Lightbulb Wars : The Saga Continues
Republicans win a largely symbolic victory for an obsolete technology.
Among the sleeper provisions of the new budget deal is a ban on enforcing federal lightbulb standards. This is a great example of symbolic politics -- it makes Tea Party Republicans happy, has limited practical effect, and makes little policy sense. Or to put it another way, the enforcement ban is a dumb thing to do in practical terms. The policy wonk in me quails,. But at the same time it's good to know that conservatives didn't have enough leverage for something...
CONTINUE READINGWhat Martin Luther King DIDN’T Say
Issues like the environment and animal rights weren't on his radar screen.
Since tomorrow is Martin Luther King day, I was curious about whether Dr. King had ever said anything about the environment. When I did a google search, this quotation popped up over and over again: “Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.” But this seems to be a textbook case of how the I...
CONTINUE READINGNewsflash: Not All Climate Stories are Dismal, Scientists Actually Try to Discover the Truth
Methane Leaks Not Caused by Human-induced Climate Change,
NPR aired a story this week about what scientists thought, in 2008, were ominous signs of a warming ocean. Churning bubbles of methane -- a very potent greenhouse gas -- were pouring out of the ocean floor in Arctic Norway. Scientists theorized that as the globe and the oceans warmed, the methane trapped in the ocean floor was leaking out and could, potentially, accelerate global warming. Climate change deniers frequently accuse scientists and the United Nations...
CONTINUE READINGAn 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 Franklin’s comment, originally made in reference to home fire safety, is characteristically timeless.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...
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