Month: July 2011
Nevada Re-Discovers the Public Trust Doctrine
The Nevada Supreme Court was the source of a pleasant surprise earlier this month, when it issued a decision formally “adopting” the public trust doctrine as Nevada law. The opinion, Lawrence v. Clark County, involved a proposed transfer of land in and adjacent to the Colorado River near Laughlin, Nevada to Clark County officials. Nevada …
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CONTINUE READINGLA Times Climate Reporter Laid Off
Just got a forwarded email from Margot Roosevelt, the LA Times’ terrific climate and energy reporter, sharing the news that she’s been laid off. She and her work will be missed.
CONTINUE READINGPost-Tsunami Japan Teaches the World About Energy Within Limits
Earlier this summer, I accompanied a class of renewable energy law students to a home in Vermont that is “off the grid”. The family lives quite comfortably – television, microwave oven, electric washing machine, sizable refrigerator. With the exception of a small diesel generator, which they use once or twice a year, they derive all …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia’s Role in the New Fuel Economy Standards
Dan rightly praised the good news about newly agreed to federal fuel economy standards for the 2017-2025 time frame that will reach 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 (though there will be a review at midpoint and a possibility for readjustment if the 54.5 mpg standard proves too tough). In all of the press …
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CONTINUE READINGSome Good News, For a Change
The NY Times reports: On Friday, when President Obama is scheduled to announce even stricter standards — in fact, the largest increase in mileage requirements since the government began regulating consumption of gasoline by cars in the 1970s — the chief executives of Detroit’s Big Three are expected to be in Washington again. But this …
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CONTINUE READINGIs Climate Denial Like Appeasing Hitler?
Britain’s Energy Secretary thinks so: World leaders who oppose a global agreement to tackle climate change are making a similar mistake to the one made by politicians who tried to appease Adolf Hitler before World War Two, British Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Huhne said on Thursday…. “This is our Munich moment,” he added, referring to …
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CONTINUE READINGNew UCLA Report Takes on California’s Groundwater Management
It’s still the wild west in California when it comes to groundwater management. California depends heavily on groundwater as a source of water supply, but is one of only two western states–the other being Texas–that allows for the withdrawal of groundwater without a permit or any other means of tracking and regulating users. Perhaps not surprisingly, …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia suction dredging moratorium extended
California Governor Jerry Brown has signed into law an extension of the existing moratorium on suction dredge gold mining. I confess that the appeal of recreational mining in any form escapes me, and that I don’t even like to vacuum my own living room. So it mystifies me to learn that there are people who …
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CONTINUE READINGMarcilynn Burke appointed Acting Assistant Secretary
Marcilynn Burke, who is on leave from her environmental law teaching gig at the University of Houston, has been named Acting Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management at the Department of Interior. Burke has been at Interior since August 2009, when she was appointed Deputy Director for Policy and Programs at the Bureau of …
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CONTINUE READINGOn light bulbs, politics, and psychology
Dan has (understandably) been quite outraged at efforts in the Republican-controlled House to eliminate energy efficiency standards for light bulbs (which have been inaccurately portrayed as a flat ban on incandescent bulbs, even though new substitutes are being developed). While these efforts might be seen as purely ignorant orjust politically-opportunistic showboating, I think they in …
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