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The law is the principal mechanism by which society resolves disputes and implements policies. For more than forty years, I have worked to use the law to address environmental problems, initially by trying to stop projects that would increase pollution and harm communities. But there are limits to what the courts can do without explicit direction from legislatures. Climate change is a prime example. Some have seen litigation as a silver bullet, but at least so far that has not been the case. Elections matter more than lawsuits. Until and unless elections bring to power a president, a Congress, and local officials who will take the necessary measures, litigation is needed to inhibit those who will try to move backwards, spur on those with good intentions, help implement the policies set by wise Congresses past, and continue the quest for redress for victims. Well-crafted laws can also lead the way to solutions.

Les États-Unis ont plus de procès sur le climat que tous les autres pays dumonde réunis. La nature du litige a tendance à varier selon le parti qui détient la Maison Blanche. Pendant les administrations démocrates (Barack Obama), les poursuites ont tendance à être intentées par des sociétés industrielles et des États à tendance républicaine, alléguant que le Gouvernement fédéral en fait trop pour lutter contre le changement climatique. Pendant les administrations républicaines (George W. Bush, Donald J. Trump), la plupart des poursuites sont intentées par des groupes environnementaux et des États démocrates, alléguant que le Gouvernement fédéral en fait trop peu. À l'heure actuelle, ces demandeurs intentent de nombreuses poursuites contestant les efforts déployés par l'administration Trump pour abroger les règlements existants et pour aider à la production de combustibles fossiles. En outre, plusieurs procès ont été intentés par les villes et les comtés contre les grandes compagnies pétrolières et gazières cherchant une compensation monétaire pour les dommages causés par la combustion des combustibles fossiles qu'ils produisent. Des cas sont en suspens affirmant que l'ancienne doctrine de la confiance publique fait implicitement partie de la Constitution des États-Unis et exige que le Gouvernement fédéral prenne davantage de mesures contre le changement climatique. De nombreuses poursuites prétendent que les impacts des projets proposés auraient dû être analysés dans les déclarations d'impact environnemental préparées en vertu de la loi nationale sur la politique environnementale de 1970. De nombreuses poursuites contestent la construction ou l'exploitation d'installations qui extraient des combustibles fossiles (mines de charbon et pétrole, puits de gaz), les transportent (comme les pipelines) et les brûlent (comme les centrales électriques). Les autorités gouvernementales enquêtent également sur plusieurs grandes sociétés concernant l'exactitude de leurs divulgations aux actionnaires et aux régulateurs gouvernementaux.

Climate change is a major contributor to migration and displacement. Persistent drought forced as many as 1.5 million Syrian farmers to move to overcrowded cities, contributing to social turmoil and ultimately a civil war that drove hundreds of thousands of people to attempt to cross the Mediterranean into Europe. Drought also worsened refugee crises in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, and other parts of the continent.

Energy powers the world. Having enough energy is essential to maintaining even the most minimal quality of life. But extracting and using energy renders some places uninhabitable, and now threatens the ecological integrity of the planet. Current energy systems involve profound injustices. These injustices can arise in the ways that energy is produced – including through local and global environmental degradation, human rights abuses, corruption, and social and military conflict. Injustice can also arise in the ways that energy is or is not available – with more than a billion people having far too little for a decent existence, while hundreds of millions consume lavishly. In Global Energy Justice: Problems, Principles, and Practices, Benjamin K. Sovacool and Michael H. Dworkin undertake an ambitious project: understanding these injustices and proposing ways to address them. The two are professors at Vermont Law School and are both associated with its Institute for Energy and the Environment. Among their many other activities, Sovacool also holds an appointment at Aarhus University in Denmark, and Dworkin formerly chaired the Vermont Public Service Board. Their book is well-documented and ranges across a broad array of relevant disciplines.

During the Cold War the United States detonated sixty-seven nuclear weapons over the atolls of Bikini and Enewetak in the Marshall Islands. In the late 1970s the United States addressed the massive amount of residual contamination by abandoning Bikini as permanently uninhabitable and pushing much of the waste at Enewetak into the open lagoon. Much of the plutonium was dumped into the crater that had been left by an atomic bomb explosion, and then covered with a thin shell of cement. The resultant "Runit dome" sits unmarked and unguarded in a small island and one day will be submerged by the rising waters of the Pacific Ocean, unless it is first torn apart by typhoons. Radiation from the Marshall Islands has already been detected in the South China Sea. Using the experience of the Marshall Islands as a case study, this article seeks to shed light on the environmental and security challenges of nuclear waste disposal in the Pacific and beyond.

New laws were signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2013 regarding notice requirements in the Brownfield Cleanup Program, Bottle Bill enforcement, mercury thermostats, oversized lobsters, shark fins, and Eurasian boars, among other things. On the regulatory front, the state promulgated final regulations concerning New York's participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and regulatory relief for certain dairy farms, and proposed regulations for liquefied natural gas facilities and invasive species. This annual survey describes new environmental laws that were enacted in New York in 2013, as well as several significant regulatory developments. The survey identifies the laws by their chapter number in the Laws of New York, 2013.

Congress has not enacted major environmental legislation since 1990, and no end to the paralysis is in sight. Nonetheless, there is a great deal that the Obama Administration can do with its existing statutory powers to fight climate change.

"I urge this Congress to pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago. But if Congress won't act soon to protect future generations, I will. I will direct my cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy." —President Barack Obama State-of-the-Union Message Feb. 12, 2013 In the current partisan atmosphere in Washington, there appears to be almost no chance that this Congress will take significant action on climate change. What, then, are the executive actions that the Obama administration can take with its existing legislative authority? There are quite a few, it turns out. This column will discuss the most significant ones.

Policy on the environment, energy, and natural resources has seldom figured prominently in a presidential election, all the less so as time elapses since the first Earth Day. To judge by the more than twenty debates thus far in the current presidential campaign, it isn't likely to be on top of the agenda this year. Although regulation itself has been featured in the campaign – recall the criticism of the new lightbulb efficiency standards and of the Solyndra bankruptcy, not to mention rejection of climate change science – broader topics in environmental policy have largely taken a back seat to jobs, the budget, the economy, and foreign relations. Yet environmental policy, properly constructed, can have a positive effect on all these concerns.

The reelection of President Barack Obama means that a long list of new regulations will be issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the coming months. Some had been held up because of their political sensitivity, and others were still in process, but many will soon be ready for further action. The election results also mean that major new environmental legislation is very unlikely for the next two years. The House of Representatives is still firmly controlled by the Republicans, and their leadership has not signaled any major change from the last Congress' stance of opposition to many EPA activities. The Democrat majority in the Senate has increased by two seats, but it still lacks the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster. Congress has not enacted a major new environmental statute since 1990 (the year of the Oil Pollution Act and the Clean Air Act Amendments), and this paralysis will now continue until at least 2015.

When a litigant brings a lawsuit under New York's State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), the odds of success have never been high. However, the cases decided in 2011 exhibiteda stark exception to this general rule: Project applicants who were frustrated by governmental delays or obstacles won six of the seven cases they brought under SEQRA. The volume of SEQRA litigation continues to decline. In 2011 the courts decided 35 cases under SEQRA, the lowest number since this column began its annual survey in 1990. The second lowest was 37 in 2010; the third lowest was 45 in 2009. (Previously the historical average was around 60.)