An Ounce of Prevention
Can inherently safer technology save us from chemical accidents and terrorists?
As Benjamin Franklin famously said, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Franklin’s comment, originally made in reference to home fire safety, is characteristically timeless. Today, many are looking to the principle of prevention as a way to reduce the incidence and severity of chemical plant disasters. The threat of chemical disaster is present and severe. Thousands of chemical plants endanger millions of American workers and community m...
CONTINUE READINGWhen Cooking Can Kill
Cookstoves are a major threat to health in developing countries, while also wreaking environmental damage.
Cooking dinner, as it turns out, is one of the most serious public health and environmental problems in the world. There's a common misperception that environmental concerns are just a First World luxury. But the cookstove example shows that the global poor, too, are in need of better, more efficient, less polluting energy sources. Here are some key facts, courtesy of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: 1. More than half of the world's population—three bil...
CONTINUE READINGThe ballot-box and urban infill
How the initiative power affects land-use decisions in California
Here at Legal Planet we’ve been paying a lot of attention to how CEQA affects land-use decisions. So has the legislature. And that’s fair enough. CEQA is important. And CEQA may well be deterring an important range of urban infill development that is environmentally important. But it’s not the only thing that affects urban infill development, as Ethan points out in this post. Also important – perhaps more important – are the initiative and referend...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Standing with a Twist
Rather than prove they will be specifically harmed by increased carbon emissions, plaintiffs can use other kinds of harm as a basis for climate standing.
Plaintiffs got a Christmas present from the D.C. Circuit in the form of a pathway to prove standing in climate change cases. The Supreme Court has considered two cases dealing with standing to sue based on injuries caused by climate change. The Court found standing in one case 5-4 and split 4-4 in the second case. But in a case decided on Christmas Eve, the D.C. Circuit gave its blessing to an end-run around the entire dispute. This end-run is likely to be very usefu...
CONTINUE READINGTen Energy Stories to Watch in 2014
What will shake the energy world this year?
In our energy law classes at Cal, we like to start the day by talking about Energy in the News. The media never fails us. Every day, there are multiple energy-related stories of significance touching on resource development, new technologies, policy shifts, jobs, regional politics, prices, international relations, or the environment. Once you start looking for energy-related conversations, it seems like you can find them everywhere. The other thing we learn is that we ca...
CONTINUE READINGU.C. Davis’ “ESA at 40” Conference Now Available for Online Viewing
The federal Endangered Species Act turned 40 this past weekend. On December 28, 1973, then-President Richard Nixon signed into law what has proven to be the nation's most controversial environmental law. So it's an especially appropriate time to alert Legal Planet readers that a major, recent conference on the ESA sponsored by the U.C. Davis School of Law's California Environmental Law & Policy Center is now available for online viewing. "The ESA at 40: Examining Its...
CONTINUE READINGThe Food Safety Paradox
As Tom McGarity documents in his recent book, Freedom to Harm, the American food safety system is in disarray. You'd think we'd all be wiped out by food poisoning. Yet, the rate of sickness caused by bad food seems to have remained constant since the mid-nineties. What's going on? McGarity and others are right about the state of the regulatory system. Food safety is divided between the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agric...
CONTINUE READINGAre Transit Strikes Bad for the Environment?
Banning public transit strikes might help the environment
Even if you’re not from the Bay Area, you’ve probably heard about the labor troubles at the Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART) – the rail system that is one of the largest public transit providers here in the Bay Area in terms of passengers. Hundreds of thousands of commuters use the BART system on a daily basis. But twice this year, those commuters had to find alternative routes to work because of strikes by the unions that operate the BART system. Those ...
CONTINUE READINGCelebrating A Half Century of Federal Environmental Law!
Later in this year, we will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the first modern environmental statutes, the Wilderness Act of 1964. NEPA followed five years later and then in quick succession came the creation of EPA, a slew of laws regulating pollution and toxics, the Endangered Species Act, and reforms of public lands laws. It's been a tumultuous half century -- think Anne Gorsuch Burford, Newt Gingrich, and Tea Party. Yet, at the end of fifty years, the maj...
CONTINUE READINGAnother opportunity for junior scholars
Call for papers for Sabin Colloquium on Innovative Environmental Law Scholarship
I'm happy to see that the opportunities for junior scholars to workshop papers are multiplying. In addition to the University of Washington workshop we recently noted, Columbia will be hosting its 2d Annual Sabin Colloquium on Innovative Environmental Law Scholarship. The Colloquium will take place May 8-9, 2014. Travel costs will be covered for all participants. A panel of distinguished scholars will select the papers. From the organizers: Eligible applicants are pre...
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