Does Public Transit Improve Air Quality?
Yihsu Chen and Alexander Whalley of UC Merced think they know. They have analyzed some useful data from the opening of Taipei's new subway, in a recent article in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy: The transportation sector is a major source of air pollution worldwide, yet little is known about the effects of transportation infrastructure on air quality. This paper quantifies the effects of one major type of transportation infrastructure—urban rail tr...
CONTINUE READINGInitiative Watch: The Polluter Accountability Act
California's Legislature did manage last year to stanch some of the state's initiative craziness when it passed a law mandating that all initiative appear on the general election ballot, not the primary ballot. Now, our ballot "pamphlets" won't resemble a phone book every election. (The fact that general elections get higher turnout, and thus tend to favor Democrats, was I'm sure totally and completely coincidental). But that also means that we'll get a real wall...
CONTINUE READINGIs Bureaucratic Leadership an Oxymoron?
Harvard political scientist Daniel Carpenter has published a very interesting book about bureaucracy. Bureaucrats don't often get much credit, but he examines how bureaucrats around the turn of the last century were responsible for important innovations: making the post office efficient (and for a time profitable!), conserving our national forests, creating the parcel post, passing the Food and Drug Act, and creating the agricultural extension service. Analyzing thes...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia’s New Clean Car Rules: How Can They Succeed?
Yesterday, the California Air Resources Board significantly toughened the state's regulations on carbon emissions from automobiles: The package of Air Resources Board regulations would require auto manufacturers to offer more zero- or very low-emission cars such as battery electric, hydrogen fuel cell and plug-in hybrid vehicles in California starting with model year 2018. By 2025, one in seven new autos sold in California, or roughly 1.4 million, must be ultra-clean, ...
CONTINUE READINGAmbivalence Toward Environmental Scientists
Two seemingly unrelated stories on the NY Times webpage reveal the strangely conflicted place of scientists in today's society. One story reveals our respect for those who, despite difficult circumstances, dedicate themselves to the pursuit of knowledge. That story is about Samantha Garvey, a homeless teenager who has found recognition for her study of the effect of invasive crabs on native mussels in Long Island Sound. She received national attention after becoming ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Wall Street Journal Publishes Quite a Piece on Climate Change
This piece is worth reading. It doesn't have that much new content but it does take up a lot of the page. I must admit that I'm envious. It appears that the WSJ has rejected my OP-ED submission. In my piece, I discuss how the rise of charter cities in developing countries could offer individuals new coping strategies to adapt to climate change. I didn't fully realize that the WSJ page is not fully ready to acknowledge the challenge in the first place. So, ther...
CONTINUE READINGPreserving U.S. Fisheries: A Bipartisan Pipe Dream?
President Obama's call in his 2012 State of the Union address for a new spirit of bipartisanship brought to mind a recent Washington Post article on current federal efforts to preserve U.S. fisheries. In what qualifies as a rare "good news" story involving federal environmental policy, that article reports that the Obama Administration is poised to impose catch limits for 528 different fish species federal regulatory agencies are charged with managing in U.S.-controlle...
CONTINUE READINGUrban Form and Public Health
The Chronicle of Higher Education has a very nice story about UCLA's Dick Jackson. To quote this article; "In 2001, while still at the CDC, Dr. Jackson was a co-author of an article published by Sprawl Watch Clearinghouse that contended that poorly planned built environments had adverse effects on air quality, physical activity, and public safety, among other things." So, my colleague is making a strong causal statement that the same person would be much healthier i...
CONTINUE READINGEnergy and the State of the Union
There's quite a bit about energy in the State of the Union, including a discussion of the potential for natural gas and this about clean energy: We can also spur energy innovation with new incentives. The differences in this chamber may be too deep right now to pass a comprehensive plan to fight climate change. But there’s no reason why Congress shouldn’t at least set a clean energy standard that creates a market for innovation. So far, you haven’t acted. Well toni...
CONTINUE READINGRebound Redux
I've posted previously about the rebound effect. Improving energy efficiency frees up money, which can be used to purchase more of the same product or different products that use energy. This "rebound" cuts away at the energy savings and correspondingly at the carbon reduction achieved through energy efficiency. Everyone seems to agree that the rebound effect is real; the big dispute is over its size and significance. Blake Hudson pointed me toward a new study ...
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