Funding dam removal
Many of you have probably heard of the settlement agreements in Klamath River Basin. For those who have not, the short version is that most participants signed two agreements: the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement. The Hydroelectric Settlement lays out a process that could culminate in the removal of four dams on the Klamath river, all owned by PacifiCorp. (A summary of the agreements is here.) Last week, PacifiCorp...
CONTINUE READINGA Roadmap for Sustainable Consumption
Individual consumption – including household heating and cooling as well as non-business transportation – creates roughly one-third of U.S. energy use and carbon emissions. It would feasible to reduce these emissions by twenty percent in a decade: there is a lot of low-hanging fruit yet to be picked. A range of individual actions, while seemingly minor, could dramatically reduce household energy consumption. To name just a few, individuals could reduce idling of c...
CONTINUE READINGSeeing Nature Through Conservation Eyes
There's a cool new video on "conservation biology," which you can find here. It has fabulous photos, as well as interesting commentary on the role of photography in prompting conservation. The photo to the left is an early example: a 19th century shot of Yellowstone that helped prompt the creation of the national park there. The photographer, William Henry Jackson, was an important 19th century photographer and painter who died at the age of 99 i...
CONTINUE READINGLos Angeles and Renewable Energy
Much to the surprise of many observers, including me, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (the country's largest municipally-owned utility) has met its 2010 goal of providing 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources. I've written previously about the implementation problems LADWP and other utilities are likely to face in cutting greenhouse gas emissions, including transmission issues, siting difficulties, pressure from workers to find in-state sup...
CONTINUE READINGNew CEQ Guidance on NEPA & Mitigation
The CEQ has issued new guidance to agencies regarding the use of mitigation. An environmental impact statement is required when a project has a significant environmental impact. Agencies frequently avoid the need for a full-scale environmental impact statement with plans to mitigate the impacts below the threshold of significance. NEPA aficionados call this a "mitigated FONSI," with FONSI standing for "Finding of No Significant Impact." But the mitigation plans are...
CONTINUE READINGEverything You Always Wanted to Know About Federal Preemption But Were Afraid to Ask
When is a state law preempted by a federal law on the same subject? This is a notoriously messy area of Supreme Court jurisprudence. For those interested in a quick introduction to the subject, I've written a paper that provides an overview of federal preemption law, which appears on the site of the Uniform Law Commissioners as part of their project on federalism and state law. The paper is designed as a background survey rather than either an advocacy piece or a co...
CONTINUE READINGUCLA Law releases new environmental blueprint for California
In the looming battle over California's budget, will there be room for environmental protections? What should Governor Brown's top-priority environmental initatives be? UCLA Law released today "An Environmental Blueprint for California," giving our view of the priorities Governor Brown should focus on to ensure the state's environmental health in ways consistent with its economic prosperity. California faces difficult choices ahead. Our new blueprint recogn...
CONTINUE READINGEPA vetoes mountaintop removal mining permit
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. If EPA is afraid of the new Congress, you wouldn't know it from today's news. Assistant Administrator Peter Silva issued the Obama administration's first veto of a Clean Water Act section 404 permit. This veto, which has been working its way through the cumbersome process for more than a year (see here, here, here, and here), is only the 13th in agency history, the second since 1989, and the first to be issued after a permit had been issued. I...
CONTINUE READINGGaming Out EPA, Congress, and Climate Change
The Republican Party is not going to sit still as EPA regulates greenhouse gas emissions. Oh yes, they and their assorted constituencies will file lawsuits, but there is a more direct way for them to go: simply attach a rider to a free-standing EPA appropriations bill forbidding it to spend any funds on regulating greenhouse gas emissions. (Maybe ditto with Transportation and Energy, but it's EPA where the action is). There will be little trouble getting enough D...
CONTINUE READINGChina and Carbon Markets
In a surprising development, China may be planning to create an internal carbon market a/k/a cap & trade. According to Climate Wire, When professor Chen Hongbo tried to promote carbon trading in China three years ago, he found himself under fire. As developing countries like China aren't obliged to limit the byproduct of their economic growth, opponents argued vehemently that they saw no need to motivate Chinese industries to either emit less greenhouse gases or ...
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