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...
CONTINUE READINGYour Environmental Talmud Learning of the Day
This concerns one story of Honi the Circle-Maker, who famously demanded that God provide rain: "When he read [Psalm 126], which says, 'A song of ascent. When the Lord restores the fortunes of Zion, we see it as if in a dream," he was troubled. [Recalling that it was 70 years between the date of the Psalm and the restoration of the Temple], he said, how can someone sleep and dream for 70 years? "One day, he met a man who was planting a carob tree. He said to the m...
CONTINUE READINGStormy Weather
Tom Friedman has a nice column in the Times about climate change. He correctly points out that unusual snowstorms in D.C. do nothing to disprove climate change; if anything, he observes, such "weird" weather is just what you'd expect from a changing climate. And anyway, no one year or even decade of weather is definitive. To say that snow in D.C. disproves climate change is childish. It's about on the level of saying that Al Gore's views on climate can't be truste...
CONTINUE READINGThe “Write Your Own Permit” Approach to Climate Mitigation
We seem to be at an impasse. Cap-and-trade seems to be in political disrepute; market-oriented economists must find it aggravating that their idea is now considered too "liberal." Carbon taxes give politicians cardiac arrest. "Command and control" regulation is out of fashion. Perhaps it's time to try something new. Here's an alternative that has some of the same benefits as the familiar market mechanisms, but might be simpler to implement and more appealing to th...
CONTINUE READINGThe trouble with Chinatown
Ann proposes Chinatown as the greatest environmental movie of all time. Now, Chinatown is my favorite movie: the poster above is currently hanging on my office wall. it is a great movie. But Chinatown can't be a great environmental movie for one simple reason: It gets the environment wrong. The conceit of Chinatown is that a diabolical mogul, Noah Cross, essentially invented a water shortage so that the city of Los Angeles could build an aqueduct. Cross then ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Nuclear Option
According to an NYT report, President Obama has offered loan guarantees for two new reactors. If the project goes forward, it would be the first nuclear reactor built in the United States since the 1970s. In a speech in Lanham, Md., Mr. Obama announced government approval of an $8.3 billion loan guarantee to help the Southern Company build two reactors in Burke County, Ga., near Augusta. The proposal is to use an advanced passive design. "Passive" means that if the ...
CONTINUE READINGAnswering the Climategaters
Want to create a scandal? Just add "gate" to the end of any noun. Climategate is a good example. Real Climate ha an excellent post dissecting the charges of error in the IPCC report, which turn out to be quite insignificant (and some of them not even errors at all.) Of course, if you come three large dense volumes carefully enough, you can find some glitches. For example, here's the scoop on one of the few actual errors, on Himalayan glaciers: Himalayan glaci...
CONTINUE READINGA Website Named DSIRE
Those who are interested in Clean Tech, particularly from the investment point of view, will want to take a look at the DSIRE site. Sorry, it doesn't actually have anything to do with the Tennessee Williams play, I jsut couldn't resist the play on words. DSIRE stands for Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency. It's a comprehensive, state-by-state survey of incentives. So if you'd like to know about the twenty or so incentive programs in (say) R...
CONTINUE READINGPesticides, Science and Politics
Those three can make for a toxic environment, literally and figuratively. Take the case of methyl iodide, a material so obviously toxic that scientists use it to induce cancer in laboratory experiments. Arysta LifeScience Corporation has obtained a federal pesticide registration from EPA for use as a fumigant, despite a letter from 50 scientists, including five Nobel laureates, characterizing it as "one of the more toxic chemicals used in manufacturing." In the fa...
CONTINUE READINGSimple Answers to Simple Questions
After noting some positive poll results regarding climate change, Cara asks: So, can we get cracking on a clean energy and jobs bill in the Senate? No. This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions....
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