Climate 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...
CONTINUE READINGThe Environment and the California AG Race
My original plan was to do four posts, each covering a major party candidate for Governor or Senator. But the California Attorney General race is also significant in environmental terms. Under Jerry Brown and his predecessor Bill Lockyer, the AG has been a major player on environmental issues -- in particular, providing national leadership on climate change litigation. So the California AG race has more importance than it might in a typical state. The Democratic c...
CONTINUE READINGBarbara Boxer and the Environment
This is the fourth and final installment in a series about the environmental views of candidates for major office in California. (The others covered Meg Whitman, Jerry Brown, and Boxer's opponent Carly Fiorina.) Boxer's environmental views are easy to summarize: she's very green. Her campaign site lists a long list of environmental accomplishments. It's also the only one of the four campaign sites to have a video on environmental issues. [youtube=http://www.youtube....
CONTINUE READINGCarly Fiorina and the Environment
Carly Fiorina's website devotes considerable attention to energy and environment. Here are the high points: She opposes cap-and-trade, which she says (based on a Heritage Foundation study) would cost each American family $2700/yr. She favors improvements in energy efficiency and "development of all domestic forms of energy, including nuclear, solar, wind and clean coal, and the exploration and drilling for oil and natural gas." Drill, baby, drill! The Central Val...
CONTINUE READINGMayor Villaraigosa, This is NOT How You Do Environmental Policy
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa likes to talk green at every opportunity, but most of his environmental initiatives fall flat due to lack of follow-through (no one has ever accused him of too long of an attention span), his own political incentives, or both. He pushed a charter amendment to mandate the development of solar power for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, but voters rejected in when it became clear that it was a payoff for the Departme...
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