Region: National
Battle for the Senate: Florida
Failed presidential candidate Mark Rubio fights to keep his Senate seat in the Everglade State.
Anyone over 30 probably remembers Florida’s role in the 2000 election, when a few hundred votes (and five Supreme Court Justices) swung the election to Bush. Florida remains a swing state today. This race will be closely watched for that reason, as well as the strong contrasts between the candidates’ policy views. Compared to most …
Continue reading “Battle for the Senate: Florida”
CONTINUE READINGBattle for the Senate: Illinois
This race features an environmentally leaning Republican versus a Democratic war hero.
Mark Kirk is an outlier among his fellow GOP Senators. His lifetime score from the League of Conservation voters is 57% — compare that with many republicans who are at 3% or lower. His opponent, Tammy Duckworth, is a war hero with a lifetime score of 85%, still comfortably above Kirk’s. So there’s a difference …
Continue reading “Battle for the Senate: Illinois”
CONTINUE READINGBattle for the Senate: Indiana
The Indiana race pitts an anti-regulatory incumbent against a pro-environmental challenger.
Indiana presents another strong contrast in environmental views. The Republican, Todd Young, has a rating of 3% from the League of Conservation voters. His opponent, Evan Bayh, has a 74% rating. Young is an Annapolis graduate and former Marine officer, who earned his MBA from night classes at the University of Chicago. After a short …
Continue reading “Battle for the Senate: Indiana”
CONTINUE READINGSurveying Climate Change Law
In only 25 years, a dynamic new field of law has taken root.
Climate Change Law, the first volume of Elgar’s Encyclopedia of Environmental Law has just appeared. There are a number of excellent edited collections about aspects of climate change law. What distinguishes this one is that breadth of the coverage, including both international and domestic aspects of carbon reduction and adaptation to climate change. The book confirms how quickly climate change …
Continue reading “Surveying Climate Change Law”
CONTINUE READINGBattle for the Senate: Ohio
Rob Portman and Ted Strickland duke it out in a key swing state.
In some states, the candidate’s websites barely mention energy or environment. Not so in Ohio. Both the Republican incumbent and the Democratic challenger make these issues focal points of their campaigns. The Republican is Rob Portman, who served briefly as U.S. Trade Representative before heading the Office of Management and Budget. He has a lifetime rating …
Continue reading “Battle for the Senate: Ohio”
CONTINUE READINGThe Clean Power Plan Oral Arguments
After marathon hearing, EPA comes out on top
Greetings, Legal Planet readers! As many of you know, I left the UCLA Law community several months ago for a new position in the environmental law world. But today, I emerge from blog-retirement for one very special post: insights from Tuesday’s oral arguments in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals over EPA’s Clean Power Plan. …
Continue reading “The Clean Power Plan Oral Arguments”
CONTINUE READINGThe Impact of a Trump Presidency, in Tons of CO2
A Trump presidency would add 2.4 billion tons of CO2 to the atmosphere. At a minimum.
One of Trump’s pledges is to eliminate Obama’s Clean Power Plan. That wouldn’t be quite as easy as he thinks, but there’s little doubt that he could do so. So, how much difference would that make? The answer turns out to be 2,470,000 tons of additional carbon emissions. That’s a bare minimum; the actual added …
Continue reading “The Impact of a Trump Presidency, in Tons of CO2”
CONTINUE READINGThe Machine at the Center of the Clean Power Plan
By William Boyd, Ann Carlson and Cara Horowitz
As attention shifts from last night’s debate to today’s oral argument on the Clean Power Plan, we thought it worth focusing on the machine at the heart of the President’s plan to cut greenhouse gases from the electric power sector: the electricity grid. You might think that the largest machine in the United States is one …
Continue reading “The Machine at the Center of the Clean Power Plan”
CONTINUE READINGTrump Embraces His Inner Denialist
Nobody loves coal, oil and gas more than Donald Trump.
Donald Trump has pledged to wipe out Obama’s climate change efforts, including the Clean Power Plan and the Paris Agreement. His choice to head the transition team for EPA shows how little his view of climate change has evolved since he tweeted that “the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to …
Continue reading “Trump Embraces His Inner Denialist”
CONTINUE READINGWill EPA Finally Ban Asbestos?
A look at the risks the substance presents, efforts to ban its continued use in the United States, and the role of TSCA reforms
Today millions of people will tune in to watch the first 2016 Presidential Debate. I’m popping the popcorn for what promises to be quite the spectacle! But while the debate takes center stage, other events make today significant as well. Most important for me, September 26th marks the 12th annual Mesothelioma Awareness Day in the …
Continue reading “Will EPA Finally Ban Asbestos?”
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
