The Supreme Court Strikes Down the Clean Air Act
Not, not really. Not yet. Dan is a much more generous person than I am, and so it should be unsurprising that he believes that the Affordable Care Act cases do not threaten environmental law. I respectfully dissent. The Affordable Care Act seeks to establish laws for the health insurance industry -- an industry that comprises one-sixth of the American economy. In order to do that, it establishes a number of regulations that even its opponents concede are perfec...
CONTINUE READINGWill California’s Cap and Trade Program Stimulate Innovation?
Holly's latest post about a new study showing that cap-and-trade programs have not led to technological innovation ends with a cautionary note that raises the key question about innovation and cap-and-trade programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: These results [showing no innovation] don't mean that cap-and-trade has no role to play in policies directed at climate change or other problems whose solution requires innovation. But they emphasize one more time the ne...
CONTINUE READINGPollution markets haven’t stimulated innovation
One of the early claims in favor of a cap-and-trade approach to pollution control, as opposed to traditional command-and-control innovation, was that market incentives would better encourage innovation in pollution control techniques and technologies. On the other hand, legal scholars such as David Driesen have long contended that pollution markets can actually reduce innovation incentives. Now an empirical study by Margaret Taylor of Berkeley's Lawrence Berkeley Nation...
CONTINUE READINGNew Forest Service planning rule highlights the tension between flexibility and accountability
The Forest Service has now finalized the new planning rule it proposed a year ago. The final rule with preamble runs more than 240 pages. I haven't yet plowed through it. The blog A New Century of Forest Planning is reporting reactions from a variety of sources. So far, there seem to be a lot of general statements of support, with the unsurprising proviso that the devil will be in the implementation details. The thing that pops out at me about the new rule is the extent...
CONTINUE READINGMore Trouble at Fukushima
According to the Washington Post, the situation inside the reactors is grim. Tuesday’s examination with an industrial endoscope detected radiation levels up to 10 times the fatal dose inside the chamber. Plant officials previously said more than half of melted fuel has breached the core and dropped to the floor of the primary containment vessel, some of it splashing against the wall or the floor. Particles from melted fuel have probably sent radiation levels up to dan...
CONTINUE READINGEPA Unveils Carbon Standard for New Power Plants
This morning, U.S. EPA released its anticipated rule limiting carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants. The proposed Carbon Pollution Standard for New Power Plants under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act purports to set national limits on the amount of carbon pollution new power plants can emit. Today we’re taking a common-sense step to reduce pollution in our air, protect the planet for our children, and move us into a new era of American energy, said EPA Adm...
CONTINUE READINGWhat Will the Outcome of the Health Care Case Tell Us About Environmental Law?
This week's oral arguments will be carefully parsed for signs of how the Supreme Court will rule about the constitutionality of the Health Care Act. If the Administration wins the case, this will be largely a confirmation that the majority of the Court prefers to follow firmly established existing precedent. If it loses, the outcome will be a signal that the Court has moved into an activist conservative phase, which is probably not a good sign for how it will view en...
CONTINUE READINGWish-I’d-Said-That Department
Slacktivist (h/t RBC): The nefarious global conspiracy promoting the climate-change hoax continues to spread: The oceans are in on it. So are the maple trees of New England. And both Dakotas....
CONTINUE READINGDavid 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 ...
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