Year: 2013
The Future of Los Angeles and Climate Change
On Wednesday Night, I will participate in a KPCC discussion focused on climate change’s impacts on Southern California. The rest of the panel includes Jerry R. Schubel and my friend Jonathan Parfrey. What do I want to talk about? I wouldn’t mind promoting my Climatopolis but here is a sketch of my thoughts; We control …
Continue reading “The Future of Los Angeles and Climate Change”
CONTINUE READINGDid the Supreme Court just shut the courthouse door on environmental plaintiffs?
It’s not an environmental law case, but the Supreme Court’s decision in Clapper v. Amnesty International has a lot of environmental law folks talking. Clapper was a lawsuit that sought to challenge the constitutionality of a provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that allowed the government to monitor a range of communications by …
Continue reading “Did the Supreme Court just shut the courthouse door on environmental plaintiffs?”
CONTINUE READINGD.C. Circuit Affirms Polar Bear Listing
In an opinion released earlier today, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rejected challenges to the listing of the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Read the full opinion, In re: Polar Bear Endangered Species Act Listing and Section 4(d) Rule Litigation – MDL No. 1993. Holly has discussed …
Continue reading “D.C. Circuit Affirms Polar Bear Listing”
CONTINUE READINGThe US wins the latest round in the Casitas saga
In 2008, the Federal Circuit surprised a lot of legal academics by ruling that the Casitas Municipal Water District’s takings claim, which arose from a requirement that the district construct and operate a fish ladder to allow endangered steelhead to pass its diversion dam, should be analyzed using the physical takings test. That didn’t resolve …
Continue reading “The US wins the latest round in the Casitas saga”
CONTINUE READINGThe First Day of Spring, 2013
…was today, February 28th. At least in my non-scientific, highly qualitative opinion. When I was in college during the 1980’s, spring break occurred during the second and third weeks of March. I would fly back to Los Angeles from New England, to be greeted by a southern California winter, which of course wasn’t much of …
Continue reading “The First Day of Spring, 2013”
CONTINUE READINGDoes the President Even Need the Senate to Confirm Appointees?
Damn. I suppose that it’s an occupational hazard of law professors that they kick around an idea, only to find that someone has beaten them to the punch. Well, Harvard’s Matthew Stephenson has done that to me, sort of, with an essay in the most recent volume of the Yale Law Journal entitled, Can the President Appoint Principal Executive …
Continue reading “Does the President Even Need the Senate to Confirm Appointees?”
CONTINUE READINGWho Is Ernest Moniz?
And why should you care? Moniz is a nuclear physics professor at MIT, the director of the MIT energy project, and at least according to a lot of reports, President Obama’s first choice to head the Energy Department. Anything not to like about that? Well, lots of environmentalists don’t seem to. The Daily Beast reports …
Continue reading “Who Is Ernest Moniz?”
CONTINUE READINGNewsflashes from the B-School
You might think that business schools would take the same views of policy as the Chamber of Commerce, but that’s not necessarily true. The Haas School here at Berkeley has a very interesting energy blog. I don’t always find their conclusions congenial but they’re always interesting. Here are some recent posts: Information and energy use. …
Continue reading “Newsflashes from the B-School”
CONTINUE READINGSecond California cap-and-trade auction sells almost $225 million worth of allowances
Results are in from California’s second cap-and-trade auction. California Air Resources Board (CARB) offered 12.9 million 2013-vintage allowances along with 9.56 million 2016-vintage allowances. CARB sold all of the 2013 vintage at $13.62 per allowance and almost half (4.44 million) of the 2016 vintage at $10.71 per allowance. In total, that amounts to a bit …
CONTINUE READINGIgnorance as Political Bliss: The Republican War on Social Science
Several recent posts on this blog have been about the political process, discussing issues like political polarization, congressional deadlock, and special interest groups. The discipline of political science is in large part the study of how collective decisions get made. It would seem to be in everyone’s interest to have a better understanding of collective …
Continue reading “Ignorance as Political Bliss: The Republican War on Social Science”
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
