Economy v. Environment Directly at Issue in Lifting of Drilling Ban
As oil continues to gush into the gulf -- more bad news on that front today -- a federal judge with financial ties to the oil drilling industry has issued an injunction lifting the federal government's moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf. The legal intricacies of the lifting of the ban, while interesting to law nerds, are in my view completely subservient to the values clash the court case raises. The judge made that clear in his order lifting the ban: "oi...
CONTINUE READING“Africa Is Dying”
This was the sobering message I received last week as part of a delegation to Senegal from the American Jewish World Service. Senegal is in the Sahel, a 1,000 kilometer-wide African region between the Sahara on the north and the sub-tropics to the south. It is relatively well-watered, but is nevertheless a poster child for desertification that is chewing up millions of square miles across the globe. We think of places like Darfur as a desert, but it has not always b...
CONTINUE READINGAs the Gulf Bleeds Crude Oil, Alberta’s Tar Sands Provide a Test
If you were President Obama, what would you do about the tar sands fields in Alberta? He is being asked to approve or reject a pipeline extension that would carry 900,000 barrels per day of Canadian crude deep into the United States. It has to be exceedingly tempting to just say “yes”. After all, Canada is our biggest and friendliest source of oil, and at least the oil wouldn’t be coming from offshore. And no one expects the U.S. to cut off its demand for o...
CONTINUE READINGU.S. Supreme Court Issues Decision in Monsanto case
The U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision today in Monsanto v. Geertson Seed Farms, a case involving Monsanto's efforts to introduce Roundup Ready Alfalfa, a genetically modified crop engineered to tolerate the herbicide Roundup. The Court, on a 7-1 vote (Stevens dissenting, Bryer recused), held in favor of Monsanto but did so in a way that leaves standing a lower court decision preventing Monsanto from introducing the alfalfa crop until the government co...
CONTINUE READINGCara Won’t Be Blogging for a While, With Good Reason
I am happy to report that Cara Horowitz, the Executive Director of the Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA Law, and her husband Stefan Grunspan are the proud parents of Molly Claire Grunspan. Molly joined the world on June 10. So if you miss Cara's blogging for the next several months you'll understand why. Congratulations to Cara and family!...
CONTINUE READINGJerry Brown and the Environment
Unlike Meg Whitman's website, Brown's website features the environment front and center, with long lists of his environmental accomplishments as California Attorney General and in his time as Governor. I was particularly interested in what he said about his accomplishments as mayor of Oakland, which (according to the website) included: • Reducing Greenhouse Gases: Under Brown’s leadership Oakland became the second city in the nation to accept mandatory Green ...
CONTINUE READINGFumigants Take Center Stage in California
I wrote previously about the strange story of methyl iodide, a chemical purposely used by researchers to cause cancer in labs, being proposed for use as a fumigant for strawberry production in California. The New York Times recently covered a legislative hearing by the California Senate Food and Agriculture Committee in which the members of an external scientific review panel lambasted California regulators for approving the chemical as a fumigant. Dr. Joh...
CONTINUE READINGMeg Whitman and the Environment
I thought it would be useful to review the environmental positions of the key candidates in California. My goal is to be informative rather than evaluative. I'm beginning with Meg Whitman. She's not exactly "Ms. Environment." In an op. ed last year, Meg Whitman (the GOP gubernatorial candidate) called for a suspension of AB32, as Ann Carlson reported on this blog. As a result, Schwarzenegger says he may not endorse her. Whitman has been outspoken on the sub...
CONTINUE READINGToxic Chemicals (3)
This is the third (and for now, the last) in a series of posts on toxic chemicals. Like the earlier two, it addresses a recent paper on the subject, This one, by Vermont's Martha Judy and RFF's Katherine Probst, is about "Superfund at 30." Superfund -- more officially the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Clean-up Act or CERCLA -- is of course the federal statute governing clean-ups of hazardous waste sites. The fund has received over $30 billion...
CONTINUE READINGFannie and Freddie stop the PACE of clean energy
One of the biggest barriers to getting homeowners to retrofit their homes to make them more energy efficient and install renewables like solar panels is the high up front costs. While these investments pay out over time, most residents lack the thousands of dollars they need to pay for these upgrades. The City of Berkeley developed an ingenious method to overcome this problem that has gone viral across the country. Under the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program,...
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