EDITOR’S NOTE

Written by Jennifer L. Harder
Editor-in-Chief

Environmental Law News is pleased to publish the following articles in this issue:

• Ryan W. Thomason, Rachel M. Goldberg and Peter C. Jansen explore conservation banking as a tool for achieving environmental protection, focusing on plans recently adopted for conserving the western Joshua tree in the Mojave Desert. The authors identify how the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act creates opportunities for a new compensatory mitigation market that will further the ecological goals of the Act while also allowing responsible development to proceed.
• Angela Howe examines the longstanding problem of human and industrial pollution that crosses the U.S.-Mexico border south of San Diego and north of Tijuana, fouling areas such as the biodiverse Tijuana River estuary. Howe assesses the past actions—or lack thereof—by the U.S. International Boundary and Waters Commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to address this chronic water quality and human health issue; outlines examples of environmental litigation brought to force action; and recommends directions for the future.
• Courtney Brown and Natalie Marcin criticize the common Clean Water Act practice of allowing polluters to monitor and report their own discharges, emphasizing the need for greater public information and third-party involvement. Brown and Marcin’s article highlights the importance of citizen enforcement and describes a pending case involving alleged water quality violations caused by fireworks displays over Mission Bay.
• Kenya Rothstein details the 2024 decision of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in Marin Audubon Society v. Federal Aviation Administration in which the court determined that the Council on Environmental Quality does not have authority to issue binding regulations to implement the National Environmental Policy Act—an issue not raised by the parties, who were focused on the specifics of NEPA compliance for air tours in national parks.
• Nick Oliver highlights the ways in which CLA’s Environmental Law Section has and continues to serve as the premier state bar association for energy law practitioners in California and in the United States generally. Oliver traces the engagement and leadership of key energy law practitioners in ELS over the last quarter century, and describes the resources provided by ELS to its energy law members.
• Sara Dudley reviews Seth M. Siegel’s book, Let There Be Water: Israel’s Solutions for a Water-Starved World (2017) which describes how Israel became water self-sufficient over a ten-year period, supporting a strong agricultural sector and addressing

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