Junior appropriators can be cut off without a hearing
The Eighth Circuit has rejected a claim by farmers in Nebraska's Niobrara Watershed that their civil rights were violated when the state's Department of Natural Resources issued "Closing Notices" ordering them to stop drawing water. The farmers asserted that they were entitled to a due process hearing before the property rights granted by their state-issued surface water appropriation permits could be cut off. The court, however, found that their property rights had no...
CONTINUE READINGShould the national parks allow sales of water in plastic bottles?
In May 2010, Grand Canyon National Park announced that as of January 1, 2011, it would no longer allow sale of water in small plastic bottles at park concessions. The park hoped the ban would reduce the costs of dealing with tossed water bottles; the New York Times reports that disposable plastic bottles account for a remarkable 30% of the park's total solid waste. Grand Canyon Superintendent Stephen Martin thought he had laid the groundwork for the ban not only with p...
CONTINUE READINGU.C. Davis’ “CEQA at 40” Conference Now Available Online
On November 4th, the U.C. Davis School of Law's California Environmental Law & Policy Center hosted "CEQA at 40: A Look Back & Ahead." Celebrating the 40th anniversary of California's bedrock environmental law, the California Environmental Quality Act, the conference drew some 400 attendees to U.C. Davis, with many more viewing the proceedings via a live Internet feed. The diverse speakers at the event included state policymakers, jurists, veteran CEQA attorne...
CONTINUE READINGDatabase of Anti-Environment Votes in 112th Congress
To date, 170 anti-environmental votes have been taken in the GOP-led House of Representatives by the 112th Congress. It's difficult to keep track of the good, the bad, and the ugly coming out of the House. One tool to help track the action in Washington is a new searchable database of anti-environment votes. "The House has voted to block action to address climate change, to stop actions to prevent air and water pollution, to undermine protections for public land...
CONTINUE READINGKatrinas Yet to Come
A group of Yale economists have produced a sobering paper about the effect of climate change on hurricane damage in the United States. What makes the report especially notable is that the leader of the group, Robert Mendelsohn, is on the more conservative end of the spectrum in terms of climate economists. Here is the authors' description of the study, with the key conclusion highlighted: A damage function is estimated from historic hurricane data to measure the im...
CONTINUE READINGEnergy Storage in California by 2020: A New Report From the California Energy Commission
Yesterday, the California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program released a strategic assessment of energy storage technologies in California by 2020. The report was prepared by a three-campus University of California team, including Berkeley Law, UC Los Angeles, and UC San Diego. Along with co-blogger Steve Weissman and Jessica Intrator (who did the bulk of the research and drafting on the policy side), I served as principal investigator and ...
CONTINUE READINGAdministration reportedly will put off Keystone XL decision
The Washington Post is reporting that the Obama Administration will study alternative routes for the Keystone XL pipeline, delaying a final decision on the pipeline until after the 2012 elections. There had been a perception that the Administration felt caught between environmentalists and unions on the pipeline issue. Nebraska's opposition to the current proposed route, which would take the pipeline over the Oglalla Aquifer, provides either a convenient excuse for delay...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Change in Living Color
Richard Muller's research group has a video that shows changes in surface temperature over the past two centuries. (He's the physicist who took an independent look at the climate record; climate skeptics loved him until it turned out he had some inconvenient data.) It's pretty hard to miss what's happening: big-time climate change. Here's the link. It's worth watching the whole thing, especially the post-1950 changes....
CONTINUE READINGAnother edition of good news, bad news
The bad news is about climate change (no surprise). The more we learn, the more daunting the problem appears. Cases in point: A column in the journal Nature (subscription required) provided the short version of a report issued this past spring by the California Council on Science and Technology on what it will take for California to achieve the 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels mandated by AB 32 and Executive Order S-3-05. The bottom line? Curr...
CONTINUE READINGEPA sends GHG NSPS rules to OMB
On Tuesday, Nov. 4, EPA sent its proposed GHG rule for power plants to the Office of Management and Budget. Not a widely reported story, perhaps because the internet was too busy misquoting EPA Administrator Jackson, who was speaking at Berkeley Law at the time. Or perhaps because we do not actually get the proposed regulations until OMB gives its approval. Cleantechnica and the LA Times have some background info. The rule, "Greenhouse Gas New Source Performance...
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