The ESA and the Commerce Clause
The federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) is widely known for being the primary law in the United States that focuses on protecting biodiversity, and also for being a “pit bull” of environmental laws that has few exceptions and broad sweep. (For instance, the ESA was a major component of the litigation strategy by environmental groups to end harvesting of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest.) But what is less widely known is that there have been a series of...
CONTINUE READINGReaching Across the Aisle?
The safest prediction is that our Democratic President and Republican Congress will not in fact be able to work together. Their present gestures toward cooperation may mean nothing more than a willingness to accept the other side's surrender. But hope springs eternal. Are there areas where common ground exists? That seems nearly impossible on some issues like climate change. But there may be others where, at least in principle, common ground might conceivably b...
CONTINUE READINGU.S.-China Climate Pact and Domestic Politics
Alex Wang and I Consider the Domestic Ramifications in Both the U.S. and China
The news from Beijing this week that the U.S. and China are committing to ambitious goals on climate change is, we think, monumental. No two countries are more important to tackling the problem than the largest carbon emitter over the past two centuries, the U.S., and the largest current emitter, China. While many observers are focusing on the ramifications of the announcement for upcoming international negotiations, we believe that the announcement also has potentia...
CONTINUE READINGSome Unsolicited Advice for Tom Steyer
There were a number of efforts by wealthy individuals and/or Super PACs to affect the midterm election results. Most relevant to this blog, Tom Steyer used tens of millions of his own funds to support candidates that he felt would be more supportive of efforts to address climate change. After the election, the media portrayed Steyer’s efforts as a waste of money: Only a small minority of the candidates Steyer supported were elected, and his efforts to get “climate...
CONTINUE READINGA Ray of Hope [Breaking News]
President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a major deal on climate change this morning. As summarized by the Washington Post, China, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, pledged in the far-reaching agreement to cap its rapidly growing carbon emissions by 2030, or earlier if possible. It also set a daunting goal of increasing the share of non-fossil fuels to 20 percent of the country’s energy mix by 2030. Obama announced a target t...
CONTINUE READING“You’re Just Not My Type (of error)”
Most people find statistics off-putting -- who wants to look at a bunch of numbers? And Statistics courses, which are required for students in many majors, are usually viewed as a painful box to check. But when you put aside the numbers and the technicalities, statisticians also have some simple yet powerful concepts. One of them is the distinction between Type 1 and Type 2 errors. I guess you can tell from the less-than-gripping labels why many students don't f...
CONTINUE READINGUsing Textualism Against Itself
Industry has come up with a Scalia-like argument to fight the proposed climate regulations for existing power plants. The problem arises because Congress passed two different versions of section 111(d) without realizing it. The Senate version clearly gives EPA the authority to regulate CO2 under this provision. But opponents of regulation argue that the House version is controlling and that its language doesn't allow EPA to regulate. The reason, they say, is t...
CONTINUE READINGTime to Vote! (A Gentle Reminder from the Friendly Folks at Legal Planet)
If there's one thing that everyone connected with this site agree on -- even our resident climate denial troll -- it's that environment and energy issues are important. If you're on one side, public health, nature, and the very future of the planet are at stake. If you're on the other side, it's crushing economic burdens by power-mad bureaucrats that need to be blocked. Either way, the stakes are high. And there are a lot of close elections out there, where extra...
CONTINUE READINGThe Future of Conservation
Earlier this year I wrote critically about a New York Times op-ed that proposed making the restrictions on development in wilderness areas more flexible in order to allow for adaptation to climate change. This week the Times published what I think is a much more helpful op-ed on the topic of how we should address the challenges of climate change’s impacts on the protection, preservation, and conservation of protected areas and endangered species and ecosystems. The ...
CONTINUE READINGFive Governor Races to Watch
The Senate races are getting a lot of attention this year. But what happens in statehouses also matters. Most directly, it matters for the folks who live there. But governorships are often proving grounds for politicians who later emerge on the national scene. Today, I’ll focus on a handful of races that look like they could go either way: Connecticut, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, and Kansas. What are the environmental stakes in these races? As usual, to avoid the risk ...
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
