California Dump Trucks v. CARB
The California Dump Truck Owners Association ("CDTOA") filed suit in February 2011 against the California Air Resources Board ("CARB"). The suit alleges that CARB's Truck and Bus Regulation, which is part of the suite of regulations under AB 32 to address greenhouse gas emissions, is unconstitutional. CARB's Truck and Bus Regulation sets stricter emissions standards for dump trucks and other diesel-fuel vehicles. The regulation requires particulate matter retrofi...
CONTINUE READINGEducation and Views About Climate Change
A political science blog called the Monkey Cage (the name is a reference to an irreverent remark by H.L. Mencken) has an interesting post about education and views about climate change. As you would expect, education is positively correlated with a better understanding of the science -- but only for liberals. Educated conservatives are no more convinced, and perhaps less convinced, by the science than less educated conservatives. The following figure tells the stor...
CONTINUE READINGAB 32 Lawsuit: Assessing the Environmental Justice Arguments Against Cap and Trade
As Cara wrote yesterday, a California court has put AB 32 on hold temporarily on the grounds that in preparing its scoping plan, the California Air Resources Board failed to assess alternatives to its plan with appropriate detail. In particular, the court took issue with CARB's failure , under the California Environmental Quality Act, to assess carbon taxes as an alternative to an economy wide cap and trade scheme (though as both Cara and I have written, the court case...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Adaptation Across the Pond
In the U.K., climate adaptation is mandated by statute, with primary responsibility in a single government agency and specific implementation requirements for local authorities. In the U.S., we can only envy the extent to which even the current Conservative government is taking the issue of climate change seriously. A 2005 Climate Change Programme report helpfully assembled available information about climate impacts in England. The discussion of coastal flooding illu...
CONTINUE READINGRemembering Warren Christopher
News of the recent death of Warren Christopher prompted memories of a meeting I attended in 1987 -- several years before Christopher was appointed Secretary of State by Bill Clinton. A major California utility had hired Christopher’s Los Angeles law firm to take its side in a regulatory proceeding with several billion dollars at risk. The utility’s lawyers agreed to a meeting to consider the potential for settlement negotiations, and the meeting took place in the fir...
CONTINUE READINGThat’s “Chief Justice Bitch”
The ongoing Wisconsin saga of public sector union rights has, predictably, involved the state's Supreme Court. But in a much more personal way than one would think at first: The April 5th state Supreme Court election in Wisconsin, where incumbent Justice David Prosser is seeking re-election, is now being shaken up by news about the interactions on the court: Specifically, Prosser has admitted to calling Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, one of the court's liberals, "...
CONTINUE READINGCourt issues final ruling in AB 32 challenge — enjoins implementation of AB 32 scoping plan pending CEQA fixes
On Friday, a California superior court judge handed down his decision in the challenge, brought by environmental justice advocates, to the state's implementation of AB 32, California's landmark Global Warming Solutions Act. The decision is available here. More analysis to come. On first read, the decision looks very similar to the tentative decision issued by the court about a month ago (and discussed here and here). It holds in favor of the CA Air Resources B...
CONTINUE READINGJapan Nuclear Situation Now May Be “Stable,” Not “Critical.”
There is now some reason to think that the situation in Japan has stabilized. According to Bloomberg, Japan’s efforts to cool reactors at the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant had some success, with reports two of the six reactors are under control and a second electric cable has been connected to the station. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator, declared Units 5 and 6 safe after cooling water pumped into them reduced temperatures, the Associated Press reported. ...
CONTINUE READINGBill O’Reilly Adopts the Precautionary Principle
Ann Coulter has written a column arguing that low doses of regulation are actually good for you. Through the so-called hormesis effect, she says, the low doses stimulate the body's protective mechanisms and actually produce health benefits. She was interviewed by Bill O'Reilly about this. As Huffington reports: She repeated this assertion to a skeptical Bill O'Reilly, who told her that, even if there was scientific discussion going on about the effects of radiation, ...
CONTINUE READINGMultiple Failures Exposed Diablo Canyon to Higher Risk
It is a coincidence that the Union of Concerned Scientists has released a new report on nuclear power plant safety while the Japanese nuclear crisis continues to unfold. Yet, the heightened awareness that many people now have of the importance of nuclear plant cooling systems may put us in a better position to understand the significance of the UCS findings. The report highlights 14 “near misses” at U.S. nuclear plants in 2010, including one at California’s Diab...
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