The NY Times Publishes a Strange Anti-Geoengineering Op-ED
I encourage this blog's readers to skim Clive Hamilton's piece on Geoengineering which was published in the NY Times today in its Opinion section. His piece is so strange that it is worth a carefully read. Here I provide some direct quotes; "We can imagine a situation 30 years hence in which the Chinese Communist Party’s grip on power is threatened by chaotic protests ignited by a devastating drought and famine. If the alternative to losing power were attempting ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Emergence of Food Law
As with most holidays, Memorial Day is associated with a traditional food component -- in this case, picnics. So this seems like a good occasion to talk about the emerging legal field of food law. According to the Food and Drug Law Institute, about sixty law schools have courses on Food and Drug Law, a traditional course focusing on the FDA. But a new type of course has emerged in recent years, focusing on food law more broadly conceived. It’s not hard to find e...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Legislature Suspends Oil Severance Tax: Wimp-out or Long Game?
Perhaps the most obvious fiscal reform for California lies in an oil severance tax, which charges producers per barrel coming out of the ground. California is the only major oil-producing state without such a tax (the miniscule fee to fund the Department of Oil, Geothermal, and Geophysical Resources doesn't count), and because of the international market for petroleum, it will not cause prices to increase at the pump. The failure to enact such a tax represents hundre...
CONTINUE READINGTime May Run Out on Obama’s Most Powerful Climate Change Tool, Environmental Groups Threaten Suit
President Obama has a surprising amount of power to reduce greenhouse gases from the two largest categories of emitters, the transportation and electricity sectors, without getting Congress to act. He has already used that power to dramatically tighten fuel economy standards for passenger autos. But his ability to reduce emissions from the electricity sector -- most importantly from existing power plants -- appears to be on a slow track. His Environmental Protect...
CONTINUE READINGIs TSCA Reform on the Way?
The Toxic Substances Control Act or TSCA (sometimes pronounced "Tosca," like the opera) is one of the worst-written statutes of all time. It seems as if every section contains a cross-reference to another section, which in turn requires recourse to yet another sentence to be understood, making the statute completely opaque. A last-minute compromise, the statute calls equally for safety and for protection of the chemical industry. Not surprisingly, it's been a compl...
CONTINUE READINGFood safety in China, or is that rat meat in my lamb?
I posted a short piece at Chinafile.org last week on China's food safety challenges. The occasion for the post was the arrest of 63 people in China for selling fake lamb meat made of rat, fox, and other meats. The "conversation" includes comments/responses from Isabel Hilton (ChinaDialogue.net), John Balzano (BU Law), Alexa Oleson (formerly of AP), and Jeremy Goldkorn (Danwei.org). I've included my post in full below, but take a look at the Chinafile page for the ...
CONTINUE READINGNorris C. Hundley, Jr., 1935-2013
Environmental scholarship has lost a real giant: Norris Cecil Hundley Jr., a former resident of Pacific Palisades, passed away peacefully on April 28. He was 77. Born to Norris and Helen Hundley on October 26, 1935 in Houston, Texas, Norris is survived by six younger siblings... Norris graduated from Whittier College in 1958. After receiving his Ph.D. in history from UCLA, he taught at the University of Houston for a year before returning to UCLA in 1964. He was a pr...
CONTINUE READINGThe Right-Wing Noose Tightens on Recess Appointments
Republican judges are continuing to do their best to hamstring the Obama Administration: six days ago, the Third Circuit joined the DC Circuit in restricting recess appointments to intersession recesses. Intrasession recesses, which, as the Court noted, were made routine under Ronald Reagan and used nearly 150 times by George W. Bush, are now unavailable. (The name of the case is NLRB v. New Vista Nursing & Rehabilitation). Although it's always hazardous to mak...
CONTINUE READINGMaybe a Super EIS for Climate Policy?
Following closely on the heels of Ann's argument concerning the flaws of the Keystone XL DEIS came a NYT story from John Broder with an interesting suggestion: if the administration approves the pipeline, then it should do something else in order to advance the battle against climate change: [C]ould some kind of deal be in the offing — a major climate policy announcement on, for example, power plant regulation or renewable energy incentives — to ease the sting of t...
CONTINUE READINGNew York Nasty versus Los Angeles Nice?
Tomorrow, Los Angeles voters go to the polls to elect a new Mayor. (At least a few of them, anyway: current estimates predict only 25% turnout, about which more later). In September, New Yorkers will do the same. And depending upon the way things turn out, political and cultural reporters could have a field day.If Christine Quinn and Wendy Greuel win in their respective cities, we will have female mayors of both cities for the first time. And the press will have ...
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