Changing 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...
CONTINUE READINGGOP Environmental Policy FAIL
Last month, when discussing the egregious subsidies for ethanol that expire this year, I commented, "Here is a great test to see whether Republican anti-government and anti-spending rhetoric is any more than that." Well, so much for that: Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dinneen says they are thrilled with passage of the Senate tax package that includes a one year extension of current ethanol tax incentives.... Dinneen says the blender’s tax credit has been ...
CONTINUE READINGWhite House scientific integrity guidelines — a long wait for not much
Early on in the Obama administration, promoting scientific integrity in government decisionmaking seemed to be a high priority. Less than 2 months after his inauguration, the President issued a memorandum giving the Office of Science and Technology Policy 4 months to "develop recommendations for Presidential action designed to guarantee scientific integrity throughout the executive branch." On December 17, OSTP Director John Holdren finally issued his own memorandum in r...
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