Month: April 2010

A Flock of Environmental Law Journals

Doug Kysar has compiled a list of environmental law journals, which some of our readers may be interested to see.  It’s notable how many journals (more than fifty)  specialize in environmental, natural resource, or regulatory matters.  The list is after the jump.  You can also find another list with links here. Speaking of environmental law …

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Climate Legislation 2.0

The Washington Post has some details about the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman proposal, along with some encouraging reports of endorsements by utilities and oil companies.  (Those, of course, come with a price in terms of industry concessions.)  Some key features: *The bill would take effect in 2013 and would cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 17% by 2020  and …

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New York Times Expands Its Green Blog

The New York Times announced yesterday that it’s changing the name of its environmental blog and expanding its coverage. The name change is small but symbolic:  from Green, Inc. to Green.  The reason for the change is that coverage is expanding. As the Times explains, Green is: broadening our lens to include not just the business …

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Popular Support for “Cap and Dividend”

According to a poll by Public Opinion Strategies, there seems to be strong public support for cap and dividend, at least if the question is framed positively.  Here is the question along with some key results: “Some Democratic and Republican Senators have proposed an overhaul to America’s energy system. The goal is to reduce pollution, …

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Schroeder Confirmed Despite Refusal to Limit Judicial Appointments to Androids.

The Senate has just confirmed Chris Schroeder as head of the Office of Legal Policy by a 72-24 vote.  He was apparently controversial because he had spoken favorably of empathy as a judicial virtue — the opposing position apparently favors the appointment of androids to the bench, such as Star Trek: New Generation’s Commander Data.  …

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Future Oil Prices

The Energy Information Agency at DOE has some really interesting projections of future oil use and prices.  According to the EIA, in their baseline scenario, “the price of light sweet crude oil in the United States (in real 2007 dollars) rises from $61 per barrel in 2009 to $110 per barrel in 2015 and $130 …

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Warmest March on Record

NOAA reported late last week that this March was the warmest since records have been kept (circa 1880).  Here’s a map of “temperature anomalies” on land, showing where the temperature was warmer or colder than usual: Note that the biggest deviations are in  the arctic, which is the area most sensitive to global climate change.  …

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The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Revisited

104 years ago today, the earth shook in San Francisco, igniting devastating fires that destroyed the city. But the impact of the fire was greater than just the loss of property and life: Robert Righter argues that the nationwide sympathy for San Francisco helped revitalize the otherwise flagging campaign in the United States Congress to …

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Should We Run Some Controlled Climate Change Experiments?

Controlled experiments in general are the best way of doing science, but we haven’t been able to take advantage of that in science research. Considering the importance of the climate change issue, it might be worth taking a serious look at this possibility, even if it does seem a little outside the box.

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Unintended Consequences and Environmental Policy

Last summer, Los Angeles experienced a rash of water main breaks that at the time baffled  city officials responsible for the 7000 plus miles of underground pipes.  In a new report,  a panel of experts concluded that the city’s 2009 water conservation program, which limited lawn watering to Mondays and Thursdays during the summer, increased the number …

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