Literally Trashing the Environment
No, not another rap on Joe Biden. The world literally wastes an awful lot of food, notes the International Herald Tribune: Between 1.2 billion and 2 billion tons of the 4 billion tons of food produced around the world every year never gets eaten, according to a new survey by a group of British engineers. That means that up to half of all food produced for human consumption is thrown away. It's obvious that this waste has environmental consequences, because energy is b...
CONTINUE READINGThe Precarious Legality of Cost-Benefit Analysis
Cost-benefit analysis has become a ubiquitous part of regulation, enforced by the Office of Management and Budget. A weak cost-benefit analysis means that the regulation gets kicked back to the agency. Yet there is no statute that provides for this; it's entirely a matter of Presidential dictate. And reliance on cost-benefit analysis often flies in the face of specific directions from Congress about how to write regulations. There are a few exceptions, such as regu...
CONTINUE READINGCellulosic Biofuel mandate for 2013
I mentioned the other day that the D.C. Circuit struck EPA's cellulosic biofuel mandate for 2012. Today, the New York Times reported on EPA's 2013 quota. EPA has proposed to raise the mandate to 14 million (ethanol-equivalent) gallons for 2013. EPA explicitly stated that it believes its 2013 proposal "is consistent with" the D.C. Circuit ruling. As I discussed previously, all the D.C. Circuit actually required of EPA was to not inflate its estimate based on policy r...
CONTINUE READINGIf the Constitution is Dead, where does that leave Takings?
Justice Scalia is getting a lot of attention for his comment that the Constitution is "dead, dead, dead", but obviously he didn't mean that the Constitution is no longer in effect. (See? Intent theory sometimes is helpful, Nino.). Rather, he meant that the Constitution does not have a meaning that changes over time. It has one meaning -- its original one -- and that's it. So for people who follow Scalia's "thought", or for those us who can't escape them becau...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia’s AB32 as a Field Experiment
In modern academic economics, many scholars are running field experiments. I can point you to researchers such as John List of University of Chicago or Esther Duflo of MIT. In this 8 minute video, I sketch the simple economics of why it is very important for someone to run this field experiment for learning how to cost effectively lower our GHG emissions. We are the "green guinea pig"....
CONTINUE READINGUniversity of Washington Young Environmental Law Scholars Workshop
The University of Washington Law School has issued a call for papers for its 2nd Annual UW Young Environmental Law Scholars Workshop. The workshop will be held July 10-12, 2013, on the UW campus in Seattle. Here's their description of the event: This collegial two-day workshop features discussion of works-in-progress by ten early career environmental law scholars: professors with two or fewer years of tenure, pre-tenure professors, visiting assistant professors, or lega...
CONTINUE READING5 Things You Need to Know About Africa
Africa is going to be an increasingly important area in the future, if only because a higher percentage of the human race will be living there. Here are some key things you should know about sub-Saharan Africa: Population growth. The African population will reach 1.2 billion by 2025, and 1.9 billion by 2050. Currently, 40% of the population is under 14, which guarantees high population growth as these children grow up and have children of their own. Water. Onl...
CONTINUE READINGStephen Colbert is a National Treasure
Like Tom Tomorrow. Click here for his must watch clip from Monday's show. http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/423268/january-28-2013/the-word---the-new-abnormal Colbert nails conservative views on climate change. First, deny. Second, when the facts belie denial, accept but refuse to acknowledge human contributions. Finally, throw up your hands and say that even if it's human-caused we can't do anything about it anyway. Colbert may be ...
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Law and Policy Events for Couch Potatoes
UC Berkeley and UCLA School of Law's joint Climate Change and Business Research Initiative has produced a number of public events featuring experts on pressing environmental law and policy issues. We now have on-line video recordings of many of them, for those of you who prefer not to leave the comfort of your home or office. They include the following events: Daylong conference on "Saving Public Transit," featuring a keynote by Los Angeles Metro CEO Art Leahy and ...
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