California Supreme Court Upholds Abolition of Local Redevelopment Agencies
The California Supreme Court waited until the very end of 2011 to issue the year's most important land use decision. While the specific issues relate to arcane issues of public finance and state constitutional law, today's decision in California Redevelopment Association v. Matosantos is likely to have major consequences for local land use authority and development patterns statewide. The issues in Matosantos were twofold: 1) whether the California Legislature could abo...
CONTINUE READINGLegal Planet Reaches 750,000 Hits
Just before Christmas, Legal Planet reached 750,000 hits. In addition, 800 people get daily updates on Legal Planet by email or Twitter, without necessarily visiting the website. We really appreciate your interest, and we'll do our best to keep you supplied with information and opinions on all things environmental in 2012. Best wishes from all of us at Legal Planet for a Happy -- and Greener -- New Year!...
CONTINUE READINGHey Conservatives! Let’s Make a Deal on Keystone XL!
The always-thoughtful Jared Bernstein has a, well, thoughtful take on Keystone XL. It might be called the view of a Realist Progressive Economist. Bernstein's point is that given the global demand for oil, and the Canadian government's commitment to getting it out of the ground and selling it (much stronger now that the Tories have a majority government), simple opposition to Keystone XL makes little sense. He seems sympathetic, however, to Bill McKibben's argume...
CONTINUE READINGTwas Congressional Christmas
'Twas Congressional Christmas, when all through the House Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The PACs were counting their money with care, In hopes that John Boehner soon would be there. Lobbyists nestled all snug in their beds, While veto-proof riders danced in their heads. Zasloff down south and I on the Bay, Were trying to think of just what to say, When out in D.C. there arose such a clatter, We went straight online to see what was the matter. The r...
CONTINUE READINGTen of the Top Environmental Stories of 2011
Nuclear reactor meltdown in Japan. EPA issues new rules limiting mercury emissions by power plants. Durban climate summit produces modest progress, as developing countries begin to acknowledge the need for binding limits on their carbon emissions. White House kills scheduled new regulations of ozone. California adopts cap-and-trade system under AB 32. White House announces stringent new fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks. GOP Presidential candidates em...
CONTINUE READING“White Christmas” — A Song of Climate Change?
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas Just like the ones I used to know Irving Berlin was prescient when he wrote those words over seventy years ago. Little did he know that White Christmases were on their way to becoming a thing of the past. This year is a striking illustration, as ThinkProgress reports: In Indiana, golf courses are still open while ski resorts remain shuttered. From the Pyrenees to the Balkans, ski resorts in the Alps have not only failed to receive na...
CONTINUE READINGLiterature Imitates Law — At Least in Bombay
Aravind Adiga is one of the most brilliant forces in world literature today. His previous novel, The White Tiger, won the Man Booker Prize a few years back. Now he is out with a new novel, Last Man in Tower, a work which its publisher promises is "Searing. Explosive. Lyrical. Compassionate." And what produces this searing, explosive, lyrical and compassionate work of literature? A land use dispute! Here is the astonishing new novel by the Man Booker Prize–...
CONTINUE READINGWhen Do Economic Incentives Modify Behavior?
The Journal of Economic Perpspectives ought to be on any environmental law professor's reading list -- or really, anyone interested in environmental policy. Thanks in no small part to the editorial wizardry of Managing Editor Timothy Taylor, it performs its mission -- to "fill a gap between the general interest press and most other academic economics journals" -- with astonishing success. A typical issue will have several articles at the highest level of discussi...
CONTINUE READINGEPA Set to Release New Mercury and Air Toxics Regulations
Later this afternoon - at 2pm ET - EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson is expected to announce EPA’s new regulations on mercury and toxic pollution from coal-fired power plants. EPA is developing the air toxics emissions standards for power plants under the Clean Air Act (Section 112), consistent with the D.C. Circuit’s opinion (PDF) regarding the Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR). The long-delayed final regulations have come under fire from industry groups and Republi...
CONTINUE READINGChurchill’s Wisdom and Climate Change
According to Yale poll results from last month, 63% of Americans now believe climate change is real, 17% think it isn't, and 20% say they don't know. Where does Churchill come into this? To see that, you have to turn back the clock seventy years to December 1941. On the eve of Pearl Harbor, only 52% of Americans thought war with Japan was likely, 27% did not expect war, and 21% said they didn't know. In other words, the public has a better grasp of the reality of th...
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