Alaska aborts anti-ESA ad campaign
In February, Alaska lawmakers decided to launch a $1.5 million public relations campaign against the Endangered Species Act, and specifically against the listing of the polar bear as a threatened species. Later, they toned it down a bit, planning to use the money to hold a conference on polar bear listing and ask PR firms "to evaluate whether a public relations campaign . . . could diminish negative economic effects of the Endangered Species Act." Now it appears that ev...
CONTINUE READINGLet’s Not Play the Blame Game Here.
I feel that it is important to take a clear position regarding Jonathan's post this morning, which related to an alleged comment attributed by the press to me regarding a potential Supreme Court appointment. Candor is critical. Were mistakes made? Yes. Have we taken corrective action? Yes. The staff member responsible for the alleged comment is no longer with this office. In conclusion, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to my family and to the Am...
CONTINUE READINGSCOTUS Sweepstakes!
With the retirement of the 89-year-old John Paul Stevens, looking imminent, it's time for the Great Mentioner to, well, start mentioning. Legal Planet's own great mentioner, Dan Farber, commenting at TPM about the possibility of Solicitor General Elena Kagan getting the nod, observes "It would be hard for Republicans to explain how they voted to confirm her for solicitor general without hesitation but she is now unacceptable[.]" Dan, you couldn't have meant that, could...
CONTINUE READING…and another thing about electric rates and the environment…
Last week, I wrote about how a proposal to change the design of residential electric rates might get in the way of efforts to encourage energy efficiency. Sushil Jacob, a keen-eyed student in my Energy Regulation and the Environment class, points to another potential problem. PG&E, the largest utility providing service in California, wants to change its rates. Currently, residential customers pay higher rates the more power they demand. Customers who use a l...
CONTINUE READINGThe Ebb and Flow of Eastern American Forests
As today's WaPo explains, "Between 1630 and the nadir of Eastern forests in the late 1800s, the East lost about 1,000 acres of forest a day." Over the course of the 20th Century, the forests came back. But now they are under threat again from invasive insects, uncontrolled deer populations, and other ecological imbalances. "Already, scientists say, the Eastern forest is shrinking -- between 1997 and 2007, it was reduced by 1.4 million acres, an area larger than Del...
CONTINUE READINGEndangered listing for Delta smelt warranted but precluded
Finally completing work on a petition submitted by the Center for Biological Diversity in 2006, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that reclassifying the Delta smelt from threatened to endangered is "warranted but precluded." That means the population decline is dramatic enough to justify the conclusion that the smelt is in fact endangered, but FWS has too much else on its plate right now to do the work of reclassifying it. There is little doubt that the sm...
CONTINUE READINGDealing with water pollution from agriculture
Run-off from agricultural operations is a major source of water pollution, but remains essentially unregulated by the federal Clean Water Act. States have the legal authority to regulate agricultural pollution, but may be hampered by the lack clear models for doing so, as well as by political opposition. A new report from the Environmental Law and Policy Center, a Chicago-based environmental advocacy group, should at least help on the information side. The report, Culti...
CONTINUE READINGIndia and Climate Change law and policy event – April 9 at UCLA
Please excuse the shameless promotion, but readers in the LA area may be interested in an all-day symposium on India and Climate Change being held at UCLA Law next Friday. We’re excited to host cutting-edge conversations about India’s domestic climate change work and about how best to engage with India internationally, post-Copenhagen. More information on the conference, including panel topics, speakers and timing, is here. The event is free but registration i...
CONTINUE READINGEPA drops the hammer on mountaintop removal
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. Last week, I reported on EPA's proposed veto of a Clean Water Act section 404 permit for a major mountaintop removal coal mining project in West Virginia. My view at the time was something along the lines of two-and-a-half cheers. I wrote that it was very good news, but didn't articulate principals for distinguishing between acceptable and unacceptable mountaintop removal. Setting the proposed veto next to approval of the Hobet 45 project in Jan...
CONTINUE READINGThe Utah Legislature Flunks Law School
Holly mentions Utah's quixotic, somewhat deranged attempt to seize federal lands by eminent domain, correctly observing that federal law would pre-empt any state eminent domain action. One might also mention McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), which held that a state cannot tax a federal agency. If a state can't tax a federal agency, how in the world would it be constitutional to seize it? McCulloch is perhaps second only to Marbury v. Madison in terms of its foundational...
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