The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision in Robinson Township v. Commonwealth, 803 A.3d 901 (Dec. 19, 2013) has prompted enormous interest in the history and text of Article I, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. This legislative history is a response to that interest.Amendments to the...

The first part of this Article suggests a framework for understanding Article I, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania constitution. This second and final part of the Article outlines ways in which that framework should be applied.The Article argues that the environmental rights and public trust...

Sustainable development (or sustainability) is a decision-making framework for maintaining and achieving human well-being, both in the present and into the future. The framework requires both consideration and achievement of environmental protection, social justice and economic development. In...

The Pennsylvania Constitution contains a unique Environmental Rights Amendment (“ERA”) creating an individual right to “clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.” The ERA also includes a public trust element...

Energy efficiency and conservation are the most practical and cost effective approaches to providing energy services and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and deliver a wide range of social, economic, security, and environmental benefits. Although they represent the most sustainable approach to...

Few energy issues in recent decades have proven as contentious as shale gas. Supporters and opponents often speak in such strikingly divergent terms that they seem to be describing different activities. Typically, supporters point to the economic and security impacts of shale gas, and minimize...

This is the introduction to the first book systematically exploring the relationship between shale gas and sustainable development, Shale Gas and the Future of Energy: Law and Policy for Sustainability (Edward Elgar 2016). It describes the growing importance of unconventional shale gas and the...

This Article argues that all lawyers, not just environmental lawyers, have a unique and important role to play in protecting life on earth, and suggests that we all need to consider doing more than we have already been doing. It briefly explains the challenge and opportunity of climate change,...

This chapter sets out proposed federal laws and policies for America's Zero Carbon Action Plan, a comprehensive report on how to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. This chapter sets forth recommendations for all four pillars of deep decarbonization – electricity decarbonization, energy...

The sudden and unexpected development of shale gas has the potential to accelerate or hinder the transition to sustainability, depending on how it is handled. Sustainable development is a useful evaluative framework for shale gas development. It would have us analyze its environmental, social,...