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ELPR provides professionals, practitioners, and William & Mary law and policy students with a forum for the exploration of environmental law and policy issues through research, critical analysis, editing, and writing.

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Shari Shapiro

By admin | November 5, 2009

Shari Shapiro’s article in Volume 34, Issue 1 of the William & Mary Environmental Law & Policy Review is entitled, Who Should Regulate? Federalism and Conflict in Regulation of Green Building. The article will be available in January.

Shari Shapiro is an associate with Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP. She is a member of the Environmental Department. Ms. Shapiro is a LEED Accredited Professional. Ms. Shapiro focuses her practice on green building law, which includes sustainable project financing, regulatory drafting, land use approvals, contracts, and conflict resolution. Ms. Shapiro is the Sustainability Coordinator for Obermayer’s Sustainability Initiative. Ms. Shapiro maintains a blog on legal issues related to Green Building available at www.greenbuildinglawblog.com.

Ms. Shapiro is the Co-Chair of the ABA State and Local Government Section Subcommittee on Land Use/Environmental Law, and is the Secretary of the Delaware Valley Green Building Council. Ms. Shapiro was named a 2009 “Lawyer on the Fast Track” by the The Legal Intelligencer.

Ms. Shapiro earned her Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Pennsylvania where she receive the Milton C. Sharp Award for Best Grades/Best Research in Urban Renewal or Land Use Planning. While attending the University of Pennsylvania, she obtained a Certificate in Business and Public Policy from the Wharton School of Business.

Biography of Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippell LLP

Posted in Volume 34 | Comments closed

Professor Darren Prum

By admin | November 5, 2009

Professor Prum’s article will appear in Volume 34, Issue 1 of the William & Mary Environmental Law & Policy Review. It is entitled, Creating State Incentives for Commercial Green Buildings: Did the Nevada Experience Set an Example or Alter the Approach of Other Jurisdictions?. The article will be available in January.

Mr. Prum is a Visiting Lecturer in Business Law and Finance at the College of Business at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He earned a Juris Doctorate and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a Graduate Certificate in Accounting from the University of Southern California, and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of California at Riverside.

Mr. Prum currently teaches Legal Environment of Business, Business Law I, Construction Law, and Personal Finance. His primary research interests include construction and gaming law and published articles in the Gaming Law Review and Economics, UNLV’s Gaming Research and Review Journal, the Real Estate Law Journal, the William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review (forthcoming in 2009, The Villanova Environmental Law Journal (forthcoming in 2009). and SMU’s Journal of Air Law and Commerce.

He also has a wide range of experience in corporate, financial, legal, and general business matters. His background includes many facts of finance and related legal areas. Mr. Prum held financial management positions in all levels of the construction industry (from trade contractor to general contractor to owner’s representative to architect/engineer). In addition, he held the title of Business Manager for a major defense contractor’s $100M division with numerous sites around the world.
Biography courtesy of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas

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Professor Carl J. Circo

By admin | November 5, 2009

Professor Circo’s article will appear in Volume 34, Issue 1 of the William & Mary Environmental Law & Policy Review. It is entitled, Should Owners and Developers of Low-Performance Buildings Pay Impact or Mitigation Fees to Finance Green Building Incentive Programs and Other Sustainable Development Initiatives?. It will be available in January.

Carl Circo joined the faculty of the University of Arkansas School of Law in 2003. He teaches Real Estate Transactions, Construction Law, Land Use, Negotiations, and Wills, Trusts, and Estates. He also supervises students in the Corporate Counsel Externship. He received his B.A. in Philosophy and his J.D. from the University of Nebraska. Following law school, he serves as a law clerk to Chief Judge Warren K. Urborn of the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska. He has served as an assistant professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City, a visiting assistant professor at the University of Nebraska College of Law, and an adjunct professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City of School of Law.

He has been admitted to practice in Arkansas, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas. For over 20 years, he practiced with Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP, a Kansas City-based regional firm where he continues to provide professional development programming. Before returning to the academy, he devoted most of his time to real estate matters, business transactions, and construction law.

Professor Circo has been a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers since 1993. He is currecntly the Chair-Elet of the Arkansas Bar Association’s Corporate and In-House Counsel Section. He served terms as a the president of the Kansas Bar Association’s Real Property, Probate, and Trust Law Section and as chair of an American Bar Association committee on Design and Construction Law. His recent publicaitons includ articles on construction and design law, sustainable development, and real estate transactions. Several of his current scholarly articles are available on the Social Sciences Research Network.

Biography courtesy of the University of Arkansas School of Law

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Professor Patricia E. Salkin

By admin | November 5, 2009

Professor Salkin’s article will appear in Volume 34, Issue 1 of the William & Mary Environmental Law & Policy Review. Her article is entitled Sustainability and Land Use Planning: Greening State and Local Land Use Plans and Regulations to Address Climate Change Challenges and Preserve Resources for Future Generations. The article will be available in January.

A biography of Professor Salkin is forthcoming.

Posted in Volume 34 | Comments closed

Stephen Del Percio

By admin | November 5, 2009

Mr. Del Percio’s article will appear in Volume 34, Issue 1 William & Mary Environmental Law & Policy Review. It is entitled, Revisiting Allied Tueb and Noerr: The Antitrust Implications of Green Building Legislation & Case Law Considerations for Policy Makers. The article will be available in January.

A Biography of Mr. Del Percio is forthcoming.

Posted in Volume 34 | Comments closed

Best of the Cite Check 2

By admin | October 20, 2009

There are thousands of hours of work that go into a volume of a student-run scholarly publication such as ELPR. The most uncelebrated of these student workers are the diligent cite checkers. For every source cited, there is time spent researching and bluebooking. Without the contributions of our cite checkers, ELPR would not be possible.

The ELPR article editors will select the best staff cite checkers for each article. For the second cite check the recognized staff members are:

Derrick Fellows

Courtney Mills

Paul Spadafora

Andrew Gordon

and

Taylor Davidson

Congratulations to these exemplary members of our staff!

Posted in Volume 34 | Leave a comment

Best of the Cite Check

By admin | September 23, 2009

There are thousands of hours of work that go into a volume of a student-run scholarly publication such as ELPR. The most uncelebrated of these student workers are the diligent cite checkers. For every source cited, there is time spent researching and bluebooking. Without the contributions of our cite checkers, ELPR would not be possible.

The ELPR article editors will select the best staff cite checkers for each article. For the first cite check the recognized staff members are:

Elizabeth Kiernan

Diana Kaneva

Brad Bartels

Samantha Vrscak

Daniel Caywood Barker

and

Angelina Lee

Congratulations to these exemplary members of our staff!

Posted in Volume 34 | Leave a comment

Hybrid Cars and Tax Incentives: Revisiting Congress’ Approach in Light of the GM Bankruptcy

By admin | June 20, 2009

As we update our archives on elpr.org, we are going to provide updates on our previous notes & articles. Hopefully, these updates will foster further discussion of these important environmental issues.

With changes in the automobile industry, we thought it was timely to highlight a note from 2007, entitled “Congress’s Tax Incentives Send Mixed Signals for Automobile Buyers: Should Americans Buy Gaz Guzzlers or Hybrids?,” written by Bradley A. Ridlehoover.  Ridlehoover argues that Congress should close the SUV loophole in the tax code and make the hybrid tax credit more accessible to people with lower incomes. In addition, he argues that Congress should lift the production conditions for the tax credit.

Under the  Energy Policy Act of 2005, when a car manufacturer sells 60,000 hybrid vehicles, the tax credit for the purchase of the manufacturer’s hybrid vehicles is phased out. This phase-out was meant to create a level playing field for the major car manufacturers. In other words, the tax incentives would not provided a competitive advantage for the popular Toyota Prius. General Motors buyers could receive the tax incentive for many years because GM did not have a viable hybrid model when the law was passed. The phase out limits were meant to help American car manufacturers who had not established themselves in the hybrid market.

Now that American Car manufacturers have faced the harsh reality of $4 gas, and some have ultimately been forced into bankruptcy, will the government force competition in the hybrid market?

Ridlehoover’s article gives an excellent overview of the previous incentive scheme. He also explains the SUV loophole. Does Congress need to discourage SUV use or will the free market handle the problem? Is now the time for changes to the hybrid credits? Are hybrid vehicles a viable product now that many of the tax incentives have expired? Congress subsequently made changes so that those with lower incomes would derive more of a benefit from the hybrid tax incentive, but the debate over whether the government should endorse certain types of vehicles through tax rebates and efficiency regulations rages on. Now that the government owns a majority stake in GM, what action should Congress take?

Posted in Volume 32 | 1 Comment

Green Building Red-Lighted by Homeowners’ Associations

By admin | May 20, 2009

Energy costs have been flirting with all-time highs and many homeowners are looking for ways to cut costs. With environmentalism en vogue, many homeowners are finding economic solutions within the green building movement. However, restrictive covenants established by homeowners’ associations (HOA) have made it extremely difficult for many Americans to make their homes more energy efficient.

For example, consider the case of John Wood, a homeowner in Minnesota who was recently featured in the New York Times’ Green Inc. Blog. He wanted to install solar panels on his roof but his HOA said ‘nope’:

“I felt extremely disappointed… It made me think that homeowners associations are in place to do only one thing, and that is to maintain the status quo, and they have no interest in any sort of change whatsoever.”

Change is precisely what many residents are requesting these days, but most HOA’s outdated covenants and architectural standards restrict land usage for these energy efficient alterations. Mr. Wood’s HOA claimed that the solar panels did not preserve the aesthetic quality of the community, though the HOA appears open to the idea of smaller and less obtrusive modifications to the plan.

A large percentage of the American population live in communities that are under the governance of private association rules designed to protect community property values. In order to change these rules, homeowners usually must get a supermajority of owners, who are often absent, to participate in their inefficient neighborhood governments. Furthermore, the board members of these private governments are trained to be relentless in their enforcement of these often-outdated rules, making it difficult to adapt to the needs of contemporary homeowners.

“Green Building Red-Lighted by Homeowners’ Associations” (by Mark Pike) addresses the rise in private government communities and the resulting institutionalized impediments for homeowners who wish to make energy efficient changes to their property. These obstacles against green building advancements could potentially be remedied through combinations of the following: a liberalized interpretation of homeowners’ rights; an effective application of the Efficient Breach Theory; a revived sense of civic duty and democratic participation in CIDs; and local, state, and federal legislative action.

For complete analysis, download a PDF of the Note as featured in Volume 33, Issue 3 .

Photo courtesy of Flick user Mulad.

Posted in Volume 33 | 1 Comment

Climate Change Disclosure: Ensuring the Viability of the Insurance Industry While Protecting the Investor

By admin | May 20, 2009

This is a preview of one of the upcoming Volume 34 notes

by Kevin Weigand

With the current state of the economy and an increasing demand for greater corporate transparency and regulatory oversight, many believe that enhanced corporate disclosure requirements will be implemented in the near future, including in the area of climate change. New York has already begun to require energy companies to disclose the financial effects of climate change on their operations, and it is likely that other industries will soon be targeted as well. The insurance industry is particularly concerned about climate change disclosure requirements for numerous reasons, including concerns about sharing proprietary information, difficulties with accurately assessing climate change risk, and the potentially adverse effects associated with the availability and affordability of insurance.

This note examines current SEC disclosure requirements while exploring recently proposed regulations that would expand the scope of disclosure by requiring companies to provide information on the potential effects of climate change disclosure on their financial well-being. Opposing arguments by insurers and consumer interest groups regarding how much climate change information should be publicly available are discussed as well. This note also examines the recent developments in the insurance industry, spearheaded by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), to adopt non-binding guidelines for states to follow when adopting their own regulations regarding the degree of climate change information insurers should provide to the general public. This note will also analyze different means of reducing an insurer’s vulnerability to climate change through various mitigation programs and initiatives. Finally, the author provides a recommendation that allows the public to receive limited information relating to an insurer’s vulnerability to climate change while attempting to alleviate the concerns of the insurance industry.

How will climate change affect the insurance industry? What can the NAIC do to influence the debate? Ultimately, how do we calculate the risk that climate change imposes on insurers?

For more from Kevin Weigand please see his Op-Ed for Science Progress.org.

Posted in Abstracts, Volume 34 | 1 Comment