Noisy Cities and the 1%
The NY Times has published a great piece about noise pollution dynamics in New York City. Noise is a classic urban externality as it is a byproduct of productive activity such as airplanes landing, flying a helicopter to the Hamptons, or erecting a new building, or a subway arriving, or a motorist honking her horn or a biker accelerating his "hog" or a HVAC system working extra hard on a summer day. Nobody (perhaps excluding the biker) enjoys creating this noise b...
CONTINUE READINGThe House GOP Takes a Courageous Stand Against Food Safety
It takes guts to oppose food safety. But that's no problem for the House GOP. According to the NY TImes, today's House farm bill wasn't content to eliminate food stamps, it also took aim at food safety: One overlooked provision in the bill came from Representative Dan Benishek, Republican of Michigan, a surgeon, and would require additional economic and scientific analyses before a 2010 law to improve the food safety system goes into effect. A spokesman for Mr. Benis...
CONTINUE READINGSierra Club Entitled to County’s GIS Database Under California Public Records Act, Says California Supreme Court
Back in the day, when I toiled in the California Attorney General's Office, I served a stint supervising the unit of that Office that oversees litigation involving California's "little Freedom-of-Information Act," officially known as the California Public Records Act (PRA). My standing advice to my attorney colleagues was never to allow a case to reach the appellate courts in which we were defending government's denial of public disclosure requests under the PRA. Why? ...
CONTINUE READINGClimatopolis Revisited
Back in 2010, I published my book Climatopolis. This book presents a free markets approach for thinking about how we will adapt to the very real threat of climate change. I argue that urbanization, innovation, migration, competition and economic growth will play crucial roles in protecting us from a scary emerging challenge. I discuss cases when government policy will aid adaptation and other cases when it will unintentionally impede adaptation. I sketch a re...
CONTINUE READINGPlace Based Subsidies are the Wrong Way to Adapt to Climate Change
The NY Times wrestles with whether tax payers should be paying for the protection of coastal Queens, NY. I agree with Mr. Goldstein; Eric A. Goldstein, a senior lawyer at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, said he was sympathetic to Broad Channel and understood why residents have been lobbying hard for aid. “The problem is, they have picked a spectacularly beautiful but increasingly impractical and dangerous place to live,” ...
CONTINUE READINGSore Winners
The government has filed a cert. petition in an environmental case (EPA v. Friends of the Everglades) with a really interesting procedural wrinkle. There's more background about the case after the jump, but you don't really need the details to understand the main issue. Here's what you do need to know: 1. After EPA issued its regulation, various parties filed petitions for review in the court of appeals asking to have the regulation struck down. 2. The parties wh...
CONTINUE READINGBombs Bursting in Air: Environmental Regulation of Fireworks
It seems only fitting as we approach the Fourth of July holiday to turn our attention to the environmental impacts and regulation of fireworks. As it turns out, our age-old patriotic tradition of exploding packages of toxic chemicals in the air is not without its environmental drawbacks. Although much is still unknown about the environmental consequences of fireworks displays, it is clear that fireworks can adversely impact water quality, air quality, biological re...
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Haiku for Summer
Just for amusement: Environmental haiku On a summer day. ____________ Across the hilltops, Slowly wheeling their white blades, Stand lines of windmills. ____________ A nap in the shade, Dreaming that new studies make Fox News fall silent. ____________ “Global climate change” – A long and abstract title For a world in pain. ____________ A beautiful day, But don’t spend your time outside: High ozone levels!...
CONTINUE READINGEPA Sends Climate Rules for New Power Plants to OMB
Though I was somewhat skeptical that the Obama climate plan unfurled last week included much new, I've also argued previously that if the administration uses its extensive power under the Clean Air Act to regulate both new and existing power plants, the President will really have accomplished something on the climate change front. It looks like EPA is moving quickly to put the President's commitment into action. EPA has apparently sent revised rules for new power pla...
CONTINUE READINGThe Bogus Trade-Off Between the Environment and Jobs
Paul Krugman has a NY Times column arguing, from a Keynesian point of view, that Obama's climate change program won't cost jobs. One of my posts a couple of years ago suggested the same idea: in a slack economy, regulatory requirements are a form of stimulus that can actually create jobs because industry has to spend money to comply. That seems very plausible, if you're a Keynesian and think the cause of our current problems is a shortfall in public and private sp...
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