Ninth Circuit Upholds Oregon’s Measure 49 Against Takings Challenge
Seven years ago, Oregon's voters enacted Measure 37, a ballot initiative that essentially threatened to end all land use controls in the state. Measure 37 stipulated that any land use control that reduces someone's property values must be compensated by the state, an extraordinary principle that threw the state's land use system into chaos. Three years later, realizing what they had done, the voters enacted Measure 49 by an even wider margin, which substantially cut ...
CONTINUE READINGCan cap-and-trade break whaling gridlock?
In the current edition of Nature, researchers from UC Santa Barbara and Arizona State propose a market for whale harvest quotas (subscription required). Essentially, they would like to establish a kind of "cap-and-trade" system in permits to hunt whales. Their paper is getting a great deal of attention in the media, both in specialized outlets like ScienceInsider (subscription required) and mainstream ones like the Washington Post. In the Post story, Juliet Eilperin writ...
CONTINUE READINGLocalized Renewable Energy Conference in San Diego, February 2nd
A heads-up for Legal Planet readers in the San Diego area (or those who would like to be in the San Diego area) on Thursday, February 2nd: the Environmental Law Section of the California State Bar will be holding a one-day conference on localized renewable energy generation at the University of San Diego School of Law. Confirmed speakers include: Robert Weisenmiller (Chairman of the California Energy Commission) Wade Crowfoot (Deputy Director of the Governor's Office ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Very Hungry City
No -- not a children's book for an urban environmentalist. A grown-up book published just yesterday for anyone interested in urban environmentalism, by the University of Vermont's Austin Troy. Here's the blurb from the publisher (Yale): As global demand for energy grows and prices rise, a city's energy consumption becomes increasingly tied to its economic viability, warns the author of The Very Hungry City. Austin Troy, a seasoned expert in urban environmental mana...
CONTINUE READINGGuest blogger David Pettit: In the Weeds with GHGs
This post, by David Pettit of the Natural Resources Defense Council, is part of an occasional series by guest bloggers. As Ann Carlson and Rick Frank have previously blogged, on December 29th 2011, U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill ruled that California’s low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, on its face, by both discriminating against out-of-state corn ethanol and crude oil and regulating activities occur...
CONTINUE READINGWill Expanded Federal Transit Financing Result In More Toll Roads?
In a time of infrastructure needs and scaled-back public sector budgets, finding dollars for public transit projects can be a challenge. Transit advocates hit on a great formula, however, starting in Los Angeles with the "30/10" Plan. 30/10 would allow Los Angeles to build 30 years worth of sales tax-funded transit projects in 10 years, with the help of federal loans that would be paid back from the sales tax. The concept went national as many jurisdictions with lo...
CONTINUE READINGDo Law Schools Discriminate Against Conservatives?
Teresa R. Wagner, a conservative Republican who applied for a faculty job at Iowa and was turned down, thinks so: Ms. Wagner, who graduated from the law school in 1993 and had taught at the George Mason University School of Law, was not hired. She sued, alleging discrimination because of her political beliefs. Late last month, a unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, in St. Louis, ruled that her case should go to trial, ...
CONTINUE READINGAn Economist’s Perspective on Technology Forcing
Matthew Wald reports that companies that supply motor fuel will face million dollar EPA fines for not blending in cellulosic biofuel into gasoline and diesel. What excuse do such sellers make? They say that cellulosic biofuel doesn't exist --- so they can't meet a legal mandate. If the regulator gently nudges the firm to engage in a costly transition to a lower carbon fuel, the firm has an incentive to signal that it is trying hard to meet the regulator's worth...
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Disasters and Regulatory Failures
There is a strong nexus between environmental disasters and regulatory failures. The connection is most obvious for the BP oil spill, where weak regulation contributed to a massive spill whose ecological consequences are not yet completely known. It's also apparent in the reactor melt-down after the recent Japanese tsunami, which has resulted in radioactive releases. Environmental disasters can also cost lives such as those of workers on the Deepwater Horizon rig. ...
CONTINUE READINGCan you stand to hear more about Sackett?
Cross posted at CPRBlog. As usual, I'm behind Rick on commenting on the latest Supreme Court development. (In my defense, it is the first day of classes, although I know that's not much of an excuse.) Unlike Rick, I didn't attend the oral argument (see lame excuse above), but having read the transcript I agree with the general consensus that EPA is going to lose this case. However, I don't agree with Rick's conclusion that "the Sacketts will wind up winning their long...
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
