The BP Oil Spill and the Disappearing Louisiana Coast
In his book Bayou Farewell, Mike Tidwell tells some haunting stories about the rapid disappearance of the Louisiana coast from his time with Cajun fisherman. Here's one story: “We all pile into the crab boat and Tim tells his son to head down the bayou. A few hundred feet away . . . Time points toward a watery stretch of march grass oddly littered with bricks and concrete. “’It’s a cemetery,’ he says. “There, shockingly, along the grassy bayou bank, I c...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Environmental Blueprint: Protect and Restore Funding
This post is part of an ongoing series on our Environmental Blueprint for California, released by UCLA Law last week. I'll talk about the first--and, in many ways, most fundamental--recommendation in our paper: that Governor Brown do what he can to protect and restore stable, robust funding for our State’s core environmental initiatives. My coauthors and I recognize that any conversation about the State’s priorities has to begin with the reality of our broken bud...
CONTINUE READINGNice Start on That Renewable Power, LADWP — Now Get to Work!
In a blog entry on January 14th, Ann Carlson offered strokes to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for announcing success in reaching its goal of 20% renewable power. Ann appropriately pointed out that much work lies ahead for LADWP, since most of the new renewable power came in the form of short term contracts. Firming up a significant renewable percentage will take concerted effort. It is laudable that LADWP has made as much progress as it has in ad...
CONTINUE READINGThere’s No Such Thing as Global Warming, Nope, None at All
From the NY Times blog today: New figures issued on Thursday in Britain show that 2010 was the second-warmest year in the historical record. That comes on the heels of reports last week from two American agencies that 2010 was tied for the warmest year in the record books. All three sets of numbers come from scientific programs that conduct rigorous analysis of the surface temperature of the earth, using thermometers and other instruments distributed across the globe. ...
CONTINUE READINGFunding dam removal
Many of you have probably heard of the settlement agreements in Klamath River Basin. For those who have not, the short version is that most participants signed two agreements: the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement. The Hydroelectric Settlement lays out a process that could culminate in the removal of four dams on the Klamath river, all owned by PacifiCorp. (A summary of the agreements is here.) Last week, PacifiCorp...
CONTINUE READINGA Roadmap for Sustainable Consumption
Individual consumption – including household heating and cooling as well as non-business transportation – creates roughly one-third of U.S. energy use and carbon emissions. It would feasible to reduce these emissions by twenty percent in a decade: there is a lot of low-hanging fruit yet to be picked. A range of individual actions, while seemingly minor, could dramatically reduce household energy consumption. To name just a few, individuals could reduce idling of c...
CONTINUE READINGSeeing Nature Through Conservation Eyes
There's a cool new video on "conservation biology," which you can find here. It has fabulous photos, as well as interesting commentary on the role of photography in prompting conservation. The photo to the left is an early example: a 19th century shot of Yellowstone that helped prompt the creation of the national park there. The photographer, William Henry Jackson, was an important 19th century photographer and painter who died at the age of 99 i...
CONTINUE READINGLos Angeles and Renewable Energy
Much to the surprise of many observers, including me, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (the country's largest municipally-owned utility) has met its 2010 goal of providing 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources. I've written previously about the implementation problems LADWP and other utilities are likely to face in cutting greenhouse gas emissions, including transmission issues, siting difficulties, pressure from workers to find in-state sup...
CONTINUE READINGNew CEQ Guidance on NEPA & Mitigation
The CEQ has issued new guidance to agencies regarding the use of mitigation. An environmental impact statement is required when a project has a significant environmental impact. Agencies frequently avoid the need for a full-scale environmental impact statement with plans to mitigate the impacts below the threshold of significance. NEPA aficionados call this a "mitigated FONSI," with FONSI standing for "Finding of No Significant Impact." But the mitigation plans are...
CONTINUE READINGEverything You Always Wanted to Know About Federal Preemption But Were Afraid to Ask
When is a state law preempted by a federal law on the same subject? This is a notoriously messy area of Supreme Court jurisprudence. For those interested in a quick introduction to the subject, I've written a paper that provides an overview of federal preemption law, which appears on the site of the Uniform Law Commissioners as part of their project on federalism and state law. The paper is designed as a background survey rather than either an advocacy piece or a co...
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