Region: National
Reassuringly Stupid
The House GOP’ is trying to stop the Pentagon from thinking about climate change. Here’s why it won’t work.
The military considers climate change to be a threat to national security. Naturally, that’s news that the House Republicans would like to suppress. Last week, they tried to do something about it with an appropriations rider. Luckily, the amendment is so poorly drafted that it would accomplish almost nothing. Here’s the language of the amendment: None …
Continue reading “Reassuringly Stupid”
CONTINUE READINGFeds Downgrade Monterey Shale Oil Reserves by 95.6%
LA Times op-ed highlights increase in trains transporting oil into California
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is reducing its previous estimate for technically recoverable oil in California’s Monterey Shale from 13.7 billion barrels of oil to just 600 million barrels of oil—a dramatic 95.6 percent reduction. Has the oil industry been chasing rainbows in search of illusive “black gold” Monterey oil? For years, the oil …
Continue reading “Feds Downgrade Monterey Shale Oil Reserves by 95.6%”
CONTINUE READINGOf Corn and Climate
Trouble may be brewing in the corn belt.
We continue to gain a better understanding of the impacts of climate change, which are sometimes subtle and unexpected. Two articles in Science report significant new research. The first report comes from two researchers at the University of Illinois. Corn, like other plants, needs to pull CO2 from the air for photosynthesis. But the same tiny …
Continue reading “Of Corn and Climate”
CONTINUE READINGRaisins D’Etre?
Further proof that takings law is a mess, from a case involving government support for raisin growers.
Horne v. USDA might well have been a law professor’s hypothetical. In order to smooth out raisin prices, the federal government has a program of taking “surplus” raisins off the market and diverting them to “non-competitive markets” like foreign countries and school lunch programs. The effect is to keep up market prices for raisins. The …
Continue reading “Raisins D’Etre?”
CONTINUE READINGThom Tillis, the GOP Establishment, and the Environment
Tillis is not a Tea Party extremist on regulatory issues, but he’s also been no friend of environmental protection .
Thom Tillis’s victory in the North Carolina primary for U.S. Senate was widely seen as a victory for the Republican Establishment over the Tea Party. What does this mean on environmental issues? In other word, where do “Establishment Republicans” stand on the environment? In Tillis’s case, lowering regulatory costs seems to be the highest priority. …
Continue reading “Thom Tillis, the GOP Establishment, and the Environment”
CONTINUE READINGAn Opening for Climate Adaptation?
Marco Rubio seems willing to admit that climate change exists and is causing real problems. That’s a start.
During an interview with ABC’s Jonathan Kent, Marco Rubio made a very interesting statement about climate change. He took the standard anti-science position about the causes of climate change. “I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying it,” he said. He went on …
Continue reading “An Opening for Climate Adaptation?”
CONTINUE READINGJustice Scalia’s Puzzling Dissent
Justice Scalia’s dissent in EME Homer contains a number of unusual lapses in substance and tone.
As I’ve been studying the opinions in EME Homer, I’m increasingly struck by the oddities of Justice Scalia’s dissent. There was a flap last week about his blunder, later quietly corrected, in describing one of his own past opinions. But that’s not the only peculiarity of the dissent. As a quick reminder, EME Homer involved EPA’s effort to deal with interstate …
Continue reading “Justice Scalia’s Puzzling Dissent”
CONTINUE READINGWhat’s in a Name?
Supreme Court arguments surround the policies and effects of limitations periods
A few weeks back, I posted about CTS Corp. v. Waldburger, a case then awaiting oral argument in the Supreme Court. As you may recall (or as you can read here, with links to relevant documents), Waldburger involves hazardous waste contamination, and a provision of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) that …
Continue reading “What’s in a Name?”
CONTINUE READINGRichard Lazarus Formally Notified the Supreme Court of Scalia’s Error
Letter Led to Change in Dissenting Opinion
Who knew that the U.S. Supreme Court has a formal process for notifying it about errors in Court opinions? Richard Lazarus, the Howard and Katherine Aibel Professor of Law at Harvard and Supreme Court expert extraordinaire, that’s who. Turns out that after he discovered Justice Scalia’s error about Whitman v. American Trucking (see my earlier post of …
Continue reading “Richard Lazarus Formally Notified the Supreme Court of Scalia’s Error”
CONTINUE READINGDan Farber Highlights Scalia Error in Homer Dissent, Dissent Gets Corrected
Legal Planet post noted error yesterday
Yesterday Dan pointed out that Justice Scalia had made a “cringeworthy” error in his dissenting opinion in EPA v. Homer. Scalia argued — in support of his claim that EPA’s interpretation of the provision of the Clean Air Act that governs cross-state air pollution was inconsistent with the plain language of the statute — that EPA …
Continue reading “Dan Farber Highlights Scalia Error in Homer Dissent, Dissent Gets Corrected”
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
