IPhone App to Counter Climate Skeptics

Jonathan and I have had a somewhat spirited debate about what to do about Climategate (see here and here).  I just found one perhaps small but very smart answer:  an IPhone app that lists top arguments from climate skeptics and succinct rebuttals. The arguments are divided into three categories:  "it's not happening," "it's not us" and "it's not bad."  The arguments are set forth pithily (e.g., "the sun is warming") and answered in a few quick sentences (e.g., "In th...

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DOE Bets on Central Station Solar — Is It the Right Horse?

Congratulations to Oakland’s BrightSource Energy Inc. for winning the largest federal loan guarantee for a renewable energy project thus far -- $1.37 billion for the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, to be constructed in the Mojave Desert.  For an observer like me – one who is most definitely not a financial markets expert – the U.S. Department of Energy’s decision to back the Ivanpah project leaves unanswered questions. Is this the best way for DOE t...

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AB 32 Opposition and Truth in Advertising

While some politicians have called publicly for the suspension of AB 32 until the economy recovers (see here and here for details), a more behind-the-scenes effort to undercut the implementation of California's global warming bill is also taking place.  The AB 32 Implementation Group ("IG") says it  "represents large and small business that are vital to California's economy and that provide hundreds of thousands of jobs."  It describes its mission  as providing a co...

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New Approaches to Analyzing Uncertainty

Conventional risk analysis is not well equipped to analyze actions with unknown probabilities and potentially disastrous consequences, and uncertainty in these situations is especially dangerous.  The precautionary principle provides some guidance about these problems, but lacks specificity.  We urgently need new ways of thinking about these issues. Luckily, some new techniques have emerged for appraising potential catastrophic outcomes.  These techniques can be ap...

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Keeping Up With EPA’s Rulemaking Efforts

A new Web-based "dashboard" is now available on EPA's Web site.  Created by the Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation, this site provides a transparent way to keep track of the agency’s priority rulemakings. It provides users with earlier and more targeted information as well as special filters that allow users to find rules and related documents that interest them. This tool should be especially useful to those tracking issues involving  environmental justice...

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Lining up for endangerment litigation

February 16 marked the deadline to challenge EPA's finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare in federal court. According to BNA's Environment Reporter, 16 such challenges were filed. The earliest seems to have come from an entity called the "Coalition for Responsible Regulation," joined by mining and livestock interests (hat tip to Global Climate Law Blog). The most high-profile litigants may be the states of Texas, Alabama, and Virginia. T...

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Tracking U.S. Climate Change Litigation

The most famous case about climate change is Massachusetts v. EPA, which led to a key decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.  But there have been dozens of other lawsuits, and more are coming all the time.  Fortunately, there's a handy on-line resource for tracking all these cases.  It's worth taking a look at....

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White House Draft Guidance on Climate Change and Environmental Impact Statements

The Council on Environmental Quality has issued a draft guidance to agencies on treatment of greenhouse gases.  The key point is that emissions exceeding 25,000 tons per year of CO2 will be considered a "significant environmental impact" and require preparation of an environmental impact statement. Overall, of course, this is a huge step forward. One point that does deserve further attention is the discussion of land use. On a fairly quick read, I'm not clear on the ...

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Yvo gives up, quits UNFCCC

In one more sign that making climate progress on the international front has become a difficult slog of late,  UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer announced his surprise resignation today.  NYT has the story here, and the UN statement is here.  Speculation is that he was beaten down by the failure to reach a legally binding outcome in Copenhagen, as suggested in the NYT piece: Those who worked with Mr. de Boer were not completely surprised by his resignation. He w...

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The Delta: pumps, politics, and (fish) populations

Cross-posted at CPRBlog The past couple of weeks have been crazier than usual on the Bay-Delta. The pumps were first ramped up and then ramped down. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) pandered to the irrigation crowd (or at least a part of it) by proposing to ease endangered species protections in the Delta. And the fall-run chinook salmon population, which supports the commercial fishery, crashed. First, the pumps. Recall that last fall Judge Oliver Wanger ruled that the...

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