Death of a water bond?
In an about-face, Arnold Schwarzenegger and California legislative leaders have called for removal of the $11.1 billion water bond from the November ballot and trying again in 2012. The legislature agreed last fall to put the measure on the ballot as part of what was billed as a comprehensive water reform package. Now, faced with substantial opposition to the bond, and an economic climate that's not likely to be friendly to any big bond measure, some of the same people w...
CONTINUE READINGOffshore drilling and endangered species — Part 2
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. Yesterday I wrote about the shortcomings of ESA consultation on the Deepwater Horizon and other offshore oil rigs. Today I take up the implications of the spill itself under the ESA. At least one ESA lawsuit has already been filed, and at least partially resolved. The Animal Welfare Institute, Center for Biological Diversity, Turtle Island Restoration Network and Animal Legal Defense Fund filed a complaint on July 1, accusing BP and the Coast...
CONTINUE READINGClimategate Bites the Dust
It was a faked, trumped-up scandal from the beginning, and now it's official nonsense: An American scientist accused of manipulating research findings on climate science was cleared of that charge by his university on Thursday, the latest in a string of reports to find little substance in the allegations known as Climategate. This comes on the heels of a House of Commons investigation clearing British scientists of any wrongdoing. Of course, in the Times story, the re...
CONTINUE READINGOffshore drilling and endangered species — Part 1
Cross-posted at CPRBlog The media have paid a lot of attention to the cavalier attitude of the former Minerals Management Service (now called the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement) toward the National Environmental Policy Act (I blogged about it here and here and Dan weighed in here). Less has been said, so far, about the Endangered Species Act. (One conspicuous exception is Keith Rizzardi's ESA Blawg, which called on May 29 for a review o...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Kabuki in New Delhi — the Shock of Recognition
India's Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh announced Monday that New Delhi will take the lead on establishing a global carbon budget at the Cancun climate talks. I think that this is good news, but probably not for the reasons we might initially suspect. We might think that it's good news because it shows that India is taking the climate problem seriously. But look at what Ramesh is saying about a global carbon budget: India cannot and will not accept any agreement...
CONTINUE READINGAdministration delays next step on offshore drilling plan
Finally, some news about offshore oil drilling that contains no nasty surprises. The Obama administration has announced that it will delay public meetings on the plan for expanded offshore drilling it unveiled shortly before the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The planned "scoping" meetings, which had originally been announced for June or July in Alaska, the south Atlantic, and the Gulf Coast, were supposed to start the environmental review process for the 2012-2017 offsho...
CONTINUE READINGHow Green is High-Speed Rail?
Life cycle costs can be a buzz kill. Just when you think you've got a great environmental solution, such as going paperless and doing everything digitally, or installing double-paned windows to make a home more energy efficient, you find out that manufacturing these supposedly environmentally-friendly technologies can create waste that offsets some of their "green" value. The same may be true for high-speed rail. A new study by Mikhail Chester and Arpad Horvath of the...
CONTINUE READINGDisturbing Video of Oil Spill Effects on Whales and Dolphins
[youtube=] This video contains some of the most compelling and disturbing footage I've seen of the Gulf oil spill. It demonstrates the vastness of the spread of oil; the effects on marine mammals including whales and dolphins; and the magnitude of the burning BP is doing to try to clean up the oil. The video is long but worth the slog; the footage of whales and dolphins begins around 6:55 if you don't have the patience for all 9+ minutes. But I'd recommend watchin...
CONTINUE READINGWhy the San Fernando Valley Ruined Everything
Jonathan is right that the San Fernando Valley is trying its best to maximize the land use around its two subway stations, considering the slow pace of legalizing these developments. But part of my problem with the extension of the subway to the San Fernando Valley is not just the land use around the two stations in the Valley itself, but the utilization of all the stations along the entire extension, which probably should never have been built. The decision to serv...
CONTINUE READINGDon’t Give Up on the San Fernando Valley!
Ethan is surely right when he notes that MetroRail ridership in the San Fernando Valley: 1) isn't as high as it should be; and 2) this results in part from a lack of leadership on land use. But I wouldn't write the Valley off just yet. First, recall that there are only two Valley stations on the Red Line system: Universal City and North Hollywood. That makes it much more difficult to establish ridership; in order for Valley commuters to connect to the Red Line, they...
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