Fractured: Cracks in the Hydraulic Fracturing Regulatory Structure

The acquisition of energy resources is a necessity to power the nation, fuel its economy, and support its people. The introduction of hydraulic fracturing has created an energy boom in North America, revolutionizing the supply and demand of energy for the country. This article explores the fundamentals of the hydraulic fracturing process, the economic benefits, and the corresponding environmental impact of the practice. Furthermore, the article discusses the regulation of fracking on a local and federal level and offers a practical, balanced approach to limit the adverse environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing while retaining its economic advantages.     

Coal Ash Disposal in North Carolina: The Road after Eden

Coal ash legislation came to North Carolina in the wake of two significant spills, one at the nearby Tennessee Valley Authority coal power plant in Kingston, Tennessee, and another at the Dan River Steam Station along the Dan River in the town of Eden, North Carolina. These two events, combined with an impending study by the USEPA, would galvanize the North Carolina General Assembly to pass Senate Bill 729 (the Coal Ash Management Act). This bill mirrors the federal system of prioritizing the different energy utilities based on their hazard potential and eventually terminating their use as power production and coal ash storage facilities. Additionally, the act created a coal ash management commission and the process for confirming members. In summation, this legislative step shows the North Carolina General Assembly taking concrete steps to address a problem in the handling of coal combustion residuals. In North Carolina, however, only time will tell if these measures are substantial enough to ward off another Eden.     

Reforming Natural Gas Fracking Regulations in 2017–2018: How Should States Enforce Regulations?

While much scholarly work has been published on hydraulic fracturing regulatory frameworks, there is little discussion on the enforcement mechanisms of these regulations and statutes. This article explores state hydraulic fracturing regulations and the expansion of a criminal framework to enforce compliance. More specifically, this article takes a comparative look at fracking enforcement regimes in California and several states with the most hydraulic fracturing activities. First, the article discusses fracking's economic benefits and environmental issues. The article then analyzes federal regulations, (which essentially leaves the bulk of regulation and enforcement to state and local governments) and state enforcement systems in California and the four states with the most fracking wells (Texas, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, and Colorado). California, a state that is pushing for more renewable resources, has robust regulations under Senate Bill 4. In the end, states that rely heavily on fracking should reform the enforcement mechanisms to disincentive noncompliance. Regulatory regimes in the other states appear to have deficiencies that could be remedied by adopting stricter enforcement mechanisms—such as criminal sanctions—that would disincentivize noncompliance, which could lead to large-scale environmental disasters. This article postulates that a model system incorporating a variety of methods including increased criminal enforcement could provide for proper remedies, justice, and deterrence. An ideal enforcement framework for effective deterrence should focus on transparency, flexibility, trusted delegation, and proportionality.     

Access to courts by vulnerable persons in relation to hydraulic fracturing in South Africa

Hydraulic fracturing is in a planning stage in South Africa. Notices have been issued regarding pending administrative decision concerning applications for exploration rights to explore for natural (shale) gas largely in the Karoo region. Concerns, which are similar to those expressed in other jurisdictions regarding the process are also being raised locally. These concerns are exacerbated considering that a significant part of the population of the Karoo have limited understanding of the issues associated with hydraulic fracturing. Many of them are also poor, which may hinder their effective access to justice. The aim of this article is to examine the constitutional provision pertaining to the right of access to courts in South Africa vis-à-vis a theoretical underpinning of the right with a view to determining whether or not the provision can effectively be applied to guarantee the access of poor and vulnerable persons to the courts in the event of any potential violation of their rights by hydraulic fracturing. Recommendations are made in the conclusion, to reinforce the ability of poor and vulnerable persons to enforce the right of access to courts in the event that hydraulic fracturing becomes a reality in South Africa.     

Burning,Building, and Burying: Coal Combustion Residual Disposal in North Carolina

The fate of coal combustion residuals (CCRs) in North Carolina and the rest of the United States is noteworthy, particularly in light of the recent spills in Eden, North Carolina, and Kingston, Tennessee. The safe storage of coal combustion residuals should be a priority of the state and the federal government, in order to protect the drinking water of citizens from contaminants, like arsenic, lead, cadmium, selenium, and mercury.¹1 “Coal Ash: The Toxic Threat to Our Health and Environment,” Physicians for Social Responsibility and EarthJustice, http://www.psr.org/assets/pdfs/coal-ash.pdf (accessed September 19, 2015).View all notes Recently, North Carolina has taken steps with the passage of Senate Bill 729, entitled Coal Ash Management Act, and other legislation in order to promote safe storage of CCRs through a capped landfill system, complete with synthetic liners and leachate collection system. This article highlights not only the legislative enactments surrounding the disposal of coal ash in North Carolina, but also the effectiveness of such practices, both in North Carolina and the greater United States as a whole.     

Russia: From Energy Villain to Environmental Hero?

Global development of unconventional natural gas sources using hydraulic fracturing techniques has intensified energy security issues and environmental concerns, including freshwater contamination and climate change. Russian energy policy and its natural gas monopoly, Gazprom, have shaped European energy concerns. The discussion presents the goals of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) as a response. It describes Russia's controversial involvement in the ECT process and examines the United States’ role as a worldwide model for shale development. This article finds that Russia's ratification of the ECT presents a good solution for environmental and trade relations problems that Russia and European countries face today.     

Woman's Right to Know Act: a legislative history

This article provides a comprehensive legislative history of North Carolina's Woman's Right to Know Act of 2011. The Act requires informed consent and a mandatory twenty-four hour waiting period for abortion, thus protecting a woman's right to make an informed choice. Informed consent provisions and mandatory waiting periods give individuals making decisions the information and time necessary to make informed choices. The Act further provides that an ultrasound be performed and explained no less than four hours and no more than seventy-two hours before the abortion. The article first provides a brief overview of sources of legislative history recognized in North Carolina. It then details the history of the Woman's Right to Know Act, from the first informed consent bill introduced in 1981, to the passage of the 201l law, and to the federal court case that followed. Finally it provides specific objections that were raised against the bill and responses to each. Legislators considering similar legislation need to be aware of the opposition they inevitably will encounter when passing such a bill. The author expects that this history and the ultimate success of North Carolina will encourage other states' legislators and lawyers and give them the tools to make their case effectively.     

Corruption among narcotic officers: A study of innocence and integrity

This study focuses on the influencing components producing corruption among narcotic law enforcement officers, and it is the second article of a three part series among 255 officers. It was postulated that income and stress among of narcotic officers gives rise to corruption. Although, corruption was defined as police brutality, personal use of contraband, and abuse of due process rights, the data was insufficient to support the hypothesis. It was revealed, however, that corruption did exist among narcotic officers, but its causal factors were related to an officer’s lack of experience, innocence, and integrity. Recommendations are that narcotic officers be selected based on their experiences especially military service. Further research should be conducted examining the link between military training and quality narcotic law enforcement service. Author Note: Dennis J. Stevens, Ph.D. is an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. In addition to teaching traditional and nontraditional students, he teaches and counsels law enforcement officers in police academies such as at the North Carolina Justice Academy and felons at maximum custody penitentiaries such as Attica in New York, Eastern and Women’s Institute in North Carolina, Stateville and Joliet near Chicago, and CCI in Columbia, South Carolina. He is a former group facilitator for an organization that specializes in court ordered abuse counseling. He can be reached at dennis.stevens@umb.edu     

Turnout and Party Registration among Criminal Offenders in the 2008 General Election

This paper estimates the voter registration, turnout, and party registration in the 2008 general election for men with felony convictions in Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, and North Carolina. The findings indicate that turnout among felons is much lower than previous research has shown. Ex‐felon turnout in 2008 varied by state, averaging 22.2 percent. People captured and convicted for their first offense after the election voted at similarly low rates. Also contrary to the expectations of previous literature, the ex‐felon population does not seem overwhelmingly Democratic. In North Carolina and Florida, two states for which the data are available, party registration varies by race. Among registered black male ex‐felons, 71.7 percent in North Carolina and 84.2 percent in Florida are registered Democrats. Among whites, however, only 35.3 percent and 36.4 percent of ex‐felons are registered Democrats in North Carolina and Florida, respectively.     

Suicide by asphyxiation due to helium inhalation

Suicide by asphyxiation using helium is the most widely-promoted method of "self-deliverance" by right-to-die advocates. However, little is known about persons committing such suicides or the circumstances and manner in which they are completed. Prior reports of suicides by asphyxiation involving helium were reviewed and deaths determined by the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to be helium-associated asphyxial suicides occurring between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2008 were included in a new case series examined in this article. The 10 asphyxial suicides involving helium identified in North Carolina tended to occur almost exclusively in non-Hispanic, white men who were relatively young (M age = 41.1 T 11.6). In 6 of 10 cases, decedents suffered from significant psychiatric dysfunction; in 3 of these 6 cases, psychiatric disorders were present comorbidly with substance abuse. In none of these cases were decedents suffering from terminal illness. Most persons committing suicide with helium were free of terminal illness but suffered from psychiatric and/or substance use disorders.     

Policy influences on community trail development

This study explores processes and policies that facilitate the development of community trails. With funding from Active Living Research and the research framework of the Physical Activity Policy Research Network (PAPRN), we conducted a multiple-site case study. A total of six trails in Hawaii, Massachusetts, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Washington were chosen for study. The goals of this case study were to identify the policy influences on trail development, explore the roles of key players in trail development, and compare and contrast findings from the different trails. Trail development can be a long process. Some of the trails took over a decade to complete because of funding, opposition, and roadblocks in the form of design standard policies. Work in trail development requires a team of many players, and it is necessary to balance their varied motives to accomplish a shared overall goal. Foresight through the master planning process is also a vital component of successful trail development. Finally, community involvement is key. Communities contemplating trail development should explore the effects of policy on the trail projects reported here to proactively identify potential influence.     

The Empathy Index: an evaluation of the psychometric properties of a new empathy measure for sex offenders

This article examines the analysis of the psychometric properties, including the validity and reliability, of the Empathy Index (EI), a new instrument designed to measure empathy deficits of sex offenders. The EI was tested with a sample of 158 sex offenders incarcerated in North Carolina prisons. An exploratory factor analysis yielded three subscales: social aggression; instrumental (proactive) aggression; and justification. Social aggression was an unexpected finding, given this type of aggression is more commonly found in young females rather than adult male sex offenders. The instrument demonstrates promising construct and concurrent validity as well as strong internal reliability. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

The Empire Fracks Back: The Case for Hydraulic Fracturing Strict Liability in New York

The possibility that New York will allow high-volume hydraulic fracturing in the near future raises the issue of liability for environmental and other extraction-related harms. Given the potential risk, New York courts should consider treating natural gas exploration under a strict liability regime. Natural gas producers facing strict liability for drilling mishaps would be forced to internalize the environmental and other social costs inherent in the drilling process, thus incentivizing producers to exercise a maximum of care.     

The “Local” Migration State: The Site‐Specific Devolution of Immigration Enforcement in the U.S. South

This article examines the implementation of 287(g) authority and Secure Communities by several law enforcement agencies in Wake County and Durham County, North Carolina. I argue that despite being federally supervised programs, 287(g) and Secure Communities take shape within specific political, legal, policing, and biographic contexts, and, as such, take on a site‐specific form. I conclude that although site specificity is a characteristic of devolved immigration enforcement in the U.S. context, devolution also predictably relocates interior immigration enforcement to immigrant populations' spaces of social reproduction. Accordingly, programs like 287(g) and Secure Communities work at a suprasite level to amplify immigrant populations' everyday insecurities.     

When farmworkers and advocates see trafficking but law enforcement does not: challenges in identifying labor trafficking in North Carolina

This article reports on the perceptions and experiences with labor trafficking of farmworkers, stakeholders, and law enforcement representatives in North Carolina. We found a sizeable number of farmworkers who had experienced labor trafficking violations, albeit with a convenience sample; and community agencies reported stories of labor trafficking victimization. However, most of the state and local law enforcement agencies that we attempted to contact simply ignored our requests for information about labor trafficking or reported no evidence of such victimization. Notwithstanding the sample limitations, we found a general lack of awareness of agricultural labor trafficking problems among law enforcement officials in our surveyed jurisdictions. We question whether our current law enforcement system will ever be in a position to effectively enforce the anti-labor-trafficking law; and suggest an alternative specialized mechanism be established.     

Effects of Tennessee Medicaid managed care on obstetrical care and birth outcomes

A comparative study was conducted in two neighboring states, Tennessee and North Carolina, to determine whether Medicaid managed care (implemented in Tennessee as TennCare) affected prenatal care, care patterns at labor-delivery, and birth outcomes. A pre- and post-design coupled with a difference-in-difference approach--using North Carolina as a control--was used to assess TennCare's effects for all births and for three categories of high-risk mothers (under age eighteen, unwed, or living in high poverty areas). Data from 328,296 singleton births in birth files and matched birth-death files for 1993 and 1995 in both states were used to analyze a number of variables related to maternal behavior during pregnancy, utilization of care before and after labor-delivery, patterns of obstetrical care at delivery, and birth outcomes. Under TennCare, Tennessee mothers were relatively more likely to obtain no prenatal care or to wait and initiate third trimester care as compared to those in North Carolina. Relative utilization of specific prenatal procedures declined, Apgar scores fell very slightly, and birth abnormalities increased in the poverty subsample. TennCare had no significant effect on infant mortality. Utilization reductions in obstetrical services were achieved with apparent spillovers to non-TennCare births, but without adverse effects overall. TennCare was neither a panacea nor an unmitigated disaster. It is a model worth examining, but not uncritically.     

REVIEW ON JOHN W. HEAD’S WORKS: GREAT LEGAL TRADITIONS - CIVIL LAW,COMMON LAW AND CHINESE LAW IN HISTORICAL AND OPERATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

John W. Head, Great Legal Traditions - Civil Law, Common Law and Chinese Law in Historical and Operational Perspective. Durham (North Carolina): Carolina Academic Press, 2011. ISBN: 978-1-59460-957-2. Pgs: xxiv + 676.     

Accreditation and the state of North Carolina: The revitalization of national standards

From the mid to late 70s, the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) developed a process for accrediting post-secondary criminal justice education programs. The academy gave form to the program by developing guidelines and a complex organizational network. However, the program did not reach fruition for a variety of economic and political reasons and it is doubtful that the Academy will attempt to resurrect the program soon. Even though the accreditation movement was abandoned on the national level, the North Carolina Association of Criminal Justice Educators (NCACJE) decided to implement the program and stepped into a very lengthy and political process.     

Overkill? An Examination of Comparatively Excessive Death Sentences in North Carolina, 1990–2010

This study examines death/life capital sentences in one southern state, North Carolina, during the period 1990 to 2010 to determine the extent to which they are comparatively excessive/lenient. The study employs data derived from a variety of official sources on the population of capital trials in the state during this timeframe and follows the analytic techniques developed by David Baldus and his colleagues and by Paternoster and Kazyaka in their studies of comparative excessiveness in capital sentencing in California, Georgia, and South Carolina, respectively. The results show a substantial number of death sentences that meet the standard for excessiveness, but the data also show a nearly equal number of life sentences that may be deemed too lenient. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Role of Mitigating Factors in Capital Sentencing Before and After McKoy v. North Carolina

In 1990, the United States Supreme Court ruled that capital jurors do not have to be unanimous in deciding whether or not to accept any particular mitigating circumstance presented to them by the defense during the penalty phase of a capital murder trial. This study examines whether this shift in procedure may have altered the role of mitigation in predicting capital sentencing outcomes by comparing death sentencing predictors before and after the McKoy decision with data from an extensive sample of capital cases in North Carolina tried between 1977 and 2002. The results indicate that (1) both the number of aggravating and mitigating circumstances accepted by capital jurors had statistically significant and substantial effects on capital sentencing outcomes both before and after the McKoy decision; (2) the number of mitigating circumstances presented to and accepted by capital juries in North Carolina doubled during the post‐McKoy period; and (3) the influence of mitigating circumstance on capital sentencing outcomes was attenuated in the post‐McKoy period. Implications of these findings are discussed.