Public Focus on Climate Change Slow to Develop, Hard to Sustain
The date was August 4, 1977, and Congressman Peter Rodino inserted, in the Congressional Record, an article from the New York Times that had run a week earlier. The Times article reflected on the Carter Administration’s effort to encourage the greater of coal as a power plant fuel. The Times said: “The National Academy of Sciences flashed a warning light this week at plans to rely on coal as a major energy source in coming centuries. Not that oil or natural ga...
CONTINUE READINGSaving the Japanese Black Bear
Grist had a really interesting story at the end of last month about Japanese black bears -- or ツキノワグマ if you prefer -- which have a tenuous hold on survival. What makes this story particularly interesting is that it is a preview of a world in which the idea of the "natural" has become problematic. Japan has some remote, relatively wild forests, but far more area in tree plantations or in rural areas that have been abandoned by an inreasingly urban popul...
CONTINUE READINGEPA to reconsider water transfers rule
I can't find this on EPA's web site, but BNA's U.S. Law Week and the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies are reporting that the agency plans to reconsider the Bush-era rule exempting water transfers from the Clean Water Act's NPDES permit requirements. As I previously explained, the 11th Circuit upheld the water transfers rule this summer in a questionable decision that concluded that the rule was a reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous statutory provision. Re...
CONTINUE READINGSuperFreakonomics and Climate Change
If you haven't been following the controversy that has erupted with the publication of SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance, you should be. In SuperFreakonomics -- the sequel to Steven Levitt and Stephen Duber's wildly popular Freakonomics -- the authors take on climate change. Their arguments are somewhat complex but essentially boil down to the following: the threats from global warming have ...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Change versus the Benzene Case
The Benzene Case -- more properly, Industrial Union Dept. v. American Petroleum Inst. -- is almost thirty years old, but is still the Supreme Court's most important statement on risk regulation. After considering mountains of evidence, OSHA issued a rule restricting benzene in the workplace. Benzene was known to be a carcinogen; the evidence was less clear about its dangers at the levels in industry at the time. The Supreme Court reversed and said that OSHA must qu...
CONTINUE READINGOne-Stop Shopping for Climate Information
CITRIS, which is a University of California engineering consortium, has a really useful site called Climate Navigator. The site is a great source of information about the many dimensions of climate change, from policy to energy technology. One neat feature is an interactive model that allows you to design your own global climate policy, setting limits on individual countries and seeing the effect on the global picture. Give it a try!...
CONTINUE READINGA New Beginning for the California Delta?
Early this past Wednesday morning, following an all-night session that would have made any college freshman proud, the California Legislature enacted major legislation designed to address the myriad problems affecting California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The package of five bills, SB 7X 1, SB 7X 2, SB 7X 6, SB 7X 7, and SB 7X 8, which now go to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for his expected signature, also addresses broader issues of California water supply a...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia water deal struck (just in time for UCLA event)
After months (years) of negotations, the California legislature has passed what many are calling the most comprehensive California water legislation in half a century. The task was difficult: Figure out a way to fix our ailing Sacramento-San Joaquin delta; address shortfalls in water supply affecting urban, agricultural, and environmental interests; anticipate additional shortfalls and water supply difficulties related to climate change; and do all this in the midst ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Cost of Climate Change
According to Climate Wire, the Obama Administration is trying to come up with a reliable economic estimate of the cost of unchecked climate change. This sounds like a great idea but is actually full of pitfalls. Many of the individual elements of the economic impact analysis are the subjects of serious debate. For instance, economists hotly dispute the net effect of climate change on agriculture, with some finding an overall positive effect on U.S. agriculture (bu...
CONTINUE READINGDon’t diss local climate action
I can't let this one pass unremarked. Seth Jaffe, writing in the Boston law firm Foley Hoag's "Law and the Environment" blog, uses Portland Oregon's recent release of an updated draft Climate Action Plan as an occasion to criticize not only Portland (one of the few cities I actually like) but the whole concept of local climate planning and regulation. Jaffe sees local climate action as "a heavy thumb on the side of the scale arguing for comprehensive federal legislation....
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