BP Reaches Partial Settlement in Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Litigation
Late Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Carl Barbier announced a legal settlement between British Petroleum and thousands of individuals and businesses that had sued BP for damages arising out of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. According to a New York Times report, BP has agreed to pay $7.8 billion to settle the legal claims filed by the private plaintiffs against the company. Trial of the case, which was scheduled to begin in New Orleans o...
CONTINUE READINGCourt to Feds: “Pay Up for Katrina Damage”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has upheld a district court ruling that the federal government is liable for damage from the Katrina storm surge that went up the MRGO canal into the city. As I read the opinion, it is limited in three ways. First, it is crucial that MRGO -- the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet -- was a navigation project, not a flood control project. The government is immune from flooding caused by a flood control project. Second, the...
CONTINUE READINGPeter Gleick and the Heartland Institute Expose
Jonathan focused last week, appropriately in my view, on the ethics of the way in which Peter Gleick got documents from the climate-denying Heartland Institute. His conclusion is that as a scientist Gleick's deceptions to get the documents were unethical. A new column in The Guardian comes out in the opposite place, arguing that Gleick may have been justified in attempting to expose the denialists given the importance of the issue. But I have a different question t...
CONTINUE READINGStopping High Speed Sprawl
California Governor Jerry Brown has doubled down on his support for the state's proposed high speed rail system, despite the uncertainty about how to pay for it and growing public opposition. But who can blame him? If the rail system does get built, it will be the defining infrastructure project in the state for generations to come -- a major legacy for any political leader. Transportation experts can complain all they want about the high costs and cheaper altern...
CONTINUE READINGExploring Policies to Promote Local Renewables
Last July, California Governor Jerry Brown held a conference, hosted by the Luskin Center at UCLA, to launch his initiative to achieve 12,000 megawatts of local renewable energy projects in California by 2020. Local renewables, often called distributed generation, are projects no larger than 20 megawatts located close to customer demand. Berkeley Law's Center for Law, Energy & the Environment helped to put on the conference and has now released for comment a draf...
CONTINUE READINGThe Delta 101: Of Levees, Canals & Whiskey
Nearly four out of five Californians do not know what the Delta is, according to a January 2012 poll. That's 78 percent of the population. And 86 percent of southern Californians have never heard of it. Yet, 25 million people and 3 million acres of farmland rely on the Delta for at least a portion of their water. The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is a vital link in the State's water system at the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. I would ...
CONTINUE READINGInconceivable!
During the Fukushima nuclear crisis, government officials and industry representatives said that the tsunami that struck the reactors was "beyond our imagination," thus excusing the failure to consider such a risk in the planning process. As it turns out, there had been warnings about this possibility, but the risks were ignored. The reactor was situated on a small cliff, which was thought to provide sufficient protection from modest tsunamis. But there is a historical ...
CONTINUE READINGPreviewing a VERY Big Week for Environmental Law in the Courts
UPDATE: The Associated Press reports that late Sunday, February 26th, U.S. District Court Judge Carl Barbier announced a one-week postponement of the trial in the BP oil spill case that had been scheduled to begin the next day. The postponement is reportedly due to substantial progress that has been made in marathon settlement talks that have been underway among the parties to the litigation. Next week is shaping up as one of the most consequential weeks for environme...
CONTINUE READINGIs Richard Epstein Autistic?
Delightfully so! Here is Adrian Vermuele (no secret Kenyan Muslim socialist he) in The New Republic, reviewing Epstein's latest: Many scholars have offered withering critiques of the Epstein program, but there is little sign that the arguments of the critics have been heard and considered. Epstein’s latest book targets the administrative state as the enemy of classical liberalism, and argues that the administrative state is inconsistent with the rule of law, but Ep...
CONTINUE READING“Developing Nations Can’t Afford Environmentalism”
At least that's what you hear a lot from some environmental skeptics. Because poor countries are so desperate for economic growth and to lift their people out of poverty, they cannot be expected to protect their environment. (You hear that from a lot for developing nations, too). They might want to take a look at Katherine Boo's new book Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. Boo's work has been effusively and justly praised (s...
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