Fukushima + 5
What's happened since then?
Five years ago today, Japan was hit by a huge earthquake and tsunami, resulting in the Fukushima reactor meltdowns. Where do things stand today? Here's a quick wrap-up: Compensation. TEPCO, the utility operating the reactors, now estimates that it will pay $56 billion in compensation to victims. Clean-up. The plant has been stabilized, according to the Washington Post. TEPCO has a plan to construct a 1500 foot frozen ice dam around the plant to keep radio...
CONTINUE READINGThe Devil is in the Design: Forming California’s New Groundwater Agencies
By Dave Owen and Mike Kiparsky
Cross-posting from the Environmental Law Prof Blog. This post was written by Dave Owen and Mike Kiparsky. It is based on a recent report, co-authored with Nell Green Nylen, Holly Doremus, Barb Cosens, Juliet Christian-Smith, Andrew Fisher, and Anita Milman. Not that long ago, the opening words of one of Joe Sax’s articles described California pretty well. “We Don’t Do Groundwater,” the article’s title began, and until recently, that was true...
CONTINUE READINGThe Supreme Court Vacancy and EPA’s Mercury Rule
The rule limiting toxic pollution from coal plants now has a rosier future.
Among the many ramifications of the current vacancy on the bench, its effect on the EPA's mercury rule seems to have escaped much attention. It may already have helped EPA defeat an effort by states to get a stay from Chief Justice Roberts. But it has much broader significance. Some background: The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision written by Scalia, vacated the rule and sent it back to EPA. The Court directed EPA to determine whether regulating toxic emissions ...
CONTINUE READINGAnother California Regulatory Agency in Crisis: Southern California’s Air Quality Management District Fires Longtime Executive Officer
Barry Wallerstein's Ouster from SCAQMD Signals Tilt Away from Protection of Public Health
In a move that shocked the environmental advocacy community and low-income communities of color that suffer most from the impacts of poor air quality in Los Angeles, the governing board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District fired its longtime executive officer Barry Wallerstein today, voting 7-6 in closed session to remove him from his post. Dr. Wallerstein has been at the helm of the agency since 1997 and has led successful efforts to improve air quality ...
CONTINUE READINGRoberts Denies Mercury Stay
A state effort to suspend implementation fails.
Chief Justice Roberts turned down a request this morning to stay EPA's mercury rule. Until the past month, this would have been completely un-noteworthy, because such a stay would have been unprecedented. But the Court's startling recent stay of the EPA Clean Power Plan suggested that the door might have been wide open. Fortunately, that doesn't seem to be true. In some ways, a stay in this case would be even more shocking than the earlier one. Only the states...
CONTINUE READINGSan Jose’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance Dodges Supreme Court Bullet
Justices Deny Review of California Supreme Court Decision Upholding San Jose Measure
Advocates of the City of San Jose's controversial inclusionary housing ordinance, which was upheld in a 2015 California Supreme Court decision, are breathing a sigh of relief this week. That's because the U.S. Supreme Court has denied the California Building Industry Association's petition for certiorari in the case. But the available evidence suggests that the High Court thought long and hard about taking the case before ultimately deciding not to do so. I pre...
CONTINUE READINGLessons From Flint
A public-minded researcher discovers serious contamination of drinking water. His efforts to alert local officials are rebuffed. Concerned over how this will affect their reputation and the town’s economy, the authorities sit on the evidence and deny any problems. All the while, trusting people continue to drink unsafe water. While the setting may call to mind recent events in Flint, Michigan, this is actually the plot from Henrik Ibsen’s classic 1882 play, An Ene...
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Enforcement in the Age of Trump
Is it time for a retributive turn in environmental law?
Many thought that the BP Oil Spill would lead to new environmental legislation, as happened after past environmental disasters. That didn't happen. But something else did happen: BP paid $24 billion in civil and criminal penalties. In an era where any effort at government regulation is immediately denounced as a dire threat to liberty, there was nary a peep out of Republican politicians about these massive penalties.Nor do I hear Trump, Cruz, or Rubio defending Vo...
CONTINUE READINGBernie Sanders’ Position on the Clean Power Plan
His proposals would require withdrawing the rule and would increase its legal vulnerability
In an interview with Grist last week, Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders provided details about his views on the Clean Power Plan, the Obama administration's rule to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants. Sanders said two things of note: the first is that he would change the CPP to increase incentives for renewable fuels; the second is that he would change the rule to regulate methane emissions as well as carbon dioxide. These changes are...
CONTINUE READINGRisk Subsidies and the Future of Nuclear Power in the U.S.
Should We Take Into Account Government Subsidies that Reduce the Risks Borne by the Nuclear Industry as We Consider Our Energy Future?
As I’ve written about before, U.S. law massively subsidizes the nuclear power industry. In particular, a law called the Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act dramatically skews the incentives to develop nuclear plants, and to site them in places where there is a lot of risk, because it requires the public to bear much of the financial risk associated with physical risk from nuclear facilities by capping operators' liability. The Act also pools all operators...
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