Professor Frank Comments on Ninth Circuit Appeal for Daily Journal

Professor of Environmental Practice Richard Frank commented for the Daily Journal on petitions filed by the Sierra Club and other environment groups asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to overrule federal officials who declined to halt allegedly unsafe rail shipments of Canadian crude oil.

"The Sierra Club has focused on a clear and present public safety and environmental danger, one that federal regulators have themselves acknowledged in other contexts," said Frank. "But the Club's chances of prevailing seem relatively slim, given the broad discretion federal courts give to administrative agencies and the limited bandwidth the Ninth Circuit has, given its crowded docket."

Frank, a 1974 graduate of King Hall, is a leader in the field of environmental law and the founding Director of the California Environmental Law and Policy Center at UC Davis School of Law.