Why Doesn’t the GOP Offer Alternative Solutions to Environmental Problems?
Republicans hate conventional regulations. But they've given up on offering alternatives. Here's why.
There's one thing we all know: the Republican Party hates regulation. Republicans want to roll back some key regulations and make it a lot harder to pass new ones. But there's a curious silence about alternatives to regulation. For decades, conservative Republicans have denounced "command and control" regulations by EPA and other agencies. So why don't they advocate alternate ways to solve environmental problems? There's a simple answer. There are other...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Enacts Legislation Targeting Short-Lived Climate Pollutants
The statute codifies the goals set by the Governor and ARB
On Monday, Governor Brown signed SB 1383 into law, establishing statewide targets for reducing what are known as "short-lived climate pollutants," which I have discussed in previous posts. The law requires a 40% reduction in both methane and hydrofluorocarbon gases (HFCs) below 2013 levels, and a 50% reduction in black carbon from 2013 level. Legislators introduced the bill earlier this year after the historic agreement reached under the UNFCCC in Paris. Other than th...
CONTINUE READINGState regulation of environmental harms on federal lands
California Supreme Court case indicates substantial authority for states to act
Sean has already reported on the recent Rinehart decision by the California Supreme Court, in which the Court concluded that a state law imposing a temporary moratorium on the use of suction dredge equipment in California waterways was not preempted by federal mining law. Here, I just want to add to Sean’s excellent summary by identifying some key factors for answering future questions about whether state environmental regulations for activities on federal lands are ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Clean Power Plan: Obama’s Easy Mandate
States Complaining About the CPP Are On Pace to Hit Emissions Targets
Back around the turn of the 20th century, New York's Republican machine was run by Senator Thomas Platt, whose ability to bridge factional gaps gave him the title of "The Easy Boss." Even though President Obama has attempted the same thing, he will have no such luck. Witness, for example, the states -- virtually all with Republican leadership -- which have sued the administration over the EPA's quite mild and moderate Clean Power Plan. It's tyranny, they say. It's...
CONTINUE READINGBattle for the Senate: New Hampshire
Almost uniquely, both candidates support action on climate change.
Kelly Ayotte's rating from the League of Conservation voters is 35%. That's on the high side for a Republican. Her opponent, Maggie Hasan, is a strong advocate of action on climate change. Ayotte is a former prosecutor and long-time state attorney general; she says that as AG she "stood up to polluters to protect New Hampshire's natural beauty." So far as I know, she's also the only Senator to have served on an environmental law journal (at Villanova). She says ...
CONTINUE READINGBattle for the Senate: Pennsylvania
Toomey & McGinty have *totally* opposite views on environment and energy.
The Pennsylvania Senate race pits a former president of the conservative Club for Growth against a former chair of CEQ, the White House Council on Environmental Quality. They may both love the color green, but his shade of green is the color of money and hers is the color of foliage. The Republican incumbent is Pat Toomey, a former investment banker who graduated from Harvard. He served in the House before winning his Senate seat. According to his Senate website...
CONTINUE READINGA Presidential Game of 20 Questions
Reviewing the candidates answers to Scientific American's top science policy questions
Yesterday, Scientific American released the answers provided by all four candidates for President to the 20 questions they consider the most pressing when it comes to science policy. The answers are illuminating, to say the least. First, on climate change, the answers of top candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump could not have been more different. Secretary Clinton stated that the science of climate change is "crystal clear," and laid out three priorities for her a...
CONTINUE READINGDoes Light Rail Get People Out of Their Cars?
Hopeful Findings from a New Metro Survey
My nominee for Greatest Article Title Of All Time is Don Pickrell's 1992 piece in the Journal of the American Planning Association. Pickrell argued that while planners and local governments poured money into light rail, it never got the hoped-for ridership. The title? "A Desire Named Streetcar." Well, as it turns out now, Los Angeles is seeing its love requited, at least for the time being. Ridership on the new Expo Line from Santa Monica to downtown is orders of ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Clean Water Act, Federalism, Big Money and the California Supreme Court
Ill-considered Supreme Court Decision Threatens California's Administration of Clean Water Act Permit Program
The California Supreme Court recently issued a little-noticed decision on a seemingly arcane state public finance issue that could well wind up having a dramatic, negative effect on California's continued ability to administer the federal Clean Water Act's permit program in the Golden State. The case is Department of Finance v. Commission on State Mandates. In that decision, a bare 4-3 majority of the Supreme Court held that the costs associated with conditions im...
CONTINUE READINGCan Women’s Land Rights Combat Climate Change?
Suggestive Links Between Gender Equity and Sustainability
I suppose that the holy grail of environmentalism, and environmental scholarship, is integrating equity concerns with global priorities. The environmental justice movement has sought to do this, sometimes with success and sometimes less so. Now Jennifer Duncan of Landesa, one of the most innovative think tanks focusing on land rights and the Global South, thinks that drawing a new connection is necessary: Securing women’s rights to land is one approach that can...
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