The California Attorney General race and the environment
This New York Times article notes why the California Attorney General's race is very important for our state and national environmental and energy policies. As a close observer of that office's work on environmental issues and as a former California deputy attorney general myself, I believe the reporter is surely correct. This race will matter from an environmental perspective. (Co-blogger Dan Farber blogged about this race several months ago, noting that candidat...
CONTINUE READINGRepublicans vow to attack federal climate change efforts
The New York Times reports that senior Republicans are saying they will aggressively attack our administration's environmental and climate change initiatives if their party wins a majority in the House of Representatives. EPA will be on the defensive, using its resources to defend against these attacks rather than move forward with regulatory initiatives that both have been required by the courts and are supported by evidence. At the same time, industry lobbyists - es...
CONTINUE READINGWhy Maureen Gorsen is wrong: Prop 26 will undermine environmental regulation
Followers of this blog know that, yesterday, UCLA Law released an analysis of Proposition 26's impacts on state funding for environmental and public health programs. Today, the Yes on 26 campaign struck back with a press release in which Maureen Gorsen suggested that we failed to understand Prop 26 and ignored facts. (The Yes on 26 campaign has relied almost exclusively on Maureen Gorsen, now an attorney at Alston + Bird, for this type of legal analysis, probably beca...
CONTINUE READINGDid EPA Just Get Snookered on Trucking Emissions Rules?
Like Holly, I suppose it's a good thing that EPA has -- finally -- proposed new rules for fuel efficient and greenhouse gas emissions from medium and large trucks. But I remain highly skeptical that even these rules -- as weak and tardy as they are -- will ever see the light of day. Once again, the administration's attempt to be reasonable is going to turn it into Charlie Brown kicking the football. Recall that these are not actual rules, but only proposed rules; t...
CONTINUE READINGA new issue of Ecology Law Quarterly
Ecology Law Quarterly volume 37, number 3 is now on the streets (or at least on the web). Check out these articles: Background Principles, Takings, and Libertarian Property: a Response to Professor Huffman, Michael C. Blumm & J.B. Ruhl Read Article (PDF) Ways of Seeing in Environmental Law: How Deforestation Became an Object of Climate Governance, William Boyd Read Article (PDF) Climate Change and the Arctic: Adapting to Changes in Fisheries Stocks and Governan...
CONTINUE READINGUCLA releases new analysis of Proposition 26’s impacts to state environmental programs
As Sean has written, Proposition 26 hasn't been getting as much attention in the media as other anti-environmental measures on next Tuesday's California ballot, but it has the potential to be a real sleeper threat. UCLA Law just released a careful analysis of Proposition 26's impacts to state funding for environmental and public health programs, concluding that it "would erect significant barriers to funding many of these programs in the future," which "could have sub...
CONTINUE READINGThumbs up and thumbs down
Brief takes on good and bad news from around the web. First the good news: EPA and NHTSA have proposed joint fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction standards for medium and large trucks, the ones that move freight around the country. "The agencies estimate that the combined proposed standards have the potential to reduce GHG emissions by nearly 250 million metric tons and save approximately 500 million barrels of oil over the life of vehicles sold during 2014 t...
CONTINUE READINGMeet the new BOEMRE, same as the old MMS
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. The Minerals Management Service within the Department of Interior was responsible for overseeing offshore oil development in federal waters from its creation in 1982 until its demise earlier this year. MMS was always a troubled agency, to put it mildly, dogged by scandals and a revolving door with the industry it regulates. After the Deepwater Horizon incident made its failings obvious, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar reorganized MMS out of exist...
CONTINUE READINGDry as Dust
A new literature survey and synthesis has some grim news about drought: Dry periods lasting for years to decades have occurred many times during the last millennium over, for example, North America, West Africa, and East Asia. . . . Climate models project increased aridity in the 21st century over most of Africa, southern Europe and the Middle East, most of the Americas, Australia, and Southeast Asia. Regions like the United States have avoided prolonged droughts...
CONTINUE READINGOne Fish, Two Fish, Old Fish, New Fish
The NY Times has a nice series on a field expedition studying biodiversity in the Amazon. Here's a sample paragraph to go with the picture above: As they pick through the specimens, bent over the table with their heads close together, they're carrying on one of those scientific conversations that are conducted so entirely in shorthand that they sound disappointingly primitive to a non-specialist . . . Any doubts about the sophistication of the enterprise...
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