A Floor Price for Gasoline
A floor price would encourage energy efficient cars and generate revenue.
The price of gasoline fluctuates like crazy, tracking the price of oil. In a recent blog post and an earlier paper, my colleagues at the business school have put forward a really innovative proposal: a minimum price for gasoline. When oil costs go below a certain level, gas prices would stay stuck at that point. Studies show that consumers base their car purchases on the current price of gas. So if gas is really cheap, they buy more gas guzzlers, fewer hybrids. ...
CONTINUE READINGNEWSFLASH: Kochs Cave on Climate
Humans are causing climate change after all. Who knew?
The Kochs believe in climate change, so it seems. Greenwire reports that a Koch spokesman said: "Charles has said the climate is changing. So, the climate is changing . . . I think he's also said, and we believe, that humans have a part in that. I think what the real question is ... what are we going to do about it?” Maybe Charles and the company (what about David??) have believed this along and just forgot to mention it. Or maybe it is a concession that the weig...
CONTINUE READINGFormer Massey Energy CEO Sentenced to Prison for Actions Leading to 2010 Coal Mine Disaster
What Broader Environmental and Worker Safety Enforcement Lessons Can Be Learned Here?
A federal district judge on Wednesday sentenced Don Blankenship, the former Chief Executive of Massey Energy, to serve one year in federal prison--the maximum term allowed by law--and to personally pay a criminal penalty of $250,000 for Blankenship's acts of omission and commission that led to the notorious 2010 coal mining disaster at Massey's Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia. That mine explosion killed 29 Massey-employed miners, and represented the worst Americ...
CONTINUE READINGUnderstanding Climate Skepticism
Four hypotheses to explain the endurance of climate skeptics
2015 was the warmest year on record. Sea level rise has been accelerating in recent decades. To myself and, I suspect, most readers of this blog, human-induced climate change is undeniable in the face of such developments, posing fundamental challenges to human well-being and biodiversity around the globe and into the future. Climate change is here and the scientific evidence is only getting stronger. So how is it possible that significant climate skepticism and d...
CONTINUE READINGThe Next Justice and the Fate of the Clean Water Act
A comment by Justice Kennedy reminds us of just how much is at stake.
Every once in a while, we get reminded of just how much damage the conservative Justices could wreak on environmental law. Last week, Justice Kennedy created shock waves with a casual comment during oral argument. In a case that seemed to involved only a technical issue about administrative procedure, he dropped the suggestion that the Clean Water Act just might be unconstitutionally vague. It didn’t seem to faze him that such a ruling would wipe out a statute that has...
CONTINUE READINGThe Rise of “Cli-Fi”
What the Humanities Can Teach us About Climate Change Narratives
Over the past decade, an entire genre of climate skeptic literature has emerged. As many readers of this blog may well have experienced firsthand in personal conversations, climate skeptics are often very intelligent and may well hold advanced degrees. Dan Kahan’s work has made clear that climate skepticism derives as much from deeply-held values as from concerns over the specifics of climate models and ice cores. It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that the literat...
CONTINUE READINGUCLA Files Amicus Brief on Behalf of Electric Grid Experts in “Clean Power Plan” Case
Supporting EPA’s regulation of power-sector carbon emissions
Today, several of us at UCLA Law School’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment—me, Cara Horowitz, Sarah Duffy, & Ann Carlson—together with Professor William Boyd of University of Colorado Law School, filed an amici curiae brief on behalf of five electric grid experts in support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “Clean Power Plan” to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from existing fossil-fuel-fired electric generating units u...
CONTINUE READING“My Climate Plan is Yuge!” Sez Trump
Campaign takes a strange turn on April 1
Donald Trump apparently opened a new front in his war with Ted Cruz last night with this tweet: “My climate plan is HUGE! Ted’s plan is tiny, tiny, tiny.” Cruz immediately struck back: “Trump’s climate plan is as small as his hands!” Establishment Republicans were appalled that the presidential campaign had reached a new low. “I can’t believe we’re reduced to discussing the size of the candidate’s climate plans,” moaned David Brooks. “I nev...
CONTINUE READINGSolving The Energy Efficiency Puzzle
New report recommends ways that California can encourage more private financing of energy efficiency retrofits
Much of our efforts to reduce carbon emissions involves fairly complicated and advanced technologies. Whether it's solar panels, batteries, flywheels, or fuel cells, these technologies have typically required public support to bring them to scale at a reasonable price, along with significant regulatory or legal reforms to accommodate these new ways of doing old things, from generating power to driving a car. Yet ironically, here in California we seem to be making th...
CONTINUE READINGClinton v. Sanders: Their Climate Plans in a Nutshell
Sanders wants a carbon tax. No surprise: Clinton is more incremental.
Sanders and Clinton have much richer discussions of issues on their website than their Republican rivals, perhaps reflecting different expectations for candidates in the two parties. Both Sander and Clinton have environmental views that are starkly different from the leading Republican candidates. But their views do differ from each other as well. Clinton has about an 80% lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters, but Sanders has a perfect scorecard. Thei...
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