Helter Skelter
Even for deregulators, the latest rollback makes no sense.
The Washington Post reported this morning that EPA is getting ready to roll back yet another Obama Administration climate regulation -- this time, one regulating natural gas leaks. I wanted to add a brief postscript to Ken Alex's post on this. What struck me most immediately was the sheer economic weirdness of making this rollback effort. The cost saving for industry is trivial. According to the Post, "the agency estimates the proposed changes . . . would save the ...
CONTINUE READINGConference on the Ocean’s Role in Sustainable Food Production
U.C. Davis Will Host Cutting-Edge Event on September 16-17, 2019
U.C. Davis' Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute, in conjunction with the UCD School of Law's California Environmental Law & Policy Center, will host an important and timely conference on September 16-17, 2019. "The Ocean's Role in Sustainable Food Production" will offer an in-depth, interdisciplinary look at current scientific, economic, social, legal and governance issues surrounding the ocean's role in global food production. The conference will similarly exp...
CONTINUE READINGMethane From Oil and Gas Operations, Update
Another Trump Rollback
A quick and depressing update to my post yesterday about methane emissions from oil and gas operations. According to the NY Times, the Trump administration “will aim to eliminate federal requirements that oil and gas companies install technology to inspect for and fix methane leaks from wells, pipelines and storage facilities.” This, to use a legal term, is moronic. The oil and gas industry did not request the rollback and doesn’t need it. They can sell the...
CONTINUE READINGToo Many Climate Solutions
It's all about implementation
It turns out that there are lots of very promising climate solutions. Drawdown, for example, provides an excellent list. Implementing those solutions – moving them to pilots, policy, and scale – remains very challenging, for a variety of reasons, some legal and regulatory, some political, economic, and technical. I have started Project Climate at the Center for Law, Energy & Environment to focus on moving climate solutions more quickly. For the next few ...
CONTINUE READINGIs the Amazon Burning?
The current panic may not be justified, although long-term worries are
The environmental community is presently up in arms about fires in Brazil's Amazon. The number of fires have dramatically increased over this time last year. A Greenpeace worker said, "This is not just a forest that is burning. This is almost a cemetery. Because all you can see is death." France's president Emmanuel Macron tweeted, "Our house is burning. Literally. The Amazon rain forest - the lungs which produces 20% of our planet’s oxygen - is on fire. It is an inter...
CONTINUE READINGClearing the Air
The DC Circuit upholds a major air regulation.
On Friday, the D.C. Circuit decided Murray Energy v. EPA. The court upheld EPA’s health-based 2015 air quality standards for ozone against challenges from industry (rules too strong) and environmental groups (rules too weak). However, it rejected a grandfather clause that prevented the new standards from applying to plants whose permit applications were in-process when the standards were issued. It also required EPA to tighten up the “secondary standards” for...
CONTINUE READINGFor the Love of Carbon
Understanding Trump's Drive to Ramp Up Carbon Emissions
Libertarians may oppose government regulation on principle, and to some extent that stance explains the Trump Administration’s environmental and energy policies. But the Trump Administration clearly views the fossil fuel sector as something more than another overly-regulated industry. Instead, expansion of this particular industry is seen as something good in itself. Thus, the Administration not only wants to ignore the issue of climate change. Rather, its persi...
CONTINUE READINGPrinciples of Climate Governance
We need to address the procedures and structures for climate policymaking.
There’s a lot of discussion about the substance of climate policy today. That’s obviously critical, but we also need to think about the procedural and institutional issues involved in making climate policy. For instance, we need to think about how to divide authority between the states and the federal government. I thought it would be helpful to pull together some of the ideas that others (as well as I) have been discussing. Having a brief compendium of governa...
CONTINUE READINGA Letter to My Fellow Boomers About Climate Change
We have met the enemy and he is us.
Polls show that a great many members of our generation oppose taking action against climate change. I want to try to explain to that group why you should rethink your views. Let me start by explaining why climate action would benefit you yourself and then widen the focus to include your grandchildren and their kids. Efforts to cut climate change right now aren’t likely to have a big effect on climate in the next decade or two. But there are more immediate bene...
CONTINUE READINGTrump Administration Attempts to Eviscerate the Endangered Species Act
Rather Than "Improve" ESA, Newly-Adopted Regulations Dramatically Erode Its Historic Protections
The Endangered Species Act, enacted in 1973, has for most of its history been the most controversial and politically-charged of all the foundational environmental laws adopted by Congress in the 1970's. But despite its contentious history, opponents of the ESA have been unsuccessful in their efforts to weaken the law, either through significant Congressional amendments or regulatory changes. Until now. Both on the 2016 campaign trail and after his inauguratio...
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