The Privatization of State Parks & Ocean Management in California–And Why That’s a Good Thing
California boasts the nation's largest state park system--over 1.5 million acres of natural, historical and cultural resources contained in 278 separate, state-owned parks that attract over 80 million visitors annually. But California's extensive system of state-owned parks, beaches and marine reserves is in crisis--a victim of draconian budget cuts, chronic under-staffing and over $1 billion in deferred maintenance. Recently, an unlikely, potential solution has emerg...
CONTINUE READINGWhy Critics Should Stop Bashing EPA (And What They Should Talk About Instead)
Bashing EPA is apparently a good political tactic, at least if you're in a red state, but it's also a smokescreen -- what is presented as an attack on the agency is actually an attack on the mission assigned by Congress. In terms of carrying out the mission, EPA is no different than the Defense Department or the FBI -- it more or less does what it has been told to do, sometimes brilliantly, sometimes less so, occasionally ineptly. But blaming EPA because you don't like...
CONTINUE READINGFederal Court Halts Implementation of Important Air Pollution Program
The Obama Administration's cap-and-trade program to control air pollution that crosses state lines (explained in detail here) will not go into effect this month as planned. Instead, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has halted the program's implementation temporarily until it decides on its legality. The program, known as the cross state air pollution rule, caps nitrous oxide and sulfur dioxide pollution in 23 states in the eastern half of the country. ...
CONTINUE READINGEPA’s Achievements
You're going to be hearing a lot from certain quarters about EPA and what a terrible agency it is. Despite shortcomings in the statutes, repeated assaults on its budgets, and political harassment, the agency's accomplishments have been quite remarkable. As this chart shows, the volume of air pollutants has gone done very substantially in the past thirty years, even though everything else (population, energy use, GDP, etc.) has gone up: The decline is pretty remark...
CONTINUE READINGOn This Date in History
Exactly forty-two years ago, President Richard M. Nixon signed the National Environmental Quality Act into law on January 1, 1970. Among other remarks, he had this to say: [A] major goal, when you talk about New Year's resolutions, I wouldn't say for the next year but for the next 10 years--and I don't mean that I intend to run for a third term--for the next 10 years for this country must be to restore the cleanliness of the air, the water, and that, of course, means m...
CONTINUE READINGEnd of the year good news
Three recent items of good news for California wildlife: For the first time in almost 90 years, a wild gray wolf has been roaming in California. The California Department of Fish and Game reported on December 29 that OR-7, a young male wolf from a pack in northeastern Oregon, had crossed into California. According to DFG, the last confirmed wild wolf in California was killed in 1924. Officials have been tracking OR-7's movements since February 2011, when he was fitte...
CONTINUE READINGWhat’s in the final 2012 spending bill?
I've just finished plowing through H.R. 2055, the2012 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which was signed by President Obama last week. I was curious to see how many anti-environmental riders made it into the final bill. I haven't seen much news coverage of the details of the final bill, and the White House offered no comment when the President signed. So I headed over to Thomas (the Library of Congress's web page, which has among other things links to all Congressional bi...
CONTINUE READINGFederal Court Invalidates California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard
U.S. District Judge Lawrence O'Neill has ruled that the California Air Resources Board's pioneering Low Carbon Fuel Standard, a key component of California's multifaceted strategy to reduce the state's aggregate greenhouse gas emissions under AB 32, is unconstitutional. In his December 29th ruling in Rocky Mountain Farmers Union v. Goldstene, the Fresno-based federal judge issued an injunction preventing CARB from implementing the LCFS. But that same ruling allows CA...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia 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!...
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