New NEPA procedures for offshore drilling
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. Today the White House Council on Environmental Quality issued a report on the NEPA analysis that preceded exploratory drilling at the ill-fated Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, together with recommendations for improving NEPA analysis in the future. According to CEQ, the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (successor to the disgraced Minerals Management Service) has already agreed to implement the recommendations. The report offers a detai...
CONTINUE READINGThe Reverend Bayes Visits Russia
In a post last week, I discussed how Bayesian analysis could help with determining whether certain events are due to climate change -- and by the same token, how events can help reinforce the evidence for climate change. The Russian heat wave is a case in point. As the Economist explains: According to Geert Jan van Oldenborgh of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, a straightforward comparison of the temperatures seen in European Russia this summer with t...
CONTINUE READINGA Beet Generation
On Friday, a federal judge revoked USDA's approval of Roundup-ready sugar beets. Sugar beets are planted on ten million acres in ten states. The order was based on USDA's failure to perform an environmental impact statement prior to the approval. Given that USDA's raison d'etre is promoting agribusiness, it's not surprising that environmental concerns are a low priority. Friday's ruling related to remedies in light of the Supreme Court's recent decision in ...
CONTINUE READING20 Worst Environmental Destroyers of All Time
My friend and colleague Steve Bainbridge picks up on a list going around Red Blogistan, concerning the supposed "20 Worst Americans of All Time." Steve's a conservative Republican, and has no love for progressive politics, but even he says, "I find the collated list pretty much of a joke. It reflects the partisan passions of the moment, not anything resembling a serious verdict of history." Steve's list is much better, with one or two exceptions. But that got me ...
CONTINUE READINGTell Your Reverend To Go Jump In The Lake
Dan, your post is thoroughly persuasive to me, but I'm not sure that it would persuade many climate skeptics. Â There are two reasons for this: 1) Â You assume that there is at least a 50/50 chance of climate change occurring. Â That is a highly conservative assumption -- except for climate skeptics. Â Most climate skeptics are not unpersuaded by the science based upon scientific reasoning: they believe that climate change is hoax being perpetrated by a liberal cabal. Â...
CONTINUE READINGThe Reverend Bayes Visits Lake Mead
Land Letter reports that Lake Mead has continued to recede in the face of an 11-year drought, as we are apparently heading into a La Nina period that will probably continue the drought. This will put some pressure on adaptation measures, particular in terms of Las Vegas: For Las Vegas, which draws 90 percent of its water supply from the lake, the worst-case scenario would occur if the surface drops below the lower of the city's two intakes to 1,000 feet, cutting off th...
CONTINUE READINGA Question on Agency Pre-emption of State Law
Dan, any reason to think that the powers that be will actually pay any attention to the ABA? As you know, the Bush Administration formally decided to ignore it regarding judicial appointments. On something like this, does the ABA have any status greater than your typical interest group? It would be interesting to see the reaction of the Administrative Conference of the United States, a very useful agency charged with making recommendations about improving federal bu...
CONTINUE READINGAgency Preemption of State Law
Administrative agencies sometimes issue regulations that have the effect of overruling state law -- and sometimes that is the sole effect of the regulation. This proved quite controversial during the Bush Administration, which used agency rulemaking efforts to cut back on state tort law. The ABA has a adopted a new resolution dealing with this issue. The resolution reads: RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges Congress to address foreseeable preemption ...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Change, Afghanistan, and the Model Penal Code
It's hard to look at this week cover of Time and not want to remain in Afghanistan. That was probably the magazine's intention. But let's do a quick cost-benefit analysis here.  I have argued elsewhere that we could save far more women from repression, violence, and brutality by taking all the money and effort we are currently using in Afghanistan, and fighting the sex trade, forced prostitution, slavery (still victimizing 27 million people worldwide), and the degra...
CONTINUE READINGUpton Sinclair and Climate Change (Lack of) Policy
You know that things are getting bad when cool-and-collected Ann Carlson asks whether climate deniers and foot-draggers can sleep at night. It seems to me, though, that there is a pretty straightforward answer, courtesy of Upton Sinclair: It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. This doesn't mean that people know that they are killing the planet, and don't care.  Rather, it is that getting them to se...
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