Month: June 2011

California Slowing Down on Cap and Trade

Yesterday, Mary Nichols slipped a bit of a bombshell  into testimony before the California Senate Select Committee on the Environment, the Economy and Climate Change.  She announced that the state’s Air Resources Board is planning to “initiate” the cap and trade program in 2012 but not “start the requirements for compliance”  until 2013.  This effectively …

CONTINUE READING

Happy Birthday, Yosemite

On June 30, 1864, Abraham Lincoln signed legislation that transferred “the ‘cleft’ or ‘gorge’ in the granite peak of the Sierra Nevada Mountains” known as “Yo-Semite valley” [sic] to the State of California for “public use, resort, and recreation.” Yosemite Park Act of 1864, ch. 184, § 1, 13 Stat. 325 (1864).  The purpose of …

CONTINUE READING

The Supreme Court on Climate Torts — A Second Look

Let’s begin with the bad news.  The plaintiffs lost, eliminating one possible tool in combating climate change.  That doesn’t seem like a big loss to me, because I’ve always thought that the defendants’ best argument was that the federal common law is displaced by the Clean Air Act.  It’s an easy argument to make based …

CONTINUE READING

Western Flood Risk

Time magazine reports: First came the Mississippi. Then the Missouri. Now the nation’s West waits as the mountain snowpack perches at 300% more than average and flood watches blanket the region. With minor flooding already hampering life in Montana, Wyoming and Utah, a sudden spike of warm temperature will send even more melting snow rushing …

CONTINUE READING

Add these to your reading list

Here’s some summer reading for environmental law and policy nerds. Okay, it’s not exactly beach material, but it will keep you up to date on some important issues. Elizabeth L. Bennett, Another Inconvenient Truth: The Failure of Enforcement Systems to Save Charismatic Species, Oryx  (subscription required). Dr. Bennett, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, argues that …

CONTINUE READING

More on Sackett v. EPA

As Rick notes below, the Supreme Court has just agreed to hear a case arising from enforcement of the wetlands permitting requirements of the Clean Water Act, Sackett v. EPA (the link is to the 9th Circuit’s opinion). SCOTUSblog has links to the briefs at the cert stage. Rick explained that the genesis of this …

CONTINUE READING

Supreme Court Grants Review in Clean Water Act/Wetlands Case

2012 is shaping up as a busy year for environmental law at the U.S. Supreme Court. Today, as the Court recessed for the summer, the justices granted certiorari in a second environmental case that it will hear and decide in its 2011-12 Term: Sackett v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, No. 10-1062. Sackett involves a development dispute between an Idaho …

CONTINUE READING

A summer meditation on the meaning of wilderness

It’s outdoor weather in far northern California, my favorite place on the planet. A day hike yesterday in the beautiful Trinity Alps Wilderness reminded me of the central question of wilderness management: how much anthropogenic modification for what purposes is compatible with the wilderness experience? This hike provided two contrasting perspectives on that question. It’s …

CONTINUE READING

A New Threat to Regional Government & Environmental Quality at Lake Tahoe

Back in the early `70’s, Bob Dylan wrote (and sang), “What looks large from a distance, up close ain’t never that big.” That Dylan lyric came to mind when reports recently emerged of the latest political controversy involving Lake Tahoe. Both nationally and internationally, there’s been substantial praise for the pioneering efforts at regional planning …

CONTINUE READING

California’s New Budget: Bad For Revitalizing Neighborhoods

California Governor Jerry Brown, apparently emerging from his time warp where Republicans weren’t completely radicalized against taxes and government, signed on to an all-cuts budget today, passed with majority numbers in the legislature.  His failure to get any of the four Republican votes he had sought means no new taxes and a major victory for …

CONTINUE READING

TRENDING