HLS ISO PD
Our friends at Harvard Law School asked us to spread the word about their search for a senior attorney to serve as policy director for their environmental law program. The Policy Director will lead the policy component of the HLS Environmental Law and Policy Program and work closely with environmental law faculty, who will determine the Program’s priorities. More details here....
CONTINUE READINGHow Environmentalism Can Strengthen the Middle Class
At the end of an interesting and constructive piece, David Frum stumbles on the idea: [T]he U.S. needs to reconsider the way it finances Medicare and the Social Security retirement system. The payroll tax has become more and more important to U.S. finances since 1980. Before the crash, payroll taxes supplied almost 40% of all federal revenues. These taxes fall heaviest on middle-income Americans. President Obama's payroll tax holiday expires at the end of this year. As...
CONTINUE READINGThe Durban Outcome: End of CBDR?
I wasn’t in Durban for the last days of wrangling, so I missed some late nights, dramatic speeches, and unexpected alliances. ClimateWire has the best account I’ve seen of the last-minute drama (sub. req’d.: "How a Belligerent, Sleep-Deprived Crowd in Durban Arrived at Consensus"). Highlights include a ministerial-level “huddle to save the planet”; invocations of the South African legacies of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela; and deepening divisions between ...
CONTINUE READINGWhy we have the EPA
Air quality in Beijing over the past week has reached horrifically bad levels. The U.S. Embassy's air quality tracker went from "Hazardous" to "Beyond Index" on Dec. 4. Check out the depressing details via Treehugger and France 24. It looks like the Great Smog of London from 1952. England passed its Clan Air Act 4 years later; perhaps it is time for China to rethink its air quality regulation? And I am still waiting to hear how President Ron Paul would keep Los Angel...
CONTINUE READING4 degrees warming here we come!
With the Durban COP17 negotiations concluded, there seem to be two lines of thought in the environmental community: Wow, that was better than expected. Our climate is really screwed. In this case, I think both (1) and (2) can be simultaneously true. For some summaries of what went down at Durban, check out CleanTechnica, Climate Progress, and the Guardian. Why better than expected? Well, we do get an agreement to agree to "a protocol, a legal instrument or an ...
CONTINUE READINGGive to the Environmental Law Program of Your Choice, But Give!
Environmental law programs are worthy of your support because of their unique blend of teaching, research, and public service. They educate future environmental leaders, generate new solutions to environmental problems, and engage with policy makers, courts, and the public. To begin with, environmental law programs train the lawyers who will represent governments, businesses, and public interest groups with regard to environment and energy issues. This isn't just a ...
CONTINUE READINGWhat REALLY Happened in Durban?
Dan wants to know, and he is right to ask. Fortunately enough, it's a pretty easy question to answer. As far as I can tell, the delegates agreed to negotiate a treaty some time in the future. That is diplomatic-speak for kicking the can down the road. As I have argued for well over a year now, actual climate change policy will bubble up from the bottom, and that indeed appears to be happening. Ann has pointed out, various cap-and-trade schemes are alive and well....
CONTINUE READINGIs EPA regulation of carbon dioxide anti-democratic?
There’s been a lot of noise from House Republicans (and others) about how EPA regulation of carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act is somehow an end-run around Congress or anti-democratic. But it is neither. Consider the first point: The Clean Air Act is drafted in very general terms, including in its definition of air pollutants almost any type of emission. At a number of stages in the Act, EPA is required to regulate air pollutants from various sources and i...
CONTINUE READINGTea Party activist wants to repeal all California environmental laws
A number of other posts on Legal Planet have noted various efforts by Republicans in Congress to stop or repeal EPA regulations. Those efforts are part of a broader movement by Tea Party organizations (organizations that are overwhelmingly Republican) to effectively eliminate environmental regulations in the United States. If there was any doubt about that point, a Tea Party activist in California recently got approval to circulate a ballot initiative that would repe...
CONTINUE READINGWhat Happened in Durban?
The outcome in Durban seems to be better than expected, although admittedly that's partly because expectations were low. From the official press release: In Durban, governments decided to adopt a universal legal agreement on climate change as soon as possible, but not later than 2015. Work will begin on this immediately under a new group called the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action. Governments, including 35 industrialised countries, agre...
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