Year: 2015
Politics v. Legality and the Clean Power Plan
EPA’s Final Plan Changes State Targets, With New Winners and Losers
When the President released the final version of the Clean Power Plan last week, it contained a number of big alterations to the draft plan. One of the most significant changes was the way each state’s greenhouse gas emissions target was calculated. The bottom line is that — generally — states more heavily reliant on …
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CONTINUE READINGCA Supreme Court Rejects California State University’s CEQA Dodge–Again
Justices Hold CSU Can’t Pass the Buck re: Environmental Mitigation Measures Tied to Campus Expansion
In an important decision issued last week, the California Supreme Court forcefully rejected the California State University’s efforts to avoid paying for mitigation measures needed to offset the adverse environmental impacts associated with CSU’s ambitious expansion plans. That’s welcome if predictable news from a court that has in recent years been protective of the state’s bedrock …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat the Market Is Telling Us About Coal
Dump your coal stocks while you still can!
The market’s message is simple: coal’s day is ending. Three major coal companies (Alpha Natural Resources, Walter Energy, and Patriot Coal) have gone into bankruptcy. The two largest publicly traded companies (Peabody and Arch) are now trading for a dollar a share, down from $16 and $33 within the past year. They, too, may well …
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CONTINUE READINGWhy legal challenges to the EPA Clean Power Plan will end up at the Supreme Court
Cross-posted from The Conversation. Even before President Obama announced the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan on August 3 to regulate carbon emissions from power plants, there were a number of legal challenges to block the law at its proposal stage – none of them successful. Earlier this year, the DC Circuit Court told …
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CONTINUE READINGGlobal Warming and Changing Weather
Why DOESN’T global warming just raise the temperature everywhere a little bit?
The amount of global warming that scientists are predicting doesn’t seem like that big a deal — maybe about 4 degrees Fahrenheit if we control emissions, up to maybe 12 if we don’t. But as I’ve said a hundred times — and the experts have said a lot more often than that — we won’t …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Governor Jerry Brown: Environmental Saint or Sinner?
Brown’s National & International Environmental Reputation Disputed by Some California Environmentalists
California Governor Jerry Brown has had a most eventful 2015, especially when it comes to environmental policy. He started the year fresh from an overwhelming election victory last November, earning him an unprecedented fourth term as California’s chief executive. Brown began 2015 by declaring a state drought emergency and becoming California’s “educator-in-chief,” repeatedly warning state …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Climate Issue & the 2016 Election
There are, to say the least, a broad range of views among the candidates.
We’re beginning to have a sense of where the leading candidates stand on climate change. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton announced a goal of 33% renewables by 2030, after saying that the “reality of climate change is unforgiving no matter what the deniers say. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders is said to have the strongest record on …
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CONTINUE READINGA Case of Reverse Causation?
Tomorrow’s Emission Determine Today’s Social Cost of Carbon
Here’s the weird thing: the social cost of carbon today, depends significantly on the year-by-year emissions of carbon in the future, which we obviously don’t know. (Because it depends on our own future actions!) It takes some explanation to show why that’s true and how it matters. If you know a bit about climate policy, you know …
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CONTINUE READINGGuess What? The Clean Power Plan Isn’t Going to Destroy America After All.
Compliance isn’t turning out to be that much of a burden.
Here’s the headline from the Washington Post: “Outrage over EPA emissions regulations fades as states find fixes.” Senator Mitch McConnell has been telling all and sundry the plan will be a disaster and states should refuse to have anything to do with it. But even in his home state, according to the Post, the Clean …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Coal Mining Stream Buffer Rule Evokes Firestorm of Protest. #getagrip
Political polarization has gotten to the point where there would be immediate denunciations if the President issued a proclamation honoring apple pie. Another intrusion into consumer choice, besmirching those who prefer cherry and pumpkin! Another blatant overreach by an out-of-control, incipient tyrant! Not only is every executive action accompanied by loud resistance, but the same explosion of …
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