Legal Planet Reaches A Million Visits
Thanks to our loyal readers, today we reached a million hits to our site. Since its inception in 2009 we've posted 2,226 posts (unless Dan's already posted another one since I wrote this :)) on subjects ranging from climate change (of course) to New York's soda ban to whether rain is a miracle. We've now got 17 regular bloggers and hundreds of regular followers. Thank you readers! And let us know if you have any suggestions for Legal Planet in the comments section...
CONTINUE READINGSaving Bambi’s forest
Here on Legal Planet we talk a lot about government-mediated solutions to environmental problems, with good reason (and not, I like to think, simply as the enviro-lawyer corollary to the maxim that those wielding hammers tend to treat problems like nails). But every now and then it's nice to read about the power of direct, unmediated action by those demading solutions against those in a position to provide them. This week, Disney -- which is apparently the largest ...
CONTINUE READINGGreen versus Anti-Green in the Big Sky State
The Montana Senate race features Democrat Jon Tester against Republican Dennis Rehberg. The difference between the candidates doesn't require any elaborate explanation. Rehberg has a 6% lifetime rating from the League of Conservation Voters (quite a bit lower than Paul Ryan's). Tester has a 87% LCV rating. That's about all you have to know. It's little wonder that these contrasting positions were the focal point of a recent debate between the two candidates. Reh...
CONTINUE READINGRegulatory Field Experiments?
I really like Jonathan's post about MIT's J-PAL. Permit me to offer a few points. 1. The field experiment economists are randomly allocating stuff at the individual level. Your household might receive a free newspaper, a report indicating how your electricity consumption differs from neighbors, a report indicating how your politician is performing on a series of criteria, a free bed net to fight malaria risk, a free bus ticket so that you can migrate to a big city...
CONTINUE READINGHow About a Regulatory Action Lab?
I have just finished reading Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo's excellent and very thoughtful book, Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty. MIT economists Banerjee and Duflo reject broad, sweeping arguments concerning either the necessity for infusions of foreign aid or the futility of such efforts. Instead, they advocate detailed studies examining whether and how interventions can actually improve the lives and incomes of poor peo...
CONTINUE READINGFracking, 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...
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