While Rome (Moscow) Burns, Pakistan and China Flood, Washington Does Nothing
Grim -- almost apocalyptic -- headlines seem to greet us daily. Pakistan faces the worst floods in almost a century, displacing millions from their homes and killing thousands. The UN is calling the floods "the greatest humanitarian crisis" the organization has ever faced. Russia swelters in unprecedented heat accompanied by horrific air quality. The average daily death toll is 700 in Moscow and total deaths may climb to 15,000 or even higher. The Russian economy...
CONTINUE READINGCredit Where It’s Due: Villaraigosa’s 30/10 Plan
I've been somewhat critical of LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's environmental policies, which tend to have more style than substance. But I have overlooked his 30/10 plan, which (as the New York Times reported the other day) might revolutionize the way sustainable infrastructure is built in American cities. That's unfair, because the Mayor has really done the right thing here. A couple of years ago, Los Angeles voters passed Proposition R, which added a half-cent to ...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornians still support action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to new report
California, for better or worse, is still a bellwether state on many public policy issues. Public opinion here matters, not just as a predictor of our state's future political direction, but also nationally. And California's residents' opinions about environmental issues are particularly important, given our state's leadership on environmental issues. Right now, there is a fierce battle in the state over whether voters will prevent implementation of our landmark ...
CONTINUE READINGDoes Christian Environmental Thought Rest on a Mistake?
Talk to Christians interested in relating their faith to environmental concerns, and at some point the phrase "Dominion Theology" will arise. This comes from Genesis 1:26, which is conventionally translated as And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. The above t...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia’s Proposition 8 overturned – victory for gay marriage, and example of the impact of law school-based policy research
Perhaps everything in the world might be related in some way to climate change. Perhaps not. I'm having a hard time seeing how this topic in particular relates to climate change. But it does relate to our blog, in that the decision illustrates well the importance and relevance of law school-based academic research centers -- such as the UCLA Environmental Law Center and Emmett Center and our blog partner, Berkeley Law's Center on Law, Energy, and the Environment --...
CONTINUE READINGJudge orders changes in ballot language for Proposition 23, which would suspend California’s greenhouse gas emissions law
Today, a judge ruled that the state must change the "title and summary" ballot language for Proposition 23, the oil-company-funded proposition that would suspend California's landmark greenhouse gas emissions law AB 32. (My colleague Ann Carlson wrote about this initiative campaign earlier this summer.) Proposition 23 would render the law unenforceable until California's unemployment rate goes down to 5.5% for at least a year. (Last I heard, the unemployment rate w...
CONTINUE READINGA “thank you” to legislators who exempted the proposed L.A. football stadium from California’s environmental review law?
Last fall, I wrote about the California Legislature's effort to exempt the proposed football stadium in the City of Industry from further environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). I didn't follow up on that post, but the Legislature ultimately approved the exemption in a special session in the fall. Now, Los Angeles Times journalist Patrick McGreevy reports that the stadium's developer, Ed Roski's Majestic Realty, treated three ke...
CONTINUE READINGThree New Perspectives on Environmental Issues
Three recent books provide fresh and interesting perspectives on environmental law. The authors all graduated from law school in the past twenty years, and they all have most of their careers ahead of them. All of this augurs well for the future of environmental scholarship. The first book is Doug Kysar's Regulating from Nowhere. Kysar argues that we need to replace reliance on cost-benefit analysis with an ethic of responsibility. He emphasizes responsibilities t...
CONTINUE READINGIt’s the little things
People tend to pay a lot of attention to large animals and plants, which we find interesting and attractive. We know that bias affects policy decisions; we preferentially protect "charismatic megafauna." But the big appealing creatures wouldn't exist without the tiny, uncharismatic ones that form the base of the food web. And those little things may be disappearing unnoticed. A new study in Nature (subscription required) by Boris Worm and colleagues at Dalhousie Unive...
CONTINUE READINGIs the Western Climate Initiative Constitutional?
Brad Plumer in The New Republic rightfully celebrates the emergence of the Western Climate Initiative, which establishes a cap-and-trade system among several US states and three of the most important Canadian provinces: British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec. "Cap-and-trade is coming to the United States," he notes, "and there is nothing that the Senate can do about it ." But maybe lawyers can, because it's not clear that states and provinces can actually enact these s...
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