Evangelicals Versus Property Rights
Guess who invented the idea that property rights evolve with changing social values?
Today, evangelical Christians tend to be aligned with conservatives in defense of private property. But that was not always true. In the 19th and early 20th Centuries, evangelicals launched a major attack on property rights. As historian John Compton documents in a recent book, they also adopted the idea of the “living Constitution” to justify their revisionist view of property. The conflict between property rights and religion was sparked by moral opposition to d...
CONTINUE READINGExploring Potential Challenges to EPA’s New Source Performance Standard: PART III
CCS for coal power plants, but not natural-gas power plants?
This post is the third in a mini-series (see first and second posts) exploring likely legal challenges to the New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) for power-plant greenhouse gas emissions under Clean Air Act § 111(b), and how those challenges might affect the Clean Power Plan. In my first post on EPA’s New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) for greenhouse gas emissions from new and modified fossil-fuel-fired power plants, I explored some of the legal arguments re...
CONTINUE READINGIs CCS the “best” system of emission reduction for coal-fired power plants?
Exploring Potential Challenges to EPA’s New Source Performance Standard: PART II
This post is the second in a mini-series (see first post) exploring likely legal challenges to the New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) for power-plant greenhouse gas emissions under Clean Air Act § 111(b), and how those challenges might affect the Clean Power Plan. In my first post on EPA’s New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) for greenhouse gas emissions from new and modified fossil-fuel-fired power plants, I described the content of the final rule, introdu...
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Law as a Three-Legged Stool
Ad. Law provides the process and institutions, while Torts and Property concepts underly the substance.
Environmental law is a formidable tangle of long, complicated statutes and sometimes arcane judicial doctrines. But underneath all that, I'd like to suggest, there's a very simple structure, rooted in legal basics. The procedural and structural framework for environmental law is provided by administrative law, supplemented in a few areas like Superfund by ordinary civil litigation. That's why I've heard it said that environmental law is just a branch of administra...
CONTINUE READINGThe Future of Fire Policy
Climate change will require reconsideration of how we manage fire
It has been a brutal fire season here in California. It’s been brutal in part because of a historically bad drought. But unfortunately, the end of the drought (when it comes) will not be the end of our fire problems. Those fire problems are the result of long-term, human-caused trends that will only continue: climate change, and the history of fire suppression, as is well chronicled in this New York Times story. First, climate change will produce hotter, drier fire ...
CONTINUE READINGOur Mental Models of Climate Change
How did "Collective Action" turn into "No Action"?
In discussions of how to cut global greenhouse-gas emissions, one of the first things you usually hear (often the very first) is that cutting emissions is a global collective-action problem. To wit: it’s crazy for California (or the United States) to cut unilaterally, because it only works if everyone does it. Or more sharply, we can cut all we want but it won’t make any difference because what about China? (Leave aside the inaccurate claim that China is doing noth...
CONTINUE READINGFaculty Openings in Environmental Law
Some schools are still formulating their hiring plans, but others are clearly in the market.
Ax in past years, I've been collecting information about faculty openings in environmental, natural resources, and energy law. I'll update this as I receive more information. Here's what I've got so far: University of Delaware is seeking a Distinguished Named Professorship in Energy and the Environment. Environmental law scholars are encouraged to apply (UD has no law school, but relationships with several, and has a Legal Studies Program). Expressions of inte...
CONTINUE READINGVolkswagen
What Does That Name Mean Now?
Stunning. But not shocking. That was my reaction to the massive fraud admitted by Volkswagen recently. Stunning in its sheer size and reach; half a million cars in the United States and another ten and a half million globally. Yet not very surprising given the fact that use of mechanical and digital cheat devices has been something of a proud tradition in the automotive industry since the advent of emissions controls. But 11 million cars? And in the context of a marketin...
CONTINUE READINGIs Carbon Capture & Sequestration (CCS) the Biggest Threat to the Clean Power Plan?
Exploring potential challenges to EPA’s New Source Performance Standard: PART I
This post is the first in a mini-series exploring likely legal challenges to EPA’s New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) for power-plant greenhouse gas emissions under Clean Air Act § 111(b), and how those challenges might affect the Clean Power Plan. I will leave detailed exploration of the Clean Power Plan for later posts, but suffice it to say here that I consider the final rule in general to be a legally defensible tool to achieve meaningful climate action. ...
CONTINUE READINGAnti-CEQA Lobbyists Turn to Empirical Analysis, But Are Their Conclusions Sound?
Influential Attacks on California's Environmental Impact Law Aren't Supported By the Data
Every August, as the California legislative session comes to a head, lobbyists attempt to gain support for dramatically scaling back California’s landmark environmental law, CEQA (the California Environmental Quality Act). This year was no exception. Last month, the law firm Holland and Knight, which has been a leading force on this issue, issued a new report designed to gain support for dramatic changes to the law. The report assembles a nearly-complete census o...
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