How to Protect the Environment: Views from the Right
Duke will be holding a very timely event on conservative visions of environmental law. Everyone knows what forms of environmental protection conservatives oppose, but conservative alternatives are less widely known. This is a welcome opportunity to hear ideas about an affirmative conservative vision. (Details and registration information here.) The speakers will include, among others, Jeff Holmstead (EPA Assistant Administrator for Air under George W. Bush, current e...
CONTINUE READINGSome Economics of the Green Partisan Divide
I would like to offer a couple of thoughts about Dan's post today. To keep this entry short and sweet, I will invoke some stereotypes. In my economic model, there are two types of people; "Laura the Liberal" and the other is "Chuck the Conservative". I want to sketch their two lifestyles and tell a dynamic story and then link this back to the political economy of support for environmental regulation. This narrative will also allow me to plug several of my re...
CONTINUE READINGLike a Bridge Over Troubled Water: Crossing the Partisan Divide on Environmental Issues
A national holiday is a good occasion for thinking about national unity. Reading the GOP platform, you might well conclude that there is absolutely zero hope for bipartisanship on environmental issue. The platform angrily accuses the Obama Administration for pursuing environmental regulation at all costs, heedless of huge economic burdens. The platform also leaves no opportunity unturned for rolling back environmental protections, with a whole bevy of deregulatory ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Fairness of Using the Gas Tax to Support Transit
A lot of people are out driving on this Labor Day weekend, which means buying gas and paying the gas tax that's included in the price. As it happens, last week, the GOP adopted a platform condemning the use of the highway fund to support transit. The platform seems to reflect conservative fairness concerns, like the complaint that "the portion of gas taxes that funds mass transit is an immoral tax" because it is "wrong for mass transit riders to take the money of ...
CONTINUE READINGPosner versus Scalia Smackdown!
Environmental law revolves around statutes, so the topic of statutory interpretation is crucial for lawyers in the field. For the past thirty years, Justice Scalia has promoted an approach called textualism, which purports to provide an objective method of interpreting laws. This approach often, though not always, leads to narrower reader of statutes than broader approaches that recognize Congress's intent to protect the environment. Judge Richard Posner has published...
CONTINUE READINGWhat’s better than Yosemite? (Hint: add lawyers)
Say what you want about environmental lawyers: We know how to pick a conference locale. Each fall, the Environmental Law Section of the California state bar holds its annual conference just outside the gates of Yosemite National Park. Specialists in environmental, land use, and natural resources law from all segments of the bar gather to talk regulation among the redwoods. This year's conference runs from Oct. 25-28, with keynote addresses from Matt Rodriquez, Ca...
CONTINUE READINGEconomists for AB32
A few days ago I joined a set of well known academic economists and signed this letter to Governor Brown. The NRDC has a nice post about the issues available here. Everyone who knows me, knows that I'm a proud University of Chicago Ph.D. economist and that my support for free markets and individual freedom often places me to the right of my University of California colleagues. So, why do I support AB32? Isn't it a step towards "green communism"? Wouldn't it make ...
CONTINUE READINGThe GOP Platform & the Environment
With some effort, I was able to find full text of the platform. Not surprisingly, the basic thrust is to relax limits on industry. The energy provisions correspond to Romney's recent proclamations -- more drilling in more places, less regulation of coal, etc. On the environment, the basic message is that current regulations are too strict, and that we shouldn't expect any new regulations anytime soon. A few interesting environmental points that are worth flagging: ...
CONTINUE READINGPutting a NEON Light on Ecosystems
New sensor technology and IT may transform our understanding of ecosystems. Big Science is coming to ecology, which was once the domain of individual naturalists. The Economist reports on NEON, the National Ecological Observatory Network: Ground has already been broken at three sites—in Colorado, Florida and Massachusetts. Eventually, 60 places across the country will be covered simultaneously. Once this network is completed, in 2016 if all goes well, 15,000 sens...
CONTINUE READINGRomney Endorses Keynesian Stimulus Spending — But Calls It an Energy Plan
I posted last week about the Romney energy plan and the super-optimistic projections of energy production it borrows from a Citigroup report. (here and here). The Romney plan touts enormous economic benefits in terms of job creation, also derived from the same Citigroup report. Of course, Romney doesn't mention the report's warning that its analysis required "sweeping assumptions" and that the beneficial effects would probably only last five years. (p. 86) But puttin...
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
