Month: September 2011
Does the Tea Party Cause Unemployment?
I’ve done several postings about the theory that regulatory uncertainty causes unemployment. I’m skeptical of the claim as a general matter, but if there’s any validity to it, one of the major causes of regulatory uncertainty is the Tea Party, along with other libertarians and opponents of regulation. It’s not hard to see how the …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Sup Ct Lets California Continue Its Cap and Trade Work
The California Supreme Court issued an order today that allows the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to continue implementing its cap and trade program. The history here is somewhat convoluted. The state’s plan (called the scoping plan) to implement the California Global Warming Solutions Act contains within it a cap and trade program. A group of environmental justice …
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CONTINUE READINGRegulatory Uncertainty & Jobs: The Evidence
It remains a common refrain that regulatory uncertainty is causing joblessness. The evidence indicates that this is simply wrong. Consider three major facts. First, as Think Progress has pointed out, unemployment is currently lowest in health care, extractive industries, and the financial sector — exactly the areas where there is the most on-going regulatory effort. …
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CONTINUE READINGHappy New Year from Ecclesiastes
To all who are celebrating Rosh Hashanah, a big Happy New Year from Legal Planet. And what would a Jewish holiday on a legal website be without a text? In this case, the text is Kohelet Rabbah, the 8th Century CE rabbinic commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes. The rabbis read Ecclesiastes’ line (7:13), “See …
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CONTINUE READINGAccounting for The Harm of Coal
Much of the effort to rollback current EPA regulations focuses on coal-fired electrical power plants. An article in the August issues of the American Economic Review sheds light on the issues at stake. “Environmental Accounting for Pollution in the United States Economy” is an effort to assess the damages caused by various polluting activities. The …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Governor Brown Signs CEQA Reform Bills
Today California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law legislation amending the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to facilitate construction of both a major new sports stadium in downtown Los Angeles and large “environmental leadership development projects” involving financial commitments of at least $10 million and that incorporate substantial urban infill or renewable energy components. This …
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CONTINUE READINGSecret Synagogue Reading for Environmentalists
As the Jewish High Holy Days approach, it is of course time for thinking deeply about…. what books you will read in shul during services. Rabbis extol Rosh Hashanah Mussaf as liturgical brilliance, but the rest of us find it to be spiritual chloroform. Well, fortunately enough, the Jewish environmentalist literature has gotten better over the last …
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CONTINUE READINGA Setback for Clean Ports
Hot off the presses, the Ninth Circuit has partially reversed Judge Christina Snyder’s order in American Trucking Ass’n v. City of Los Angeles, an important environment-labor-pre-emption case that I blogged about a little more than one year ago. The case concerns the Port of Los Angeles’ “Clean Ports” program, which, among other things mandates a …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Roots of Climate Skepticism
if you’re a libertarian, an evangelical, a populist, and a corporate officer — or any one of those three — it may be just a little easier to live in a world that lacks the kinds of deep interdependencies highlighted by climate science.
CONTINUE READINGTRAIN Wreck!
From a political point of view, it’s really interesting to see this melding of special interest legislation with populist appeals to the economy. It’s a little discouraging to see these efforts to increase air pollution, however, if you or your family members happen to have asthma or other respiratory issues, or if you just care about the environment.
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