UVA Defends Academic Freedom
The Virgnia Attorney General, taking a little time off from his frivolous litigation against healthcare reform, is engaged in a fishing expedition against the University of Virginia. He has issued a sweeping civil investigative demand (CID) for university records relating to climate researcher Michael Mann, for no evident legitimate purpose. After some equivocation, the University has decided to fight the document demand. The University President said that issuan...
CONTINUE READINGBlame and the BP Oil Spill
Like most observers, I suspect, I find myself so enraged by the BP oil spill I don't even know where to direct my anger. Obviously, BP should be at the top -- Dan was appropriately eloquent in his word choice by calling the company's series of errors and negligent acts a cluster%#@*. And the federal government, particularly the Mineral Management Service, was simply the handmaiden of the oil companies, requiring virtually nothing of them despite environmental stat...
CONTINUE READINGNatural Gas from Shale: The Next Energy Boom? The New Climate Solution?
Steve Levine has an interesting article in TNR touting shale gas as the Next Big Thing in the energy world. He predicts falling oil prices (as low as $30/barrel) and geopolitical dislocations. He does observe, however, that there are some unresolved environmental issues. Some of those issues are addressed in a programmatic EIS that's available on-line. The economics of coal versus shale is discussed here. According to Climate Progress, The bottom line is stagge...
CONTINUE READINGComer craziness: Appellate nuisance victory overturned, despite lack of quorum (!)
Question: If an 3-judge panel on an appellate court unanimously reverses a D Ct opinion, and the full Circuit lacks a quorum to reconsider the substance of that appellate panel decision, what happens? If you answered "the appellate panel decision survives," you'd be supported by a certain (which is to say, all) logic -- but try telling that to the Fifth Circuit. Hat tip to Prof. James May of Widener University School of Law on this one: Apparently the Fifth Circuit jus...
CONTINUE READINGToday’s Oil Spill News
BP is attempting the "top kill" method of stemming the leak with uncertain results as of yet. Early results are encouraging, and we all hope for the best. In other developments: According to the White House, President Obama will announce six-month extension of moratorium on drilling new wells and will cancel new lease sales off the coasts of Alaska, Virginia. Obama will hold a full-scale news conference about the oil spill as well. The director of the U.S. Minera...
CONTINUE READING“Why can’t we just make it legal?”
No, not that. The developer in the video below asks the question about building communities that feature walkable spaces, a mix of uses, and more compact development near transit. Most local government land use laws now make them illegal, but they are critical to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from driving, preserving open space, and giving consumers more housing options. The video from American Makeover represents an interesting PR effort to show the problems associa...
CONTINUE READINGA Two-Word Phrase Beginning with “Cluster” and Rhyming with “Luck”
Here's the latest on the causes of the Gulf blowout. According to WaPo's Steve Mufson, BP's internal investigation of the Gulf Coast oil spill points to a series of equipment failures, mistakes and missed warning signs that led to the blowout and fire on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, according to lawmakers briefed by the company. . . Once the blowout began, all the systems in place to prevent disaster broke down in serial fashion, the memorandum said, "including th...
CONTINUE READINGThe Oceans Heat Up
Here's the data from the latest research in Nature, courtesy of Real Climate: I'm sure that at least some economists will view this as a desirable development: soon we're going to have our very own planetary hot tub! ...
CONTINUE READINGCarbon Sequestration: Is There a Lesson from Offshore Drilling?
When he lifted the moratorium on new offshore leasing in July of 2008, President Bush assured us that "advances in technology have made it possible to conduct oil exploration in the OCS that is out of sight, protects coral reefs and habitats, and protects against oil spills." We know now that he was wrong, in part because drilling has pushed into newer and deeper waters where technologies have not yet become tried and true. I'm not bringing up his statement as a belate...
CONTINUE READINGIn Memoriam: Jamie Grodsky
We learned this weekend of the tragic death of Jamie Grodsky, a rising star in environmental law who taught at George Washington University. She died after a brief illness. Jamie joined the GW faculty in 2006, after serving as an associate professor of law at the University of Minnesota Law School. Jamie was a meticulous scholar and deeply dedicated teacher. She recently served as a co-investigator on a multi-university NIH grant dealing with the impacts of new bio...
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