George Will and Conservative Climate Denial
The three types of conservatism all tend to reject climate science, but for different reasons.
A couple of weeks ago, George Will told the Fox News audience that humans have nothing to do with climate change -- it's just natural fluctuations. Will himself has changed his brand of conservatism in the past few years, as the New Republic has noted. At this point, he has sampled two of the three varieties of conservatism. True believers of all three varieties find climate denial congenial, but for somewhat different reasons. They also tend to differ in their g...
CONTINUE READINGHow Responsible Are Americans for China’s Pollution Problem?
An online conversation from several perspectives
Yesterday, I participated in an online conversation at Chinafile.com on the question of "How Responsible Are Americans For China's Pollution Problem?" I post the lead comment by David Vance Wagner of the International Council on Clean Transportation along with my response. Elizabeth Economy from the Council on Foreign Relations and Isabel Hilton of Chinadialogue.net (among other things) also wrote responses, which can be viewed here. David Vance Wagner: Chin...
CONTINUE READINGUtility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA: Another Take on the SCOTUS Oral Argument
Decision favoring EPA seems likely
The venerable pastime of U.S. Supreme Court-watching always involves divergent opinions that, as Rick Frank noted, all should be taken with a grain (or even a pound) of salt. The outcome of Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA is decidedly uncertain, but I left the oral argument yesterday more optimistic than my Legal Planet colleague. (For those who are new to the discussion, note that we have described UARG v. EPA on this blog here, here, here, and here.) Below, I ...
CONTINUE READINGDeconstructing Today’s U.S. Supreme Court Arguments in Utility Air Regulatory Group
The EPA Could Well Lose This Challenge to Its Greenhouse Gas Reduction Efforts
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in the most important environmental law case of the current Term: Utility Air Regulatory Group v. Environmental Protection Agency. Based on those arguments--and, more importantly, the justices' questions and comments--it appears that EPA's efforts to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from stationary sources under the Clean Air Act's Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program are in serious trouble. It'...
CONTINUE READINGRailtown — A Different LA Story
Railtown tells the story of how rail transit came to
Ethan Elkind's new book, Railtown, tells the story of LA's rail system. It's a fascinating account of LA's move away from an almost religious attachment to the automobile. The LA story has some important implications for other cities. It took several decades to get the current rail system built. There were many detours and delays along the way. Mass transit in LA has to confront not only a sprawling geography but a sprawling political situation, which meant that...
CONTINUE READINGPreviewing Next Week’s Climate Change Arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court
Big Stakes and Big Players in This Year's Biggest Environmental Case
On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the biggest environmental law case of its current Term, Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA. Legal Planet colleagues Ann Carlson and Dan Farber have already posted their thoughts on the case. Let me add mine. Utility Air Regulatory Group involves EPA's authority to regulate stationary sources of greenhouse gas emissions (factories,refineries and the like) under the federal Clean Air Act. A broad coalition...
CONTINUE READINGWould Californians be Better Off with a Fuel Tax instead of Cap-and-Trade?
Steinberg's surprising proposal for California climate regulation
Climate regulation drama! Sen. Darrell Steinberg is floating a proposal that would change California law to take transportation fuels out of the cap-and-trade program, and to enact a new fuels tax instead. As background, distributors of those fuels are slated to join the cap-and-trade program in 2015, meaning they would need allowances to cover their greenhouse gas emissions starting in January of that year, through 2020. I have no idea what the politics of the pr...
CONTINUE READINGWhat Are the Possible Outcomes in U.S. Supreme Court Greenhouse Gas Case?
Court likely to rule in favor of EPA
Next Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Utility Air Regulatory Group (UTAG) v. EPA. I've previously described what is at stake in the case here and here and, in the interest of full disclosure, helped author a brief in support of EPA's position. The oral arguments might begin to reveal how the Court will rule on the case. My prediction, without the benefit of the oral argument, is that the Court will uphold EPA's regulations, which interpr...
CONTINUE READINGPeering Behind OIRA’s Veil of Secrecy
OIRA is staffed by under-trained, over-worked short-termers.
OIRA is an agency whose functions are as mysterious to most people as its name. It doesn't help much to learn that OIRA stands for Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. The phrase "regulatory czars" is more informative. OIRA runs the federal government's regulatory process. Although agencies like EPA are required to have a lot of transparency, not much public information is available about who works at OIRA or what they do. But Greenwire has managed t...
CONTINUE READINGPlain Language, Climate Change, and the Supreme Court
The language of the statute relating to next week's argument is clear -- but there's a fly in the ointment.
The Supreme Court will be hearing argument next week in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA. It's basically a very simple statutory interpretation case, except for two things. First, it's about climate change, and nothing about climate change ever seems to be simple and straightforward. Second, although the language of the statute, prior Supreme Court precedent, and decades of administrative practice support EPA's position, there's a very awkward side-effect that ...
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