Zasloff
This seminar will develop the �think tank� for the law school�s Evan Frankel Program in Environmental Law and Policy. The Program will issue a series of �white papers� addressing critical regional policy issues. Students will prepare the initial drafts under supervision of the instructor, and also prepare critiques of other student work. An intensive course, students should register for it if they wish to prepare several drafts of a 50-page paper. Students will receive publication credit depending upon the quality of the work product.
The white paper topics are still in development. As an example, however, students from the seminar will investigate the policy implications of new research just released by UCLA Atmospheric Sciences department. UCLA scientists found significant and profound health dangers from "microenvironments"--e.g. the air that schoolchildren breathe inside a diesel-powered school bus, carbon monoxide hotspots located within 500 feet of freeways, or air breathed inside homes where solvents are located. This research not only revealed dangers from these microenvironments, but also from noncriteria pollutants not heretofore regulated. The Frankel Program's white paper will consider the proper policy responses to this research but also the institutional barriers to policy responses as well as an assessment of how the relevant agencies are reacting to these new health threats.