Month: January 2011
Nice Start on That Renewable Power, LADWP — Now Get to Work!
In a blog entry on January 14th, Ann Carlson offered strokes to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for announcing success in reaching its goal of 20% renewable power. Ann appropriately pointed out that much work lies ahead for LADWP, since most of the new renewable power came in the form of short …
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CONTINUE READINGThere’s No Such Thing as Global Warming, Nope, None at All
From the NY Times blog today: New figures issued on Thursday in Britain show that 2010 was the second-warmest year in the historical record. That comes on the heels of reports last week from two American agencies that 2010 was tied for the warmest year in the record books. All three sets of numbers come …
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CONTINUE READINGFunding dam removal
Many of you have probably heard of the settlement agreements in Klamath River Basin. For those who have not, the short version is that most participants signed two agreements: the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement. The Hydroelectric Settlement lays out a process that could culminate in the removal of four …
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CONTINUE READINGA Roadmap for Sustainable Consumption
Individual consumption – including household heating and cooling as well as non-business transportation – creates roughly one-third of U.S. energy use and carbon emissions. It would feasible to reduce these emissions by twenty percent in a decade: there is a lot of low-hanging fruit yet to be picked. A range of individual actions, while seemingly …
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CONTINUE READINGSeeing Nature Through Conservation Eyes
There’s a cool new video on “conservation biology,” which you can find here. It has fabulous photos, as well as interesting commentary on the role of photography in prompting conservation. The photo to the left is an early example: a 19th century shot of Yellowstone that helped prompt the creation of the national …
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CONTINUE READINGLos Angeles and Renewable Energy
Much to the surprise of many observers, including me, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (the country’s largest municipally-owned utility) has met its 2010 goal of providing 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources. I’ve written previously about the implementation problems LADWP and other utilities are likely to face in cutting greenhouse …
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CONTINUE READINGNew CEQ Guidance on NEPA & Mitigation
The CEQ has issued new guidance to agencies regarding the use of mitigation. An environmental impact statement is required when a project has a significant environmental impact. Agencies frequently avoid the need for a full-scale environmental impact statement with plans to mitigate the impacts below the threshold of significance. NEPA aficionados call this a “mitigated …
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CONTINUE READINGEverything You Always Wanted to Know About Federal Preemption But Were Afraid to Ask
When is a state law preempted by a federal law on the same subject? This is a notoriously messy area of Supreme Court jurisprudence. For those interested in a quick introduction to the subject, I’ve written a paper that provides an overview of federal preemption law, which appears on the site of the Uniform Law …
CONTINUE READINGUCLA Law releases new environmental blueprint for California
In the looming battle over California’s budget, will there be room for environmental protections? What should Governor Brown’s top-priority environmental initatives be? UCLA Law released today “An Environmental Blueprint for California,” giving our view of the priorities Governor Brown should focus on to ensure the state’s environmental health in ways consistent with its economic prosperity. California faces difficult choices ahead. …
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CONTINUE READINGEPA vetoes mountaintop removal mining permit
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. If EPA is afraid of the new Congress, you wouldn’t know it from today’s news. Assistant Administrator Peter Silva issued the Obama administration’s first veto of a Clean Water Act section 404 permit. This veto, which has been working its way through the cumbersome process for more than a year (see here, …
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