EPA finalizes mountaintop removal guidance
Cross-posted at CPRBlog and The Berkeley Blog. After a three-and-a-half month delay for White House review, EPA has finalized its guidance for review of mountaintop removal mining permits in Appalachia. I needn't have worried that the White House would roll EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on this one. The final guidance maintains the strong stand EPA took last April when it issued the interim guidance it finalized today. The thrust of this final version, like the interi...
CONTINUE READINGJerry Brown’s Push for Local Renewable Power
Local renewables – those photovoltaics, small wind turbines, etc. on people’s roofs, and in public spaces close to demand – how big of a role can they play in our renewable energy future? Berkeley and UCLA law schools wrote about that topic in In Our Backyard, and California’s Governor Jerry Brown made this question a major part of his campaign for office. Brown noted that in order to meet the state’s renewable power standards, there would need to be about 20,0...
CONTINUE READINGUK report: behavioral change takes more than a nudge
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. No one seems to like the idea of regulation these days. Nudges, alternatives that try to get people to voluntarily alter their behavior by changing the context in which they make decisions, have been widely touted as a better approach. Cass Sunstein, Obama's "regulatory czar" in the Office of Management and Budget, is a leading proponent of the "nudging" idea, and the co-author of a popular book promoting the concept that people should be gently...
CONTINUE READINGThe Real Mistake in Dominion Theology
At about this time last year I wrote a post on dominion theology, a type of Christian belief that, when it comes to the environment, takes the notion of humanity's rule over nature very seriously and sees humanity's rule as something close to absolute. It comes from the passage in Genesis 1:26, which reads: And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cat...
CONTINUE READINGWhitebark pine in ESA limbo
Cross-posted at The Berkeley Blog. Today the Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the whitebark pine, an iconic tree of the high-elevation American west, qualifies for listing as an endangered or threatened species. The combined impacts of disease, insect infestation, climate change, and fire suppression mean that the whitebark pine could disappear within a couple of its generations. But the pine won't be listed just yet, because too many other species are ahead ...
CONTINUE READINGFrogs, Boiling Water, and Climate Change: For the Record
Catching up on my LegalPlanet reading after being gone for a couple of weeks (and who doesn't do that first?), I noticed Dan's post referencing the famous story about frogs not jumping out of hot water if you put them in when it's tepid. Referring to humanity's inability to combat climate change, Dan asks: "are humans smarter than frogs? Remains to be seen." But actually it doesn't. Humans are unquestionably dumber than frogs because frogs will in fact jump out...
CONTINUE READINGWhite paper on Habitat Conservation Plans and Climate Change
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. Melinda Taylor at the University of Texas School of Law and I have just put out a white paper on Habitat Conservation Plans and Climate Change: Recommendations for Policy. It can be accessed here through Berkeley Law's Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, or here through UT's Center for Global Energy, International Arbitration, and Environmental Law. A lot of attention has been paid lately to what role, if any, the Endangered Species A...
CONTINUE READINGThe Great Light Bulb War and the Modern GOP
Saving the 100 watt bulb seems to be a high priority for the House GOP. This issue is revealing about the political dynamics now at work on larger issues like the debt ceiling. Economically, the light bulb ban is a win for consumers: CFLs have a higher initial cost but more than pay for themselves in reduced power bills. The economic analysis seems to have little significance for Republicans. Moreover, the American industry is on the other side of this issue. Hav...
CONTINUE READINGThe Debt Burden on Future Generations
According to GOP.gov, [T]he amount of debt placed on the backs of children born today is about to explode. If nothing is done, our generation will have the sad legacy of being the first to lower the standard of living of the next generation. . . . Unless drastic actions are taken to reduce spending now and in the future, debt will dwarf growth and future generations will be less prosperous than those that preceded them. This may or may not be true of the federal governme...
CONTINUE READINGBut Will You Love My Energy Source in the Morning?
In the wake of cataclysmic energy disasters occurring on opposite sides of the globe, some interesting regional and national reflections are currently underway that may--or may not--alter long-term energy futures in the U.S. and abroad. One development this week that drew surprisingly little public attention is that no less a personage than the Prime Minister of Japan advocated that his country reduce and eventually eliminate its dependence on nuclear power. He made ...
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