The Fairness of Using the Gas Tax to Support Transit
A lot of people are out driving on this Labor Day weekend, which means buying gas and paying the gas tax that's included in the price. As it happens, last week, the GOP adopted a platform condemning the use of the highway fund to support transit. The platform seems to reflect conservative fairness concerns, like the complaint that "the portion of gas taxes that funds mass transit is an immoral tax" because it is "wrong for mass transit riders to take the money of ...
CONTINUE READINGPosner versus Scalia Smackdown!
Environmental law revolves around statutes, so the topic of statutory interpretation is crucial for lawyers in the field. For the past thirty years, Justice Scalia has promoted an approach called textualism, which purports to provide an objective method of interpreting laws. This approach often, though not always, leads to narrower reader of statutes than broader approaches that recognize Congress's intent to protect the environment. Judge Richard Posner has published...
CONTINUE READINGWhat’s better than Yosemite? (Hint: add lawyers)
Say what you want about environmental lawyers: We know how to pick a conference locale. Each fall, the Environmental Law Section of the California state bar holds its annual conference just outside the gates of Yosemite National Park. Specialists in environmental, land use, and natural resources law from all segments of the bar gather to talk regulation among the redwoods. This year's conference runs from Oct. 25-28, with keynote addresses from Matt Rodriquez, Ca...
CONTINUE READINGEconomists for AB32
A few days ago I joined a set of well known academic economists and signed this letter to Governor Brown. The NRDC has a nice post about the issues available here. Everyone who knows me, knows that I'm a proud University of Chicago Ph.D. economist and that my support for free markets and individual freedom often places me to the right of my University of California colleagues. So, why do I support AB32? Isn't it a step towards "green communism"? Wouldn't it make ...
CONTINUE READINGThe GOP Platform & the Environment
With some effort, I was able to find full text of the platform. Not surprisingly, the basic thrust is to relax limits on industry. The energy provisions correspond to Romney's recent proclamations -- more drilling in more places, less regulation of coal, etc. On the environment, the basic message is that current regulations are too strict, and that we shouldn't expect any new regulations anytime soon. A few interesting environmental points that are worth flagging: ...
CONTINUE READINGPutting a NEON Light on Ecosystems
New sensor technology and IT may transform our understanding of ecosystems. Big Science is coming to ecology, which was once the domain of individual naturalists. The Economist reports on NEON, the National Ecological Observatory Network: Ground has already been broken at three sites—in Colorado, Florida and Massachusetts. Eventually, 60 places across the country will be covered simultaneously. Once this network is completed, in 2016 if all goes well, 15,000 sens...
CONTINUE READINGRomney Endorses Keynesian Stimulus Spending — But Calls It an Energy Plan
I posted last week about the Romney energy plan and the super-optimistic projections of energy production it borrows from a Citigroup report. (here and here). The Romney plan touts enormous economic benefits in terms of job creation, also derived from the same Citigroup report. Of course, Romney doesn't mention the report's warning that its analysis required "sweeping assumptions" and that the beneficial effects would probably only last five years. (p. 86) But puttin...
CONTINUE READINGGive states control over energy leasing on federal lands?
Another element of the Romney energy plan that was announced this week is a proposal to turn over to the states the process of leasing of federal lands for oil and gas development. The Romney campaign argues that this will result in quicker and cheaper leasing development than under current federal management. This seems to me like a very problematic idea for a number of reasons, but I want to focus on just one here. The Romney proposal effectively creates a new di...
CONTINUE READINGWhen Paid Consultants Attack
In today's Sacramento Bee, Andrew Chang has some tough things to say about California's AB32 and about Bo Cutter and myself. He omits some details that are worth mentioning. First, some background. Last week, Bo Cutter and I published this OP-Ed in the Sac Bee. Chang's response was published today. Point #1: We were not paid to write our OP-ED and we collect no payments at all from the Air Resources Board. I do serve on its Research Screening Committee a...
CONTINUE READINGWaste Not, Want Not
In trying to catch up on my reading, I discovered that the August 10 issue of the journal Science has a special section on "working with waste." The theme is the ability of waste to contribute to society as a form of energy or raw materials: [T]rash is often treasure— a feedstock that cannot be overlooked as an expanding world population tries to use resources more efficiently and reduce the strain that our consumption places on natural systems. Those heaps of crop lef...
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