Pope Francis Channels Mike Tyson
Who Will Get the Movie Rights to the Encyclical on Climate Change?
Many hope that the Pope's impending encyclical on climate change (and inequality) will change the debate on both topics. Certainly right-wing Catholics are getting nervous about it. But who will get the movie rights? I don't know, but here's a potential trailer. What does this have to do with Mike Tyson? Just watch: https://youtu.be/76BtP1GInlc...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Supreme Court Upholds Affordable Housing Ordinance
Unanimous Court Rejects Developers' Takings Challenge to San Jose's Inclusionary Housing Measure
The California Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision issued today, rejected state developers' efforts to nullify the City of San Jose's affordable housing ordinance. That decision, California Building Industry Association v. City of San Jose, is critically important for both state land use policy and for constitutional principles governing private property rights and the proper scope of government regulation. The City of San Jose, with a population greater tha...
CONTINUE READINGCEQA and the Drought
Republicans are using the drought as an argument for CEQA exemptions
One thing that the deep drought in California has prompted is more discussion of water storage projects like dams. Part of that discussion has been arguments that environmental review pursuant to CEQA should be “streamlined” for water storage projects. A bill to streamline environmental review for two dam projects died in the Assembly this year. These efforts are being led by Republicans who hope to use the drought as leverage to both reduce environmental protections...
CONTINUE READINGThe Next Six Months
A half-dozen crucial developments will shape environmental policy for years to come.
The next six months will be unusually important in environmental law. There are six key areas to keep an eye on: 1. The Paris climate talks. The world's governments meet every year in December as part of continuing negotiations on climate issues. This year's meeting will be the most critical since Copenhagen, six years ago. The plan is to unveil a new architecture involving climate commitments from all the major carbon emitters. An important change since ...
CONTINUE READINGFlame Retardants, Furniture, and Polar Bears
One woman’s search for a toxics-free couch in California
A year and a half ago, I found myself in a position that has caused so many people to rethink the world around them: impending parenthood. One of the many changes I decided to make in advance of welcoming our little bundle of joy was to procure a couch without flame retardants. Flame retardants have been linked to cancer, male and female infertility, autism, obesity, and attention deficit and decreases in IQ. Given the litany of research linking these chemicals to an...
CONTINUE READINGBreaking News: D.C. Circuit Dismisses Challenge to Clean Power Plan on Procedural Grounds
But More Challenges Will Follow
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed the first challenge to EPA's proposed Clean Air Act Section 111d rule to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants (known as the Clean Power Plan) on the grounds that the rule is only a proposed rule, not a final one. The court's opinion can be found here. Petitioners, including energy companies and states, challenged the rule on two grounds. The first is that the rules would impose large economic costs on stat...
CONTINUE READINGClean Air versus States Rights
A sleeper decision by the D.C. Circuit upholds federal air pollution authority.
The D.C. Circuit's decision last week in Mississippi Commission on Environmental Quality v. EPA didn't get a lot of attention, despite having a very significant constitutional ruling. Since the constitutional discussion doesn't start until about page seventy, after many pages of scintillating discussion of matters like the reliability of private air pollution monitors and the meaning of the word "nearby", I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that the case has gone beneat...
CONTINUE READINGAnother One Bites The Dust
New Peer-Reviewed Study Shows That "Global Warming Hiatus" Is Bogus
One of the most annoying climate-denial memes has been the supposed "global warming hiatus." It goes something like this: 1998 was a spectacularly hot year. It has not been as hot since then, thus global warming has stopped. Anyone with a passing familiarity with variance should see right through that one, but now we have a study in Science that pretty much nails it dead to rights: Much study has been devoted to the possible causes of an apparent decrease in the upward ...
CONTINUE READINGBREAKING: SB 32 and SB 350 both pass in the Senate
Key elements of California's new climate legislation package clear major hurdle
For those following the fate of this year's suite of California climate legislation, Senator Pavley's SB 32 and Senator De Leon's SB 350 were brought to a vote in the Senate this morning and both passed easily. I wrote about these bills here. SB 32 would enshrine California's goal, already set forth in executive orders, of reducing climate emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, and to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. SB 350 sets goals of reaching a 50% reducti...
CONTINUE READINGA (Previously) Unsung Environmental Champion
John Podesta Is (Finally) Getting Some Credit: What Might It Mean for a President Hillary Clinton?
If you don't read the High Country News, you should: it is a tremendously good independent source for environmental news, particularly news affecting the Intermountain West. And particularly given the collapse in a lot of good journalism, it is important to support it. HCM's most recent issue, though, is less Wyoming and more Beltway. It is a profile of John Podesta (pictured), who served as chief of staff both for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, founded the Center...
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