Most of the scholarship concerning environmental issues today focuses on the impact oil, gas, and coal has on society. Surprisingly, very little attention has been given to the very significant role America’s agricultural policies play in contributing to America’s environmental dilemmas. This Article provides an historical perspective on U.S. agricultural policies and the rise of “industrial agriculture.” America’s agribusinesses receive approximately $275 billion in governmental subsidies over a 4 to 5 year period making them America’s largest corporate welfare recipient. These huge governmental subsidies and the policies that govern them promote industrial agriculture to the exclusion of more environmentally sound methods of farming, such as organic. Industrial agriculture is neither sustainable, nor environmentally friendly. America’s industrial agricultural practices have led an increasing number of consumers to acknowledge the significance of “Agricultural Environmentalism” through their purchasing decisions. This Article discusses the significant impact industrial agriculture has on the environment and society and the rise of “Conscious Capitalism” and “Agricultural Environmentalism.”

The Limits and Promise of Environmental Ethics: Eco-Socialist Thought and Anthropocentrism’s Virtue
Devadatta Gandhi
*J.D. Candidate, University of Michigan Law School, 2008; M.A., Illinois State University, 2005; B.A., Willamette University, 2002.

In this Article, I argue that deemphasizing a human-centered approach to environmental concerns is problematic. Prominent elements of environmental ethics do not adequately consider the fundamental link between economic deprivation and environmental degradation, and pay insufficient attention to an important human issue: class. Environmentalism can profit from directly adopting commonly shared democratic and anthropocentric values, for which aspects of Eco-Socialist thought can provide useful insights and an analytical framework for better understanding the causes and possible solutions to certain environmental problems.

Legislating the Highway Act of 1956: Lessons for Climate Change Regulation
Roel Hammerschlag
*Associate Scientist, Stockholm Environment Institute. MPA, University of Washington, 2007; BS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1988

In the United States, greenhouse gas regulation can produce a revenue stream of approximately 0.5% of gross domestic product, through emissions taxes or auctions of emission allowances. Many advocates of climate change regulation envision a federally coordinated, research & development megaproject to develop greenhouse gas-free energy technologies; the funding for such a project would likely be drawn from regulatory revenues. In contemporary American history, there is only one prior example of a similarly sized, federal megaproject funded by a tax schema: the Interstate System funded by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. A structured review of the political landscapes and legislative histories leading to passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 reveals several lessons applicable to successfully drafting and passing greenhouse gas regulation that funds an energy megaproject.

Coastal desalination, “Coastal-Dependency” and the California Coast: How today’s desalination proposals could affect tomorrow’s coastline
Timothy McRae
*UC Davis Law '07; Western US Climate Change and Energy Policy adviser to the British ConsulateGeneral in San Francisco.

Poseidon Resources proposes to site California’s first large-scale desalination projects in Carlsbad and Huntington Beach. Each project requires approval from the California Coastal Commission. In evaluating these proposals, the Commission will have to determine whether or not each is “coastal-dependent,” a term of art in the California Coastal Act. This paper posits desalination facilities themselves are not necessarily “coastal-dependent” under that Act. It further posits that this interpretation is better for protection of coastal natural resources and coastal access, two of the Act’s stated goals. It analyzes the issue in the context of the two proposals Poseidon has placed in front of the Coastal Commission, and place those proposals in an overall discussion of whether it would be best to allow the Coastal Commission flexibility in determining whether or not coastal desalination in general is “coastal-dependent.” It also looks to parallel terms in resource protection law for guidance, namely the interpretation of “water-dependency” in the context of wetlands for federal Clean Water Act § 404(b) determinations made by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.