The Top Ten Facts You Didn’t Know About Kochgate
10. Until the recent disclosures about funding for Proposition 23 in California, you probably hadn't heard much about Koch Industries because it's a family business, although it does $100 billion in sales per year. 9. Charles Koch co-founded the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank dedicated to saving companies like Koch from the horrors of government regulation. 8. Fred Koch, who founded the company, was a charter member of the John Birch Society, the folks who th...
CONTINUE READINGProp 23 and Little Oil
Prop 23 is getting national attention, including a story in the NY Times: Charles and David Koch, the billionaires who have played a prominent role in financing the Tea Party movement, donated $1 million to the campaign to suspend the Global Warming Solutions Act enacted four years ago, and signaled that they are prepared to invest more in the cause. With their contribution, proponents of the proposition have raised $8.2 million, with $7.9 million coming from energy firm...
CONTINUE READINGProp 23 and the Oil Companies
It is frequently said that "the oil companies" are financing Prop 23. This turns out to be a bit of an overgeneralization. According to Greenwire, While some companies are supporting Proposition 23, Shell Oil Co. opposes it, Chevron Corp. is officially neutral, Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC have decided not to get involved and ConocoPhillips has yet to contribute. Three oil refiners -- Valero Energy Corp., Tesoro Corp. and Koch Industries -- have contributed most of t...
CONTINUE READINGAnd They’re Off…California Proposes New Chemical Regulations
California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control just released its proposed “green chemistry” regulations. The regulations implement Assembly Bill 1879, which is a potential game-changer in how chemicals are regulated. Eschewing the conventional risk management approach embedded in existing federal and state statutes, the regulations require affected manufacturers to engage in an alternatives analysis of consumer products containing “chemicals of concern....
CONTINUE READINGPolitics versus Science in the 2010 Election Cycle
Here's some fairly depressing news from Wonk Room: Remarkably, of the dozens of Republicans vying for the 37 Senate seats in the 2010 election, only one — Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware — supports climate action. Even former climate advocates Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) now toe the science-doubting party line. Many of the Senate candidates are signatories of the Koch Industries’ Americans For Prosperity No Climate Tax pledge and the FreedomWorks...
CONTINUE READINGA Vigorous Global Response To a Systemic Issue (Why is Climate Change so Different?)
Imagine a problem: it's global; it stems from an extremely complex, interconnected system; it has major economic implications. Sounds like climate change, or in other words, like the kind of problem that the world can't seem to address effectively. But no, it's not Global Climate Change, it's Global Economic Change. And the world seems to be coalescing without much fuss around major regulatory initiatives. From the NY Times, a story about how the major governments...
CONTINUE READINGWelcoming A New Environmental Law Blog
Pace Law School has launched a new blog, Earth Law. The contributors include these Pace faculty members:David CassutoKarl CoplanAlexandra DunnDaniel EstrinRichard OttingerAnn PowersChristopher Rizzo We'll look forward to reading Green Law in days to come. There's far too much happening in the field for any one blog to cover, and of course, it's always good to have additional perspectives. ...
CONTINUE READINGWWWD (What Will Whitman Do) on Proposition 23 and AB 32? Whitman’s Seeing Green for the General Election
There's renewed attention today on both AB 32 -- California's sweeping climate change legislation -- and Proposition 23, the initiative that would derail it (see Rick's post here about several state AGs considering suing to overturn AB 32 as unconstitutional and his post here about Berkelely's study concluding, basically, that Prop 23 is a bad idea.) Californians will go to the polls in less than two months to decide AB 32's fate, aided by big time donations from the ...
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Law Faculty Searches
There are a fair number of law schools currently looking for environmental law teachers. I thought this information might be useful to people who are in the job market currently. Here are the searches that I'm aware of: American University Washington College of Law is looking for a tenure-track or tenured lateral environmental law professor. The preferred candidate would teach US Environmental Law with a scholarly focus on federal environmental law and regulation....
CONTINUE READINGState AGs Ready to Attack Constitutionality of California’s AB 32
An important postscript to my earlier post regarding Berkeley Law's/CLEE's newly-published white paper on Proposition 23. That's the California initiative measure that, if approved by voters this November, would suspend implementation of that state's Global Warming Solutions Act, better known as AB 32. The San Francisco Chronicle reports today that the Attorneys General of Alabama, Nebraska, North Dakota and Texas are devising an AB 32 back-up plan: if California voters...
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