New on Ecology Law Currents
Ecology Law Currents, the online companion to Ecology Law Quarterly, has two new articles: CERCLA’s Unrecoverable Natural Resource Damages: Injuries to Cultural Resources and Services, by Sarah Peterman, arguing that CERCLA does not permit recovery of damages for the loss of "cultural services" performed by injured natural resources, notwithstanding the Department of Interior's contrary interpretation. 7th Annual EJ Symposium — Hungry for Justice: Growing an Eq...
CONTINUE READINGLegal Planet turns two
A year ago, Dan declared March 10 the birthday of Legal Planet. As he explained in that post, the blog's actual birthday is indeterminate, but March 10 is close enough and having put it out there we might as well stick with it. When we launched the blog, none of us were sure how long it would go on, how much we would have to say, or whether anyone would be interested. Since we're law professors, it's probably not surprising that it turns out we like to spout off about a...
CONTINUE READINGWhat are the Top 10 Natural Resources Stories?
Lots of folks in legal academia are familiar with Foundation Press' popular Law Stories series; around here on Legal Planet, we are particularly familiar with Environmental Law Stories (pictured right), edited by Richard Lazarus and Oliver Houck, to which Dan and Holly contributed a chapter. It's a very useful book, and I'm a fan. But I couldn't help thinking that we could also use a volume focusing on Natural Resources. Standard environmental law classes focus on...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Change Impacts in China
The received wisdom used to be that climate change would have relatively little impact on China. But that views seems outdated. Like the United States, China is large and geographically diverse; as such, the impacts of climate change vary across the country. For example, the Chinese government reports that the “frequency of heat waves in summer has increased and droughts have worsened in some areas, especially in northern China; heavy precipitation has increased in ...
CONTINUE READINGPeak Oil Prices?
Oil prices are currently being pushed up by uncertainty about supply from the Middle East. Well before that crisis, Deutsche Bank was predicting $175/barrel oil five years from now. Predicting future oil prices is a tricky venture, and the track record for past predictions has been mixed. The two factors that foretell price increases over the long-term are the exhaustion of cheap, easily accessible sources of oil; and increased demand as China and India get into t...
CONTINUE READINGNot even NASA rockets are cooperating with climate scientists these days
I heard renowned climate scientist Dr. James Hansen speak at UCLA last week, and one of his key messages was that we need to get a better handle on the importance and effect of aerosols on the Earth's warming. He was quite excited about the launch of a new NASA satellite that would gather data to tell us more about aerosols and their effects. This morning, that launch failed and the satellite crashed into the southern Pacific. Read the story here and here. A...
CONTINUE READINGThe question of triage
The latest Delta report issued by the Public Policy Institute of California goes well beyond the Delta. Titled Managing California's Water: From Conflict to Resolution, the report takes on the entire water management structure set up by state and federal law. There's a lot in the report, which should be required reading for anyone interested in California water management, or more generally in the tensions between environmental protection and resource exploitation. Perh...
CONTINUE READINGMichele Bachmann’s Unconstitutional Light-Bulb Bill
Michele Bachmann has introduced legislation to overturn the statute requiring the use of energy-efficient light bulbs, according to E&E News. One feature of the bill is its escape valve: Bachmann's bill would allow the mandate to stand if the Government Accountability Office can prove the energy efficient bulbs would meet three criteria: that they provide real cost savings for consumers, significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions and do not produce health risk...
CONTINUE READINGBoehner Tweet on Plastics Sums Up Republican Disdain for the Environment
In hardly the biggest news story of the day, but one that really irks me, House Speaker John Boehner tweeted this morning, "The new majority -- plasticware is back." He's referring to the move by the Republican majority to eliminate deposed Speaker Nancy Pelosi's initiative to green the House of Representatives. The initiative included -- among other things -- the use of biodegradable trays, flatware and coffee cups in place of traditional plastic and styrofoam in th...
CONTINUE READINGDesigning City Streets That Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
In the U.S., city planners have typically designed streets to enhance the comfort of the driver. Unfortunately, the very qualities that serve this goal tend to discourage foot traffic, bicycles, and transit use. The result is that standard street design tends to encourage activities that increase greenhouse gas emissions, and discourage more efficient ways to move around. In a new report from the City Streets Project (an initiative from Berkeley Law’s Center for Law...
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