Region: National
The GOP’s Climate Views Are Thawing
Significant parts of the GOP seem to be leaving Trump behind on the climate issue.
There were three interesting stories about climate politics in the papers today: one about Trump, one about other Republicans, and one about both. What these stories tell us is that part of the GOP is coming to terms with reality; Trump not surprisingly is not. First, as to Trump. As you may have noticed, Trump …
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CONTINUE READINGSingle-Use Plastics Need Comprehensive Federal Legislation
Despite state and local action, more effective reduction of single-use plastics must come from Congress.
Editor’s note: this article was originally published in The Regulatory Review on February 13, 2019. Plastic pollution appears to be arising ever more frequently in the news. Companies like Starbucks have announced voluntary steps to rid their stores of plastic straws. China is wielding its “National Sword” policy, which places restrictions on the amount and type of plastic waste it …
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CONTINUE READINGScoping Out the Green New Deal
How would we go about decarbonizing the most needy U.S. states?
Progressives are calling for a Green New Deal. The details are still very fuzzy, despite the House resolution introduced by Markey and Ocasio-Cortez. That proposal as a ten-year timetable to eliminate carbon, which is highly unrealistic. Nevertheless, it’s worth thinking about what an all-out effort to decarbonizing the economy would look like. The Green New …
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CONTINUE READINGMore on saving the monarch butterfly
Both federal and state action are needed, and it will take more than milkweed planting
Eric posted an excellent analysis last month of the desirability of protecting the monarch butterfly under California’s Endangered Species Act (CESA). I wanted to add a brief coda (as well as a couple of pictures) to his post, to emphasize the need for federal as well as state action, and to expand on the steps …
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CONTINUE READINGBottoms-Up! An Emerging New Governance System (4)
We can think of the energy system as a kind of ecosystem, and renewables as an invasive species.
As I’ve discussed the earlier three posts in this series, it is possible to imagine a cycle of positive feedback, in which the history of past climate efforts increases the likelihood of future ones and even draws more jurisdictions into the effort. But it is also possible to imagine that bottom-up efforts might not catch …
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CONTINUE READINGThe 2019 Oscars Has a Climate Change Contender
Paul Schrader’s First Reformed nominated for best original screenplay
Clear your calendar and prepare your popcorn – the 2019 Oscars will be awarded on Sunday night. This year climate change has a contender, and no, it’s not An Inconvenient Sequel. In the category of original screenplay, Paul Schrader has been nominated for First Reformed, a contemporary tale about the struggles of a priest in …
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CONTINUE READINGBuild, Baby, Build?
New Study Points To More Sophisticated Analysis of Upzoning – And Perhaps Surpassing the Stale Gentrification Debate
A couple of weeks ago, I noted a study casting some doubt on whether upzoning leads to a decline (or at least a stabilization) of housing prices. The theory is that by building more, developers are simply inducing demand, pushing out low-income people, and not reducing overall prices because of the higher demand. It would …
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CONTINUE READINGPublic Lands Watch: Natural Resources Management Act
Legislation in Congress would expand parks, permanently authorize conservation fund
This blog post was drafted by Jamie T. Martinez. On February 12, the Senate passed the Natural Resources Management Act (NRMA), 92-8. What does the NRMA do? Simply put: a lot. If passed by the House of Representatives and signed by the President, the NRMA will protect approximately 1.3 million acres as wilderness areas, expand …
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CONTINUE READINGNational Security, Climate Change, and Emergency Declarations
If the Supreme Court upholds Trump, it will have to uphold an emergency declaration for climate change.
Trump finally pulled the trigger today and declared a national emergency so he can build his wall. But if illegal border crossings are a national emergency, then there’s a strong case for viewing climate change in similar terms. That point has been made by observers ranging from Marco Rubio to Legal Planet’s own Jonathan Zasloff …
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CONTINUE READINGIs the Green New Deal’s Ambition Smart Policy?
Some Lessons from Environmental History
At the the heart of the Green New Deal — which demands slashing U.S. carbon emissions by 2030 by shifting to 100 percent clean energy — is a major conundrum. Even the most enthusiastic proponents of ambitious climate policy don’t believe the goals are achievable, technologically let alone politically. Stanford Professor Marc Z. Jacobsen, for …
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