Sometimes People Really ARE Out to Get You
The Guardian has a rather startling story about organized efforts to stamp out wind and solar energy. (I suppose the fact that I find it startling is an indication of my naiveté.) Not too surprisingly, the Koch oil interests are a major funding sources. The Guardian lists some of the efforts to eliminate clean energy, which seem to be at least loosely coordinated: A new $6m election ad buy by the ultra-conservative group Americans for Prosperity attacking Barack...
CONTINUE READINGMay 17th Sacramento Lunch on California Infill Policies, Featuring State Sen. pro Tem Darrell Steinberg
For those planning to be in the Sacramento area next Thursday, May 17th, please join us for a lunch event on California's land use policies, featuring a keynote address by State Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg. Here are the details: The Future of Infill: How CEQA Reform and the End of Redevelopment Will Affect Sustainable Development in California What is the future of infill development in California in a time of limited public resources? Speakers will di...
CONTINUE READINGCarbon as Commodity and Currency
As a number of writers have suggested, it's intriguing to think about the ways in which carbon functions like money to an increasing extent as a medium of exchange, and a measure and storehouse of value. Thus, alongside (and intertwined with) the existing money-based economy, we can envision the emergence of a carbon-based system of activity and exchange. Here are some examples. In a cap-and-trade system, people trade the right to emit carbon. Carbon can also be cash...
CONTINUE READING40 years hasn’t taught some agencies much
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. You would think that by now federal agencies would have the NEPA process pretty well down. After all, it's been the law since 1970, requiring that every federal agency prepare an environmental impact statement before committing itself to environmentally harmful actions. And it's not that hard to do. Agencies just have to describe the action, alternatives to it, and their effects on the environment relative to not taking the action. Pretty stra...
CONTINUE READINGMurderers, Tyrants, Global Warming and the Heartland Institute
The image to the left is not a joke. It's instead part of a just-cancelled Heartland Institute campaign -- cancelled after howls of protests, including from a climate skeptic who refused to participate in a Heartland event if it went forward. The Unabomber billboard showed up on the Eisenhower Expressway in Chicago (home of the Institute) this week. Other billboards were to appear around the city with photos of notorious figures like Charles Manson, Osama bin Laden...
CONTINUE READINGSome good (and bad) news on air pollution
The American Lung Association has issued its State of the Air 2012 report. The news is mostly good. Since 1990, aggregate emissions of common air pollutants in the US have fallen 60%, even as the economy, population, and vehicle miles traveled have increased. Short term, the vast majority of the nation's most polluted cities enjoyed better air quality in 2011 than in 2010. There is also some bad news, however. More than 40% of Americans -- 125 million people -- live in a...
CONTINUE READINGWhen green isn’t greener — Part 2
In a recent commentary, I suggested that the Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s new Green Option, pursuant to which consumers can subscribe to 100% renewable electricity, would not result in reduced greenhouse gas emissions. That is because under California’s cap and trade program, the utility can sell any unneeded carbon allowance for someone else to use. One way or another, a certain amount of carbon is likely to be emitted. A reader, who goes by the moniker of ...
CONTINUE READINGNext American City
...might sound like a new reality show, but NAC is one of the best serious but non-academic urban policy and planning journals around. It has recently relaunched, replacing the print edition with what might be called Next American Journalism Model: they are supplementing the daily online content with one very in-depth feature per week, which you can buy for $2, or you get all 50 per year for $18. Are people ready to pay for their internet content after print newsp...
CONTINUE READINGHard and Easy Environmental Questions: A Talk With Ikal Angelei
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IOw9tsS-aI] Ikal Angelei is one of the world's pre-eminent environmental justice activists: she is the founder of Friends of Lake Turkana, which (as the name suggests) seeks to preserve Lake Turkana from the massive Gibe III Dam planned by the Ethiopian government and World Bank. As the name does not suggest, the issue is about human beings as much as about ecosystems: the indigenous peoples of the Lake Turkana region rely on ...
CONTINUE READINGUniversity of Michigan’s Ted Parson to Join UCLA Law Faculty
UCLA Law is thrilled to announce that Ted Parson, -- currently Joseph L. Sax Collegiate Professor of Law and Professor of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan -- will join its faculty effective July 1. Parson is one of the world's leading experts on international environmental law and policy and the author of two significant books on the topic, The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change and Protecting the Ozone Layer: Science and...
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