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86 Tex. L. Rev. 1527 (2007-2008)
Harnessing the Power of Science in Environmental Law: Why We Should, We We Don't, and How We Can

handle is hein.journals/tlr86 and id is 1543 raw text is: Harnessing the Power of Science in Environmental Law: Why We Should, Why We Don't, and How We Can Mary Jane Angelo* I. Introduction Environmental law was born out of the new scientific understandings of ecology in the mid-twentieth century. Although science has historically played an important role in environmental law, its role has been more limited than may seem appropriate for an area of law that is so dependent on science to inform sound decision making. Environmental law has not taken full advantage of the plethora of scientific ideas developed in universities and other research institutions throughout the world.' Unfortunately, these new scientific ideas that could inform and improve environmental decision making rarely seem to find a home in the legal arena. An example of a well-developed scientific idea that has the potential to benefit environmental decision making is emergy synthesis. Emergy synthesis provides a method to value natural resources and ecosystem services in a way that captures their inherent value, rather than relying on consumer preferences and other neoclassical-economic approaches to assign them a dollar value. Emergy synthesis could improve environmental decision making under several existing environmental statutes. A few examples where emergy synthesis could play an important role include informing alternatives analysis under the National Environmental Policy Acte (NEPA), informing cost-benefit analysis, providing a methodology to value services under ecosystem-services-payment programs, and providing useful information under wetlands-regulatory programs to determine if mitigation proposals adequately offset impacted wetlands. Unfortunately, despite the potential benefits of incorporating emergy synthesis into environmental law-and despite the widespread use of emergy synthesis by the scientific community for more than thirty years-legal scholars, practitioners, and regulators have failed to even consider it as an option. While admittedly more work would need to be done to determine what role emergy synthesis * Associate Professor of Law, University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law. I would like to thank Wendy Wagner, Alyson Floumoy, Elizabeth Rowe, and Christine Klein for helpful suggestions; Christina Storz, Brandon Richardson, and Ryan Feinberg for excellent research assistance; and the Texas Law Review. 1. See Michael E. Soul6 et al., Strongly Interacting Species: Conservation Policy, Management, and Ethics, BIOSCIENCE, Feb. 2005, at 1, 1 (describing how environmental laws and regulations quickly become obsolete because they fail to keep up with new scientific developments). 2. 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321-4370e (2000).

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