The list, in its fifth year, features articles co-authored by students and faculty on topics ranging from the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan to Vermont's new labeling law for genetically engineered foods.
"The field of environmental law is as vast as it is varied and it can be difficult at times to keep track of what's actually happening," said Andrew Minikowski '15, VJEL editor-in-chief. "Our annual Top 10 list reflects what the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law and environmental faculty at Vermont Law School feel to be the most important environmental legal issues that will likely develop in the upcoming year."
The Top 10, available online at watchlist.vermontlaw.edu, includes the following articles:
- "EPA Clean Power Plan: Homerun, Base Hit, or Strikeout?"
- "Coal at a Crossroads in Powder River Basin"
- "Shedding Light: Vermont's Labeling Law for Genetically Engineered Foods"
- "Obama Administration Settles with Navajo Nation for $554M"
- "EPA v. EME Homer City Generation"
- "Waters of the United States Rule"
- "Gray Wolf Delisting Overturned"
- "BP Oil Spill 'Gross Negligence' Finding by Federal Court"
- "Endangered Species Act Regulations Ruled Unconstitutional"
- "California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard"
Top 10 articles were written with a lay audience in mind.
"In no way should this list be confined to a readership of lawyers and academics," said Minikowski. "These issues—climate change, endangered species preservation, GE foods—affect every single human being on this Earth as well as the Earth itself. The awareness of an issue is the first step toward solving it. We encourage you to read our Top 10, discuss the issues with your friends and family, and of course, follow these issues over the next year and try to find a way that you can make a difference."
"Vermont Law School students and faculty are driven by their desire to improve the public's understanding of critical issues affecting people and our planet, and I am continually impressed by their efforts to do so," said VLS President and Dean Marc Mihaly. "It is our hope that readers of the 2015 Top 10 Environmental Watch List will be inspired to follow these issues in the coming year and take action in support of a more sustainable world."
For more information about the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law, including an archives of past Top 10 lists, visit vjel.vermontlaw.edu. For more information about environmental programs at Vermont Law School, including degrees and clinical training, visit the Environmental Law Center online at vermontlaw.edu/ELC, email Anne Mansfield Linehan at alinehan@vermontlaw.edu, or call 802-831-1287.