Month: May 2013

Alex Hall’s Work on Climate Change and Los Angeles

My UCLA colleague Alex Hall has developed a model for predicting future climate conditions across Los Angeles areas such as Venice vs. Pasadena.   Take a look at Tables 2 and 3 of this report.   As an economist, I’d like to make a point for lawyers to think about. Take a look at Table 3 …

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Can We Learn About Climate Change Adaptation Efforts Today From Historical Lessons from 500 Years Ago?

I am married to an economic historian and I have co-written a Princeton Press book on economic history but I do not believe that long run history is relevant for thinking about how we will adapt to climate change.  In this blog post,  I discuss recent work by Geoffrey Parker as he sketches stories from hundreds …

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The Market for Lemon Solar Panels

George Akerlof won the Nobel Price for his work on the market for lemons and the role that asymmetric information and adverse selection plays in mucking up markets.  His favorite example is the used car market.  The seller knows more than the buyer about the vehicle’s true quality.  Used vehicle owners are more likely to …

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Obama’s Tactics on Greenhouse Gas Regulations Come Into View

Last week, Ann wondered why the Obama Administration has withdrawn proposed rules on greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources, worrying that time might run out of the possibility of getting them written in time for the end of Obama’s second term.  The two reasons proffered — 1) susceptibility to legal attack; and 2) waiting until the …

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Write Your Own News Story

Just fill in the blanks, and you can save yourself the trouble of reading newspaper accounts about any new EPA action. New EPA Regulations Spark Controversy  The Environmental Protection Agency today announced tough new regulations on [name of industry].  According to the agency, the regulations will save thousands of lives by reducing dangerous levels of …

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The NY Times Publishes a Strange Anti-Geoengineering Op-ED

I encourage this blog’s readers to skim Clive Hamilton’s piece on Geoengineering which was published in the NY Times today in its Opinion section.   His piece is so strange that it is worth a carefully read.   Here I provide some direct quotes; “We can imagine a situation 30 years hence in which the …

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The Emergence of Food Law

As with most holidays, Memorial Day is associated with a traditional food component — in this case, picnics.  So this seems like a good occasion to talk about the emerging legal field of food law. According to the Food and Drug Law Institute, about sixty law schools have courses on Food and Drug Law, a …

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California Legislature Suspends Oil Severance Tax: Wimp-out or Long Game?

Perhaps the most obvious fiscal reform for California lies in an oil severance tax, which charges producers per barrel coming out of the ground.  California is the only major oil-producing state without such a tax (the miniscule fee to fund the Department of Oil, Geothermal, and Geophysical Resources doesn’t count), and because of the international …

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Time May Run Out on Obama’s Most Powerful Climate Change Tool, Environmental Groups Threaten Suit

President Obama has a surprising amount of power to reduce greenhouse gases from the two largest categories of emitters, the transportation and electricity sectors, without getting Congress to act.  He has already used that power to dramatically tighten fuel economy standards for passenger autos.  But his ability to reduce emissions from the electricity sector — …

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Is TSCA Reform on the Way?

The Toxic Substances Control Act or TSCA (sometimes pronounced “Tosca,” like the opera) is one of the worst-written statutes of all time.  It seems as if every section contains a cross-reference to another section, which in turn requires recourse to yet another sentence to be understood, making the statute completely opaque.  A last-minute compromise, the …

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