David Owens Overstates the Rebound Effect’s Relevance
Here is an impressive blog post. I didn't write it! Shakeb Afsah and Kendyl Salcito present a data filled post that takes David Owen's Rebound Effect quite seriously. I respect hypothesis testing! Owen's sexy hypothesis is that the Prius actually contributes to climate change! How could this happen? The Prius has such a high MPG that it effective reduces the price per mile of driving. If demand is really elastic, then people could respond to this incentive by...
CONTINUE READINGNinth Circuit upholds gray wolf rider
As expected, the Ninth Circuit has now upheld the appropriations rider that directed the Fish and Wildlife Service to reissue its rule removing the gray wolf in Montana and Idaho from the list of endangered and threatened species. (Hat tip: Endangered Species Law and Policy blog.) The panel (all drawn from the Ninth Circuit's "liberal wing") ruled that the appropriations rider had changed the underlying law, which is within Congress's constitutional powers, as ...
CONTINUE READINGLaw Schools in the Public Interest: Environmental Law Programs in the Midwest and Mountain States
This is the second in a series of postings about public service by environmental law programs. This one focuses on the Midwest and Mountain states. Here is a sample of current activities: An environmental advocacy center that works on clean air and water, clean up of hazardous waste sites, safe drinking water, green technology, climate change, and renewable energy. A clinic that for over thirty years has enabled people who are confronting environmental problems in...
CONTINUE READINGA new issue of Ecology Law Quarterly
ELQ has just published Volume 38, number 3, featuring papers from a takings symposium. Check out these articles: J. Peter Byrne, Stop the Stop the Beach Plurality! John D. Echeverria, Public Takings of Private Contracts Cecilia Fex, The Elements of Liability in a Trails Act Taking: A Guide to the Analysis Marc Mihaly & Turner Smith, Kelo’s Trail: A Survey of State and Federal Legislative and Judicial Activity Five Years Later R.S. Radford & Luke A. Wake, D...
CONTINUE READINGEPA’s bad week continues — mountaintop removal veto overturned
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. Regular readers of this blog know that on January 13, 2011, EPA vetoed a Clean Water Act section 404 permit issued by the Corp of Engineers for valley fill at the Spruce No. 1 mountaintop removal mine project in West Virginia. This was only the 13th time EPA had used its veto power, and the first time it had vetoed a permit after it was formally issued. I wrote at the time: "Expect litigation, and expect it to focus on the timing of the veto." ...
CONTINUE READINGUrban Vibrancy and Shrinking the Household Carbon Footprint from Transportation
Professor Matthew Holian and I have released a new report that was funded by the Mineta Transport Institute. Using several data sets, we present a statistical analysis of an intuitive hypothesis. Consider a metropolitan area such as Los Angeles or San Diego. If the downtown is "vibrant" in terms of jobs and nightlife and culture, does this shrink the entire metropolitan area's carbon footprint? We argue that it does. Why? If the downtown is safe and ...
CONTINUE READINGHappy (Belated) World Water Day! There’s Good News and Bad News….
Well, that's embarrassing. Yesterday was the United Nations' annual World Water Day, which apparently arrives every March 22nd. I only stumbled across it by accident, since it was referenced by another website that I was reading. But the UN has put a lot of PR effort at least into the project, and developed a very nice website concerning the issues that you should check out. It's more than just a website. In the last three weeks, two major developments have occur...
CONTINUE READINGThe Commerce Department Undercuts Clean Energy
The Commerce Department's decision to levy tariffs on Chinese solar panel imports has been in the news for a couple of days, but should receive more attention for envir0nmental policy wonks than it has so far. The Obama Administration has basically decided to impair clean energy production with its decision, even if the tariffs are relatively minimal. From an environmental policy standpoint, if China wants to subsidize Americans to use cleaner energy by subsidizing ...
CONTINUE READINGSupreme Court Sides With Property Owners in Wetlands Dispute With USEPA
The U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in the most closely watched environmental case on the Court's docket this Term: Sackett v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. As expected following an especially lively set of oral arguments in the Sackett case earlier this year, the justices ruled--unanimously--in favor of the private property owners who had brought this litigation under the wetlands provisions of the Clean Water Act, and against EPA. The facts giving rise ...
CONTINUE READINGAttack of the Dim Bulbs (A Dismayingly On-Going Series)
And the government would have banned Thomas Edison’s light bulb. Oh yeah, Obama’s regulators actually did just that. That was Governor Romney on March 19. I hope he was more careful with the facts when he worked for Bain. If not, he would have cost lost a lot of money, not to mention the liability risks. Here's what the Washington Post fact-checker says about Romney's statement: It’s a cheap political shot for Romney to blame “Obama’s regulators” for a p...
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