The Health Care Cases: Instant Uninformed Reaction!!
1) Wow. On the specific issue here, I'll take it. 2) Environmental lawyers will need to look at this decision very carefully. From an initial very quick parsing, it appears as if Chief Justice Roberts' opinion has cut back the scope of Commerce Clause authority and under the Necessary and Proper Clause as well as limiting the ability of the Federal Government to condition federal spending to states' action. All of these provisions very directly concern the sco...
CONTINUE READINGFinally: An Environmentally Conscious Environmental Organization
Give so much as a dime to any environmental organization, and you are on their mailing list for life. And that's just the start: you're on the mailing list of every other organization they share lists with. The mail starts to pile up fast, as does the annoyance at going through it. Notice something? All that paper undermines their claim to environmental sensitivity. Yes, I know: it's all recycled. Or Forest Stewardship Council-certified. Great. But it's still ...
CONTINUE READINGLos Angeles Climate Change Adaptation
My UCLA colleague Alex Hall has released a high quality micro-geography report highlighting within Los Angeles variation in heat wave risk in the medium term future. I salute his efforts. This type of research is exactly what I expect more climate scientists to deliver namely high quality information that is correlated with what Mother Nature will actually do in the future. Now that we are "armed" with this information, how does this new news affect the law, public ...
CONTINUE READINGDC Circuit 1, Roy Cohn 0
"I don't want to know what the law is. I want to know who the judge is." -- Roy Cohn There's one more important point about today's per curiam DC Circuit ruling that should be emphasized: the composition of the panel. Two members were Clinton appointees: Judith Rogers and David Tatel. But the third was the chief judge, David Sentelle, a Reagan appointee. And not just any Reagan appointee. Sentelle is probably the most right-wing judge on the circuit. A for...
CONTINUE READINGStanding and the EPA Greenhouse Gas Emissions Decision
As I described in my earlier post of today about the Coalition for Responsible Regulation v. EPA decision upholding the Environmental Protection Agency's greenhouse gas emissions rules, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the plaintiffs -- groups representing large industrial and manufacturing facilities and states that oppose any greenhouse gas regulations under the Clean Air Act, like Texas -- lacked standing to challenge the so-called "tailoring rule." The...
CONTINUE READINGC-Change.la and a Sea Change in Climate Change Communication
It has become increasingly clear that in order to address climate change effectively through carbon emissions reduction and adapting to new conditions, we will need new communication tools. Last week, I blogged about a new, groundbreaking climate impact study that projects the impacts of climate change on southern California's communities at unprecedentedly high resolution. What I didn't focus on there is the important work that has gone into communicating those resul...
CONTINUE READINGDC Circuit’s Unanimous Decision to Uphold Greenhouse Gas Rules Across the Board Major Victory for EPA
As Dan just noted, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit -- in a unanimous decision -- handed the U.S. EPA a sweeping victory in upholding across the board four separate components of the agency's rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The opinion can be found here. A little background is in order here. The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Massachusetts v. EPA directed the Environmental Protection Agency to decide whether greenhouse gases are pollutant...
CONTINUE READINGNEWSFLASH — Court Upholds Greenhouse Gas Rules
From E & E news: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit announced it had denied industry petitions seeking invalidation of the so-called endangerment finding, the agency's original conclusion that greenhouse gases pose a health risk and should be regulated under the Clean Air Act, and the "tailpipe" rule that set greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and light-duty trucks beginning with 2012 models. The three-judge panel outright dismis...
CONTINUE READINGSupreme Court Grants Review in Two Clean Water Act Cases From Ninth Circuit
This morning the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in two high-profile Clean Water Act cases from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The justices simultaneously denied review in a major federalism decision, also from the Ninth Circuit, involving an industry challenge to a California Air Resources Board's regulation requiring ships to use low-polluting fuels near the California coast. I previewed all three cases in a recent post here at Legal Planet. Briefly, Lo...
CONTINUE READINGPutting a Cap on the Green Paradox
The Green Paradox holds that emission control measures scheduled for the future can backfire. Foreseeing a smaller market in the future, fossil fuel sellers decide to unload more of their reserves now by cutting prices. A recent report from Resources for the Future provides more details if you're interested (though the details don't matter for the point that I'm going to make): We contribute to this literature by developing a richer theoretical model that takes accou...
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