Fracking, Methane, and Moving Toward Better Data Through Collaboration
Is using natural gas produced through fracking better for the environment than using coal? The answer is an unqualified maybe . That's because we don't have good enough data to know definitively. But a new collaboration between academics, the fracking industry and environmentalists aims to fill the data gap. First, some background. The boom in fracking -- actually, hydraulic fracturing (injecting liquid into shale rock to release natural gas stored deep und...
CONTINUE READINGConference on Saving Public Transit, Friday November 2nd at UCLA Law (Simulcast Available)
Please join us on Friday, November 2nd, for a free (with registration) conference on strategies to save public transit during a time of shrinking budgets. The conference will feature experts on transit finance, real estate development around transit, and new technologies that may revolutionize transit in the coming years. Art Leahy, Chief Executive Officer of the Los Angeles Metro, will keynote. The event will be held at UCLA Law, with simulcast available, and is co-...
CONTINUE READINGRomney versus Truth, Future Generations – And His Own Past
My post earlier this morning about Romney's embrace of anti-environmentalism was more timely than I knew. According to Climate Wire, he told farmers yesterday: "And then there's pushing cap and trade, I understand if they push cap and trade it will not only massively impact the income of farms, it will take millions of acres out of farming." [Romney 2012] Where does he get this stuff? Start with the fact that the Administration has no apparent plans for reviving cap-...
CONTINUE READINGRomney’s Embrace of the House Republicans’ Anti-Environmental Agenda
A lot of Romney’s views about energy and regulation seem familiar. There’s a reason for that. Driven by the Tea Party, the House has passed numerous deregulatory laws, some of them multiple times. On average, the House Republicans averaged more than one anti-environmental vote for every day the House was in session in 2011. Romney echos this anti-environmental agenda faithfully, as the following table documents: Romney’s Position Republican House bills “...
CONTINUE READINGA Strange Taking Case for the 2012 Term
Rick notes that the Supremes have decided to revisit Takings jurisprudence in a couple of cases this term. One of them, Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District, involves an important legal issue, but the factual issues seem quite strange. The Supremes granted cert in Koontz to consider two questions: 1) can a property owner bring a Takings claim based upon its refusal to accede to demanded exactions (as opposed to submitting to them and then bringing a...
CONTINUE READINGAkin v. McCaskill on Energy
Rep. Akin and Sen. McCaskill have sharply different views on issues such as reproductive rights. The differences on environment and energy are less stark. McCaskill seems to be the better pick on environmental grounds because of her stronger support for renewable energy and Akin's general anti-regulatory stance. Akin's views of energy policy mirror Romney's current position. His website says that "energy regulations from the EPA and other agencies have stifled our...
CONTINUE READINGProperty Rights & the Takings Clause: Prominent on the U.S. Supreme Court’s Docket This Year
Last week the U.S. Supreme Court granted review in a potentially-important regulatory takings case, bringing to two the number of Takings Clause disputes on the justices' docket this Term. The newly-granted case, Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District, No. 11-1447, involves the question of whether a government-imposed condition on its approval of a private development project is compensable under the Takings Clause. In Koontz, a private landowner had sought...
CONTINUE READINGTwo Cheers for a Hybrid Sales + Carbon Tax
Dan's thoughtful post on the Hybrid Sales + Carbon Tax is worth careful consideration. My initial thought is that Dan underestimates it one way, but might overestimate it in two ways. I think he underestimates its political viability. He argues that "voters don’t like taxes, and sales taxes are especially easy for them to notice and dislike." Interestingly enough, though, of all taxes, voters seem to like sales taxes the best, because they are seen as "voluntary...
CONTINUE READINGThe Possible Merits of a Hybrid Sales+Carbon Tax
There's been a lot of discussion of carbon taxes, which economists virtually all love. Proposed carbon taxes would generally be imposed at the level of fossil-fuel sellers or importers, or when producers use carbon. Imposing the carbon tax on consumers would have some significant advantages. This could be done with some fancy VAT-type mechanism, but a garden-variety retail sales tax would also work. The only novelty would be in calculating the amount of the sales tax...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Change Politics: Calling Junior Appropriators!
"Whiskey is for drinking. Water is for fighting over." At least that's the old saying (incorrectly attributed to Twain), and it is true. You can't study water law for more than a moment without seeing conflict. In the west, water law is particularly conflictual due to the system of prior appropriation: rivers are divided into senior and junior appropriators, with the former taking priority in dry times. That means that conflicts do not simply arise between use...
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