greenhouse gas

New bill in Congress by Rockefeller (S. 3072) would delay regulation of GHGs under the Clean Air Act

As Cara and I have already discussed in detail, the Environmental Protection Agency has committed to delay the rollout of regulation of stationary sources of greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act, and to regulate only the very largest sources. This backtracking from EPA has been a response to efforts by Senator Lisa Murkowski …

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The Supreme Court Backs Off on Consumer Protection and (Maybe) the Environment

In a decision issued last week, the U.S. Supreme Court continued to chip away at consumer protections embedded in the Federal Power Act, and it is the environment that ultimately may take the biggest hit. First, let’s consider those consumer protections.  The Federal Power Act requires the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to ensure that …

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Oil Shale, Greenhouse Gas, and Federal Lands

Back in 2005, a Rand report assessed the merits of pursuing oil shale (a rock formation particularly prevalent in the U.S.) as an option for extracting liquid transportation fuel. The authors said: “Heating oil shale for retorting, whether above ground or in situ, requires significant energy inputs. Over at least the next few decades, this …

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Cows and Climate – Putting All of That Waste To Work

In many situations, public policies supporting greenhouse gas reduction also support other environmental goals.  But sometimes, different environmental policies bump up against each other.  It is left for enlightened public officials to sort it all out.  Here is a link to comments recently filed with the California Energy Commission by the Center for Law, Energy, …

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Climate change breaking news: EPA grants California waiver to regulate GHG emissions from cars

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has taken an important step toward addressing climate change and improving our nation’s automobile fuel economy, by granting California and at least 14 other states a waiver allowing them to regulate automobile greenhouse gas emissions.  This was not unexpected, given the recent passage of federal legislation with standards similar to …

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California environmental justice advocates sue Air Resources Board over climate scoping plan

UPDATES: California Air Resources Board Chair (and former UCLA colleague) Mary Nichols comments below. The Complaint in this action is available here (caption page separately available here). A coalition of California environmental justice advocates has filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the California Air Resources Board‘s scoping plan for AB 32, the landmark climate …

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EPA report on US greenhouse gas emissions and sinks may not tell the whole story

Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), the international agreement that resulted in the Kyoto Protocol and that will convene a new round of talks in Copenhagen later this year, the U.S. is required to report comprehensively each year on U.S.-based emissions of greenhouse gases and on GHG sinks in the U.S.    The U.S. EPA released …

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Climate change is outpacing most dire models

The Washington Post reports today on Chris Field’s presentation at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in which he said: “We are basically looking now at a future climate that’s beyond anything we’ve considered seriously in climate model simulations.”  Faster development of coal-fired electrical power in developing countries is …

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