The Schwarzenegger Legacy: Environmentalism on the Cheap
As Californians say "hasta la vista, baby" to Governor Schwarzenegger this morning, media retrospectives have focused on his environmental accomplishments as one of his few positive legacies. Specifically, they point to his signing of AB 32, the landmark climate change law limiting the state's greenhouse gas emissions. And Schwarzenegger himself likes to think of himself as an environmentally friendly Republican. But how "green" was his administration? While the Go...
CONTINUE READINGThe Legal Underpinnings of EPA’s Climate Rules
The Clean Air Act is a formidably technical and complex statute -- I often tell my students that it's like the Internal Revenue Code except not as clearly written. But even those who know the statute may have been surprised by a couple of provisions that EPA is using to address greenhouse gases. The first provision is buried in the section governing pollution requirements for new stationary sources like power plants. Mostly, these requirements involve pollutants tha...
CONTINUE READINGChanging the Climate in the Bay State
Massachusetts has adopted an ambitious goal of reducing GHG levels 20% below the 1990 level by 2020. According the NY Times, the program involves a mix of tools: Importing more hydropower from Quebec. Reducing vehicle miles driven through insurance incentives. Encouraging owners of old oil furnaces to replace them with more efficient systems. Using the existing cap-and-trade system adopted by Northeastern states to control emissions from electricity generators. E...
CONTINUE READINGWhat to Expect This Year in Terms of Climate Action
Although there will be many flashing lights and loud noises, 2011 will primarily be a year in which various events that are already in play evolve toward major developments in 2012. Litigation. The one exceptional major development in 2011 will be American Electric Power (AEP) v. Connecticut, the climate nuisance case that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear. The odds are good that the Court will throw out the case, the interesting question being what ground the Cour...
CONTINUE READINGEPA Takes the First Step
The NY Times has a story about EPA's climate change regs that doesn't contain anything newsworthy but does get the facts right. The key facts are these: 1. EPA has little choice about regulating given the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Clean Air Act in 2007. "With Mr. Obama’s hand forced by the mandates of the Clean Air Act and a 2007 Supreme Court decision, his E.P.A. will impose the first regulation of major stationary sources of greenhouse gases star...
CONTINUE READINGThe Incoming Congressional Freshmen
Politico has a nice posting about the incoming freshman GOP in the House and their views on environment and energy issues. The bottom line: House Republican freshmen looking to make names for themselves on energy issues in the next Congress have some goals in common: Ramp up domestic energy production, roll back the Obama administration’s environmental rules and ensure that cap-and-trade stays dead. Like the Bush Administration, these freshmen seem mostly to be orien...
CONTINUE READINGMore Garbage Conservative Constitutional Theory
James Joyner is one of the few conservatives who actually try to come up with intellectually coherent policy positions, and he often does. So maybe we should give him a pass when he blows it. But wow, is this one a doozy. The EPA has decided to begin to issue greenhouse gas regulations, as it is entitled to do both by the plain meaning of the Clean Air Act and by Supreme Court precedent directly on point. Yet somehow Joyner insists that this is ruling by “execut...
CONTINUE READINGObama, the GOP, and the Environment
The NY Times has a Christmas Day editorial about the need for the President to take a strong stance in defense of EPA: Republicans in the next Congress are obviously set on limiting the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate a wide range of air pollutants — even if it means denying the agency money to run its programs and chaining its administrator, Lisa Jackson, to the witness stand. Fred Upton, who will become the next chair...
CONTINUE READINGHappy Birthday, EPA!
Forty years ago, President Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency by Executive Order. Here are some of the achievements that EPA lists on its EPA@40 website: [W]e've reduced 60% of the dangerous air pollutants that cause smog, acid rain, lead poisoning and more. clean air innovations like smokestack scrubbers and catalytic converters in automobiles have helped. Today, new cars are 98 percent cleaner than in 1970 in terms of smog-forming pollutants. Sixty-pe...
CONTINUE READINGDon’t Know Much Biology
Actually, I'm fond of the song, but the headline isn't really accurate as a description of the public's views of evolution. The (relatively) good news, according to Gallup, is that "only" 40% of the public think that humans were created in their present form in the last ten thousand years. Obviously, they "don't know much about biology," so the song is right as far as it goes, but they also don't know a thing about atomic physics, which is the way we know just how old...
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