the FOIA for the State of Michigan are comparable to those set forth by the ELD; however, their use is few and far between.

Insights and Analysis from Experts

The Environmental Law Reporter (ELR) provides expert opinions and commentary from leading environmental law authorities on important legal developments. These contributions are relevant to every stakeholder: industry, government, NGOs, and academia. And the way they’re presented makes it easy to access the information that is most relevant to you, so you’re always informed and prepared for what’s next on the environmental law landscape. They’re brief enough to quickly read in their entirety, but also heavily hyperlinked so you can dive right into the relevant dockets or statutes and cases being discussed. The experts’ bolded headings also make it easy to jump straight to professional insights that cut to the core of the issues at hand.
From case law summaries to trend analyses, ELR experts are especially attentive to where the practice of environmental law is heading, helping you make better decisions with the most up-to-date information. For instance, one of the most popular ELR features is a monthly forum series called "Trends" that provides commentary on how changes in the law are affecting stakeholders. The guest editor for this series is Professor David Markell, an active member of the ELR advisory board, a highly regarded practitioner and member of the federal faculty, and a former Deputy Secretary for Water Policy in the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation.

Guide to Subscription and Access

The Environmental Law Institute provides access to the Environmental Law Reporter (ELR) in a variety of different ways. ELR Readers are already well aware that both online and print versions of the publication are available. But for those who are unfamiliar with subscription and access options, ELR is available quarterly in print form and continuously online, through separate platforms.
ELR is also available on a subscription basis for those with online access only. The Environmental Law Reporter is currently available for a free seven-day trial. Additional content is offered by the ELI Press.

The Environmental Law Report’s Impact

The Environmental Law Reporter has significantly impacted the development and evolution of environmental law. The Reporter informed legal opinions and policies that would have gone otherwise uninformed. In particular, the Reporter was instrumental in the establishment of agencies such as the EPA . In addition, the Reporter acted as invaluable tool to 1) assist practitioners by making it easier for them to keep abreast of the latest developments; 2) educate the public on important legal decisions; and 3) expand the scope of environmental law as a whole beyond the traditional confines of agency enforcement of regulations.