Charter Cities Offer Climate Change Adaptation Benefits
Brandon Fuller and I have published a short piece arguing that another benefit of charter cities is to increase the set of coping strategies for people who live in less developed countries and face new climate shocks due to global warming. Starting with my 2010 book Climatopolis, I have consistently argued that global greenhouse gas emissions will continue to rise and thus we have to prepare to adapt to climate change. While many people hope and believe that wise gove...
CONTINUE READINGHeat Waves, Droughts, and the Energy System
According to the IPCC, it “is very likely that hot extremes, heat waves, and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent.” For instance, by midcentury, the number of heat wave days in Los Angeles is expected to at least double over the late twentieth century, and quadrupling is expected by the end of the century. This doesn't mean that the average temperature will increase dramatically, but the number of extreme events will go up sharply. Th...
CONTINUE READINGClimate “skepticism,” ideology, and sincerity
There's an interesting discussion about a whole lot of things -- for example, the sincerity of climate scientists and think tanks, the behavior of scientists, the relative funding of "skeptics" and climate scientists and others who believe climate change is happening and is caused by human activity -- between my colleague Ann Carlson and Professor Jonathan Adler in the comments on Ann's recent post Peter Gleick and the Heartland Institute Expose. I have some thoughts, i...
CONTINUE READINGObama’s Dormant Carbon Tax
In many respects, public subsidies for clean technology research and development, public investment in urban redevelopment, and elaborate cap-and-trade programs are all essentially clunky political substitutes for a carbon tax. If we priced carbon accurately to reflect its true cost to society, in terms of public and environmental health impacts (aka "externalities"), much of this public investment could instead come from private sources. Investors would fund mor...
CONTINUE READINGBP Reaches Partial Settlement in Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Litigation
Late Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Carl Barbier announced a legal settlement between British Petroleum and thousands of individuals and businesses that had sued BP for damages arising out of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. According to a New York Times report, BP has agreed to pay $7.8 billion to settle the legal claims filed by the private plaintiffs against the company. Trial of the case, which was scheduled to begin in New Orleans o...
CONTINUE READINGCourt to Feds: “Pay Up for Katrina Damage”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has upheld a district court ruling that the federal government is liable for damage from the Katrina storm surge that went up the MRGO canal into the city. As I read the opinion, it is limited in three ways. First, it is crucial that MRGO -- the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet -- was a navigation project, not a flood control project. The government is immune from flooding caused by a flood control project. Second, the...
CONTINUE READINGPeter Gleick and the Heartland Institute Expose
Jonathan focused last week, appropriately in my view, on the ethics of the way in which Peter Gleick got documents from the climate-denying Heartland Institute. His conclusion is that as a scientist Gleick's deceptions to get the documents were unethical. A new column in The Guardian comes out in the opposite place, arguing that Gleick may have been justified in attempting to expose the denialists given the importance of the issue. But I have a different question t...
CONTINUE READINGStopping High Speed Sprawl
California Governor Jerry Brown has doubled down on his support for the state's proposed high speed rail system, despite the uncertainty about how to pay for it and growing public opposition. But who can blame him? If the rail system does get built, it will be the defining infrastructure project in the state for generations to come -- a major legacy for any political leader. Transportation experts can complain all they want about the high costs and cheaper altern...
CONTINUE READINGExploring Policies to Promote Local Renewables
Last July, California Governor Jerry Brown held a conference, hosted by the Luskin Center at UCLA, to launch his initiative to achieve 12,000 megawatts of local renewable energy projects in California by 2020. Local renewables, often called distributed generation, are projects no larger than 20 megawatts located close to customer demand. Berkeley Law's Center for Law, Energy & the Environment helped to put on the conference and has now released for comment a draf...
CONTINUE READINGThe Delta 101: Of Levees, Canals & Whiskey
Nearly four out of five Californians do not know what the Delta is, according to a January 2012 poll. That's 78 percent of the population. And 86 percent of southern Californians have never heard of it. Yet, 25 million people and 3 million acres of farmland rely on the Delta for at least a portion of their water. The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is a vital link in the State's water system at the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. I would ...
CONTINUE READING