Tough Political Choices On Climate Are Hardly Unique to U.S: The Case of Germany and Nuclear Power
German Chancellor Angela Merkel made headlines this week when she announced that the country would phase out its nuclear power plants by 2022. The Fukishima nuclear crisis in Japan led Germany to review its reliance on nuclear power and the result of that review was Merkel's decision to shut down the country's existing plants. Here's the problem from a greenhouse gas emissions perspective. Phasing out nuclear makes it much more difficult -- maybe even impossible -- ...
CONTINUE READINGEPA Tackles Climate Adaptation
For the first time, EPA has addressed the issue of climate change adaptation in a letter from Administrator Lisa Jackson. The contents of the letter are not startling: mostly instructions to carry out existing policies or government recommendations on climate change. Two points are worth noting, however. First, the Administrator directs the agency to produce a formal adaptation plan within a year. That plan should help put some flesh on the fairly vague policies ...
CONTINUE READINGAttention, Norm Entrepreneurs! Time to Get on the Bus
I've been pushing this for nearly a decade now, and now it looks like it's finally happening (no thanks to me): If Dora Chavez knew exactly when her bus would arrive she could hustle to make it on time, stroll easily to the stop, or call work to say she would be late. With a new Metro program, Chavez will be able to do just that by using her phone or computer to get real-time information on when a bus will arrive at any of Los Angeles County's more than 15,000 Metro st...
CONTINUE READINGWaiting for Connecticut v. AEP
I like New York in June. The Supreme Court, not so much. June is when the Court finishes up its term and releases any decisions still pending. This year, that means we will soon get a ruling on Connecticut v. AEP, the public nuisance climate case, which was argued in April. Just so you can keep score at home, here are the possibilities: 1) Affirmance. Great on policy, but questionable on the law. (The displacement claim, in my view, is quite strong). ...
CONTINUE READINGWhat Does This Logo Mean?
Take a look at the green drop on the bottle of Fiji Water pictured right. (If you are a rational actor, you won't buy the bottle for $7, but that's another story). What do you think it means? What if it was accompanied by the website URL "fijigreen.com"? Well, if you are the California Court of Appeal, it means essentially nothing. Four days ago, in Hill v. Roll Int'l Corp., the Court of Appeal affirmed a trial court decision holding that as a matter of law, th...
CONTINUE READINGThe Endangerment Litigation
I've just spent some time reading the initial briefs in the D.C. Circuit on the endangerment issue. They strike me as much more political documents than legal ones. A brief recap for those who haven't been following the legal side of the climate issue. After the Bush Administration decided not to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, the Supreme Court held that greenhouse gases would be covered if they met the statutory requirement of endangering human ...
CONTINUE READINGMore Subsidies Hypocrisy from Tim Pawlenty?
At least so claims the Iowa Republican, a website that says it represents "News for Republicans, by Republicans." If you believe the Republican, Pawlenty is doing no more than parroting the talking points of the ethanol industry: Pawlenty’s announcement speech in Des Moines yesterday was more passionate than some of his other recent speeches. The common theme of the speech was that Americans need to be told the truth when it comes to the problems facing our nation....
CONTINUE READINGA new look for fuel economy stickers
If you go shopping for a new car in model year 2013, you'll see a new sort of fuel economy window sticker, like the one to the left. This is a fascinating example of the challenges of making labels both easy to absorb and informative. (It's definitely going in my environmental law casebook update.) It's far more informative than the previous version, effective with model year 2008, shown below. (And that one already had more information than the ones I encountered last ...
CONTINUE READINGIs NJ Governor Christie Running for President? He’s Backing Out of RGGI and Moving Toward Climate Denialism
On the bad-news-for-climate-policy front and in the ever-expanding category of Republican-officials-who-do-an-about-face-on-climate-change, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced today that he's pulling the state of New Jersey out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) by the end of the year. RGGI is the only up and running cap and trade program in the United States focused on greenhouse gas emissions. Ten northeastern states are part of RGGI, which h...
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