California Ocean Science Trust Releases Study Evaluating Alternatives for Decommissioning California’s Offshore Oil and Gas Platforms

Last week, the California Ocean Science Trust released a long-awaited study that synthesizes scientific and legal information to inform policymakers and stakeholders on alternative paths for the decommissioning of California’s offshore oil and gas platforms. 27 of these platforms operate off the coast of California, and eventually all of them will stop producing fossil fuel and will have to be decommissioned.  (I serve on the Expert Advisory Committee that has provi...

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New Energy Publications from the National Academy of Sciences

Assessment of Technologies for Improving Light Duty Vehicle Fuel Economy estimates the potential fuel savings and costs for three types of engines: spark-ignition gasoline, compression-ignition diesel, and hybrid.  Adapting the full combination of improved technologies in medium and large cars and pickup trucks with spark-ignition engines could reduce fuel consumption by 29 percent at an additional cost of $2,200. The Hidden Costs of Energy defines and evaluates k...

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“Facing Catastrophe”: A Roadmap to a Safer Future

Rob Verchick’s new book, “Facing Catastrophe: Environmental Action for a Post-Katrina World,” might help avoid future disasters like the Deepsea Horizon blowout. Verchick views wetlands, lakes, forests, and rivers as a kind of infrastructure, providing ecosystem services that are just as important as the services provided by other infrastructure such as roads and dams.  For instance, Gulf Coast wetlands provide a buffer against storm surges (protecting not only p...

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What’s in Your Juice?

NPR reported yesterday about a study by Environmental Law Foundation (ELF) of lead (that's right, lead) in juices and packaged fruits marketed for kids.  The group purchased single serving packages of juice and fruits and sent them to an EPA-certified laboratory for testing.  According to NPR, the group discovered that "[m]any individual servings of apple juice, grape juice, packaged peaches and pears and fruit cocktail .  .  . contained lead above the daily limit...

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“Murky” Resolution Vote

The Senate voted today on Sen. Murkowski's resolution to halt EPA regulation of greenhouse gases. The resolution was defeated by47 to 53.  What are we to make of the vote? The resolution was offered under the Congressional Review Act, which provides a fast-track mechanism for Congress to override agency regulations.  (The CRA, which was part of the Contract with America in the 1990s,  is a substitute for the kinds of "legislative vetoes" that the Supreme Court has f...

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Reforming the Reforms: Building Safe Alternatives into Safety Standards

Chemical policy reform is heating up at the federal level. Senator Lautenberg has introduced a comprehensive reform bill in the Senate, and Congressmen Rush and Waxman are circulating a discussion draft bill in the House.  In their current form, both the Lautenberg bill and the Rush/Waxman discussion draft rely upon risk-based safety standards to protect against toxic chemicals.  Although this approach has clear advantages over the existing process under the Toxic Su...

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Prop 16 Defeated

Prop 16 was a California ballot measure designed to make it harder for local governments to get into the market as electricity sellers.  A CLEE White Paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the proposal.  Prop 16 was defeated by 52-48%.  PG&E and its parent company had spent $46 million to push the measure, while opponents spent virtually nothing.  Apparently vote buying has its limits, even in the bizarre world of California popular democracy....

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A Corporate Culture of Criminal Recklessness?

That Washington Post has a detailed story that details BP's culture of carelessness: Taken together, these documents portray a company that systemically ignored its own safety policies across its North American operations -- from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico to California and Texas. Executives were not held accountable for the failures, and some were promoted despite them. What's most disturbing in the story is BP's history of filing false reports and suppressing worker ...

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BP’s pollution: not just the oil spill, according to The Onion

I can't resist pointing out this article from America's Finest News Source, The Onion, about the BP spill (continuing Dan's introduction of off-color expressions into Legal Planet).  The Onion mocks BP's handling of the oil spill by characterizing the company as spewing out something else rather vile (a common expression for insincere or deceitful talk) from its corporate headquarters.  Part of what makes this funny (and even more so, part of what makes it sad) is th...

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Reflections on the BP disaster and today’s Bhopal criminal verdict

As Dan has pointed out, there has been discussion of possible criminal liability for BP for its conduct leading to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  David Uhlmann of the University of Michigan, a  former federal environmental criminal prosecutor, has expressed optimism that a robust criminal prosecution of BP would appropriately punish BP, make it more likely that victims will be compensated, and "send a clear message that an environmental disaster of this magnitude c...

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