Should we revive an extinct Galapagos tortoise?
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. The Washington Post reports today that scientists think they can resurrect the Pinta Island subspecies of Galapagos tortoise whose last remaining member, "Lonesome George" (pictured), died this summer. Scientists at Ecuador's Galapagos National Park say they have found enough Pinta Island genetic material in tortoise on another nearby island that an intensive breeding program over 100 to 150 years could regenerate the pure Pinta Island subspec...
CONTINUE READINGHeating Up the Eurozone
The EU has issued a new report about climate impacts. The picture is mixed, with some good news (warmer winters in the Northern and Eastern Europe) but bad news in other respects. The report has this to say about some disaster risks: Increases in health risks associated with river and coastal flooding are projected in many regions of Europe due to projected increases in extreme precipitation events and sea level. Length, frequency, and intensity of heat-waves are v...
CONTINUE READINGHighly Uncertain But Not in Doubt
It seems paradoxical to say that climate change is uncertain but not in doubt. At this point, we can be highly confident that greenhouse gases are disrupting the climate system and that the disruption will be very serious unless we act. But there's considerable uncertainty about the magnitude of climate change and its local impacts. A second paradox is that the uncertainty is far from comforting -- instead, it just aggravates our problems. In terms of the uncer...
CONTINUE READINGGiving Thanks to Whom? And How?
Thanksgiving is often thought of as America's unique secular holiday. That's somewhat ironic, because the very name of the day suggests an external power, force, or being to whom we give thanks. But Thanksgiving also carries with it important environmental implications, because we are also celebrating the bounty of the earth. In a recent essay, Rabbi Natan Margalit of Organic Torah unifies the two, from within the Jewish tradition. He notes that originally God gav...
CONTINUE READINGWarren B. Rudman, 1930-2012
Former New Hampshire Senator Warren Rudman, who served from 1981 to 1993, has died at the age of 82. Lawyers and law professors throughout the country should mourn, although they probably will not. Hundreds if not thousands of men (and women) have served in the United States Congress since the creation of the Republic, and the vast majority have now gone on to (probably well-deserved) obscurity. Rudman should not be one of them, because he was an enormously ef...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia electricity consumers may receive cap-and-trade dividend
As I mentioned on Monday, the 23.1 million greenhouse gas (GHG) allowances (current-vintage) sold at the cap-and-trade auction on Monday were all consigned to auction by utility companies. The $233 million generated by that sale must now be used by those utilities to the benefit of ratepayers. Last Friday, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued its draft ruling on how to use that revenue. (See the press release and the ruling.) According to Clima...
CONTINUE READINGEcology Law Quarterly’s 2012 Annual Review issue is out
ELQ has just published its Annual Review of Natural Resources and Environmental Law. Check out these articles: Alexander J. Bandza, Epidemiological-Study Reanalyses and Daubert: A Modest Proposal to Level the Playing Field in Toxic Tort Litigation Gabrielle Cuskelly, Factors to Consider in Applying a Presumption Against Preemption to State Environmental Regulations Catherine Groves, To Promote Compliance with the Clean Water Act, the EPA Should Pursue a National Enfor...
CONTINUE READINGMore on BP’s guilty plea: it’s not just about the money
Cross-posted on CPRBlog. As already noted by Rick and Megan, last week BP pleaded guilty to 14 criminal counts arising from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. Megan provided a good basic overview of the terms of the agreement. Here is the plea agreement itself. The amount of money BP has agreed to pay, in criminal fines and additional payments, has been the focus of most of the news coverage so far. The terms of BP's probation have gotten less att...
CONTINUE READINGSuperfund and climate change
Over the last several years, it's become fashionable in some circles to suggest that environmental law today reduces to climate change law. I've resisted that framing because I think it's important to remember that "conventional" environmental problems still exist, still matter, and must be addressed by strategies beyond climate mitigation or adaptation. But the fact that climate change isn't the entire universe doesn't mean it isn't relevant to an awful lot of environme...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia raises almost $300 million in its first cap-and-trade auction
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) released the results from its first auction of greenhouse gas (GHG) allowances today. It sold all of the approximately 23 million current allowances (2013 vintage) at $10.09. It sold 14% of the approximately 39.5 million advance allowances (2015 vintage) at $10.00. As I discussed last week, the unsold advance allowances will be held by CARB and offered for sale in either late 2014 or 2015 when that vintage becomes "current."...
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