Environmental Property Rights (Part IV)
Previous posts have introduced the concept of environmental property rights, given a number of examples of such rights, and explained how various kinds of EPRs that appear quite different are actually closely related. Today's post argues the EPRs could actually change constitutional rulings in favor of the environment. I develop this argument in detail in a recent paper, but here is the basic argument for three important constitutional issues: standing doctrine...
CONTINUE READINGYucca Mountain dispute goes to Nuclear Regulatory Commission
The tangled saga of the proposed high-level nuclear waste disposal facility at Yucca Mountain is going to have at least one more chapter. In June 2008, President Bush's Department of Energy filed an application for a license to construct a high-level repository at Yucca Mountain. In March 2010, President Obama's Energy Department sought to withdraw that application with prejudice, meaning that it could not be refiled. Nevada applauded that move, but not everyone did. The...
CONTINUE READINGAre Heat Waves Related to Climate Change?
Andrew Leonard had a great post on Salon this week arguing -- essentially -- that liberal bloggers are wimps when it comes to connecting extreme climate events like heat waves to climate change. By contrast, he notes, conservatives eagerly throw barbs at Al Gore any time it snows in D.C.: climate denier James Inhofe's grandchildren apparently built an igloo last winter and proclaimed it "Gore's New Home." Leonard notes both that conservatives have been glaringly q...
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Property Rights (Part III)
An environmental property right (EPR) can be defined as an enforceable interest deriving from an environmental asset such as air quality or an undisturbed forest. EPRs are diverse and varied. Most EPRs are derived from statute rather than the common law, and many are of recent vintage. Some EPRs are marketable; others are not. Fundamentally, environmental property rights fall into major two categories. Some involve the power to prevent a third-party from impairing...
CONTINUE READINGStay denied in appeal of offshore moratorium decision
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit heard argument today on the Obama administration's request that it stay the District Court's injunction of the 6-month deepwater oil development moratorium, and by a 2-1 vote quickly rejected the request. The moratorium halted any new drilling, and the granting of any new permits for drilling, in depths beyond 500 feet based on the Secretary of Interior's finding that "deepwater drilling poses an unaccep...
CONTINUE READINGClassic Villaraigosan Environmental Policy
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson was in Los Angeles today, announcing an official EPA finding that Compton Creek, a portion of the Los Angeles River, is a "navigable water" of the United States. This finding means that Compton Creek can receive the protection of the Clean Water Act: most prominently, it means that any attempts to fill it or otherwise degrade it must receive a Section 404 permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers. It's an important protection: a nice...
CONTINUE READINGFHFA strangles PACE clean energy financing program
Yesterday, the Federal Housing Finance Administration, the agency that regulates bankrupt mortgage insurers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, issued a letter effectively destroying the promising energy efficiency and renewable energy financing program called Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE). I blogged about Fannie and Freddie's lender letters on the PACE program a few weeks ago. PACE operates as a traditional local government assessment on properties: governments raise ...
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Property Rights: Part II
The previous post in this series introduced the idea of environmental property rights. There are a surprising number of EPRs. A complete listing would include at least nine kinds of EPRs: In addition to the public trust doctrine and tradable permits (which were discussed in the first part of the series), here are seven more: 1. Wetland mitigation credits. Mitigation credits allow the owner of a wetland to profit from restoring that wetland or creating an artificia...
CONTINUE READINGLegislative response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster
What's happening in Congress since the Deepwater Horizon tragedy and the gusher that followed? There have been a lot of hearings, and a lot of bills introduced. Several are moving ahead. One has become law, one has been passed by the full House, and two have been reported out of Senate committees. 1) Both houses have passed, and the President has signed, Public Law 111-191, allowing the Coast Guard to take up to $100 million from the Oil Spill Liability Trust fund to re...
CONTINUE READINGAnti-AB 32 Campaign Should Be Interesting
The ballot initiative to suspend the implementation of California's landmark greenhouse gas legislation -- which qualified for the ballot last week -- should garner huge amounts of attention and spur job growth at least in the world of ballot campaigns. The California Public Policy Institute is predicting that proponents and opponents of the initiative (which doesn't have a number yet) may spend more than $150 million and set a new spending record on the campaign. T...
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