Meet the new BOEMRE, same as the old MMS
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. The Minerals Management Service within the Department of Interior was responsible for overseeing offshore oil development in federal waters from its creation in 1982 until its demise earlier this year. MMS was always a troubled agency, to put it mildly, dogged by scandals and a revolving door with the industry it regulates. After the Deepwater Horizon incident made its failings obvious, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar reorganized MMS out of exist...
CONTINUE READINGDry as Dust
A new literature survey and synthesis has some grim news about drought: Dry periods lasting for years to decades have occurred many times during the last millennium over, for example, North America, West Africa, and East Asia. . . . Climate models project increased aridity in the 21st century over most of Africa, southern Europe and the Middle East, most of the Americas, Australia, and Southeast Asia. Regions like the United States have avoided prolonged droughts...
CONTINUE READINGOne Fish, Two Fish, Old Fish, New Fish
The NY Times has a nice series on a field expedition studying biodiversity in the Amazon. Here's a sample paragraph to go with the picture above: As they pick through the specimens, bent over the table with their heads close together, they're carrying on one of those scientific conversations that are conducted so entirely in shorthand that they sound disappointingly primitive to a non-specialist . . . Any doubts about the sophistication of the enterprise...
CONTINUE READINGPutting the English on Climate Adaptation
As part of a research project on climate adaptation, I had occasion to look at what the British are doing. The Adaptation Subcommittee of the Climate Change Committee has done some excellent work to address adaptation issues. Besides planning, the Subcommittee has begun to assess progress to date, finding some improvements in capacity building but a lack of consistent implementation. The U.K. Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP) offers some nifty adaptation tools, i...
CONTINUE READINGWhy Republicans Should Support Proposition 21
In my lonely quest to get people interested in Proposition 21, I've written other posts about it, and tried to answer objections. But one objection, usually offered by Republicans, deserves a closer look, because addressing it means that Republicans should vote for Proposition 21 even if one accepts their premises about the Legislature and the budget. Proposition 21 would impose an $18-per-year addition to the state's Vehicle License Fee, and create a trust fund for t...
CONTINUE READINGKing Canute Meets the BP Spill
King Canute famously ordered the waves to retreat from the shore. In a gesture of nearly equal futility, the State of Louisiana is building giant sand berms. Unlike King Canute's gesture, however, Louisiana's is not only futile but harmful. Also, Canute knew his gesture was pointless; his explanation was that he wanted to illustrate the limits of human power. Louisiana is yet to admit that it's berms are merely a boondoggle. Is the berm doing any good? No, acc...
CONTINUE READINGThe Feds Take On Climate Adaptation
On October 14, the White House's Climate Change Adaptation Task Force released its recommendations to President Obama for how agencies can better prepare the United States to respond to the impacts of climate change. Once again we are reminded of how important it is to have an Administration that takes climate science seriously. According to the scientists, even if we curb emissions, global temperatures will continue to rise for decades, bringing along with them ...
CONTINUE READINGUCLA hosts live debate on Proposition 23 this Thursday evening
This Thursday evening, UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability will be hosting a live debate on Proposition 23, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, KPCC-FM (one of our NPR affiliates in Southern California), and UCLA Law's Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment. More information on the debate, including a registration link, is here. If you're in Los Angeles and interested in attending, please register in advance to guarantee your seat...
CONTINUE READINGNudging State Parks
The Sacramento Bee comes through with another essential backgrounder on Proposition 21. Among the takeaway points: *The parks have a $1 billion maintenance backlog; *Nationwide experts consider the California system to be the nation's most endangered; *Among those 10 states with the nation's biggest systems, only California and Massachusetts lack a dedicated funding source. The most recent state to adopt a specific charge was Montana, famed for its left-liberal dee...
CONTINUE READINGWhat to do about those coal plants we already have…
The California Public Utilities Commission looked pretty good, back in 2007, when it created a rule prohibiting utilities from making new long-term investments in power plants emitting more carbon dioxide than an efficient natural gas plant. That meant no new conventional coal plants, which emit twice as much carbon dioxide as a natural gas plant. The Legislature liked what the Commission did so much that it created a new statute assuring that the Commission could not ...
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