Climate Change, Energy, and the State of the Union
Quite a focus on climate change, this time around.
"Look, if anybody still wants to dispute the science around climate change, have at it. You’ll be pretty lonely, because you’ll be debating our military, most of America’s business leaders, the majority of the American people, almost the entire scientific community, and 200 nations around the world who agree it’s a problem and intend to solve it. "But even if the planet wasn’t at stake; even if 2014 wasn’t the warmest year on record – until 2015 turned out...
CONTINUE READINGJames Salzman of Emmett Institute Appointed to U.S. National Drinking Water Advisory Council
Professor James Salzman of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment has been appointed to the U.S. National Drinking Water Advisory Council, a federal advisory committee that supports the Environmental Protection Agency in its duties and responsibilities to the national drinking water program. Professor Salzman is the author of “Drinking Water: A History” (Overlook Duckworth, 2012), which Nature called "[an] absorbing chronicle of our complex r...
CONTINUE READING2016: The Year of Living Dangerously
2015 was a year of forward movement. Much of that could be in jeopardy this year.
We are at the start of a year of danger for environmental policy. 2015 saw many accomplishments in environmental law: the Administration issued the "waters of the United States" and Clean Power Plan regulations, a Supreme Court ruling in favor of EPA's cross-state air pollution rule, and the Paris Agreement on climate change. Much of this progress is in jeopardy this year. The most obvious source of jeopardy is the November election. The Republican presiden...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Politics as a War of Attrition
Don't expect a quick end to battles over climate policy. It could be a long war.
It may be a mistake to assume that opponents of climate policy will see the handwriting on the wall and gracefully give way to the inevitable. In politics, decisions are rarely made for all time, and agreements between opposing sides may not be enforceable. In such situations, game theorists have proposed war-of-attrition models for conflicts. In these models, even where one player has a natural advantage over the other, wars of attrition may last a long time.. In a typ...
CONTINUE READINGTraitors, Militias, Welfare Moochers, or Lobbyists?
Those Who Took Over the Oregon Wildlife Refuge are Robbing the Rest of Us
The Internets are filled with excellent (and some not-so-excellent) commentary on the right-wing militia takeover of a building in Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge: I recommend this piece from the great Charles Pierce on the meta-political aspects. But the standoff is suffused with legal issues, and for Legal Planet readers, particularly environmental legal issues. At FiveThirtyEight, Leah Libresco points out something that natural resource scholars and poli...
CONTINUE READINGKey Environmental Developments Ahead in 2016
Here are seven of the most important developments affecting the environment.
2015 was a big year for agency regulations and international negotiations. In 2016, the main focal points will be the political process and the courts. Here are seven major things to watch for. The Presidential Election. The election will have huge consequences for the environment. A Republican President is almost sure to try to roll back most of the environmental initiatives of the Obama Administration, undoing all the progress that has been made on climate chang...
CONTINUE READINGA Minor Christmas Miracle from Congress
Somehow, Congress managed to pass a pro-environmental law. Amazing!
Just before Christmas, the NY Times reported that Congress passed the Microbead Free Waters Act of 2015. The law bans nearly invisible small beads that have been added as abrasives to products like toothpaste. The trouble is that the beads get into waterways, where pollutants like PCBs adhere to their surfaces. Even more amazingly, the bill passed the Senate based on unanimous consent, with not even Ted Cruz objecting. There were a couple of reasons why this law ...
CONTINUE READINGThat Takes the Prize!
National Science & Technology Medals for Renewable Energy Research
The White House announced the names of the scientists and engineers who will be receiving National Medals next year. I was very pleased to see that one of the winners of the National Medal of Science is Paul Alivisatos from Berkeley. Dr. Alivisatos is a chemistry professor who is also Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab, and of the Kavli Energy Nanosciences Institute (ENSI). His research has identified key applications of nanocrys...
CONTINUE READINGStudent Guest Blogger Terra Laughton: Perspectives on COP21
Terra Laughton, UCLA School of Law JD class of 2017, shares her perspective on attending the Paris climate negotiations
I am a second-year student at UCLA School of Law. I recently returned from two weeks in Paris attending COP21. My classmates and I had already boarded our plane at Charles De Gaulle when the Paris Agreement was officially adopted—we learned of the news upon landing in Los Angeles. While it would have been exhilarating to share in the excitement and relief of that final moment, I remain convinced we were there for the most fascinating part, the preceding ten days of...
CONTINUE READINGNIMBYs Gone Even Wilder!!!
Newport Beach Wants to Honor Veterans and Seniors by Excluding Them
Christmastime is here, and what better way to foster goodwill towards all than by trying to exclude affordable housing from your community. And not just any affordable housing: affordable housing for seniors and veterans: A plan for a 12-unit affordable housing project for veterans and seniors in the Newport Shores neighborhood was blasted by residents who complained it was too expensive and expressed concerns about who would live there.... ...of the dozens of ...
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