Climate Change Lesson #6: Every Crisis is an Opportunity
This is the sixth in a series of short homilies about the lessons of climate change. It's not clear who first observed that every crisis is an opportunity. Probably it's in the Bible somewhere, if not the story of Gilgamesh. But a crisis, painful as it may be, does present opportunities for innovation. In the case of climate change, the most obvious opportunity is to develop a new, environmentally cleaner energy system. For that reason, my colleague Dan Kammen ...
CONTINUE READINGFeds re-engage on the Delta
Last week brought a lot of good California water news. Restoration of the San Joaquin River took a giant step forward, as the first flows were returned to the channel in accordance with a settlement agreement negotiated in 2006, ending years of litigation by NRDC. As Steve and I noted, removal of four dams on the Klamath River moved one step closer to reality. And for the first time since the California legislature adjourned in disarray there are hopeful signs on the Bay...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Change Lesson #5: Send Not to Ask For Whom the Bell Tolls
This is the fifth in a series of short homilies on the lessons of climate change. As far back as Sierra Club v. Morton, Justice Blackmun quoted John Dunne, but Dunne's words seem equally apropos today, particularly for climate change: No man is an Iland, intire of itselfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thin...
CONTINUE READINGNew EPA Greenhouse Gas Rulemaking Not Quite What it Seems
EPA is proposing to tailor the major source applicability thresholds for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and title V programs of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) and to set a PSD significance level for GHG emissions. This proposal is necessary because EPA expects soon to promulgate regulations under the CAA to control GHG emissions and, as a result, trigger PSD and title V applicability requirements for GHG emissions. ...
CONTINUE READINGMountaintop removal review moves to next stage
EPA finished September with a flourish. In addition to proposing New Source Review rules for greenhouse gas emissions and pushing for TSCA reform, the agency took the next step toward a crack-down on mountaintop removal. On September 11, EPA announced preliminary plans to review all 79 pending permit applications. Today, after considering public comment, it finalized that list, concluding that indeed all 79 require further review, based on concerns that the projects coul...
CONTINUE READINGJackson Announces Proposed New Stationary Source Rules for Greenhouse Gases
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, speaking at the California Governor's Global Climate Summit, has announced a proposed new Clean Air Act rule requiring new and modified stationary sources to install the best available control technology to control greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). The text of the proposed new rule can be found here. According to a press release about the Jackson speech, the rule will be limited to sources that emit 25,000 or more tons of GHGs annuall...
CONTINUE READINGJackson Comes Out Swinging on TSCA, But Pulls Some Critical Punches
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson delivered a one-two combination in chemical policy on Tuesday, announcing principles for legislative reform of TSCA while directing the agency to publicize administrative “enhancements” to the existing program. At a speech in San Francisco, the Administrator presented the Obama Administration’s “Essential Principles for Reform of Chemicals Management Legislation,” a set of six general tenets intended to guide TSCA reform. Had ...
CONTINUE READINGSmall Steps on Nanosilver
Regulation often develops through accretion rather than bold paradigm shifts, at least in its nascent stages. Nanotechnology appears to be no exception. In mid-September, the agency announced an upcoming meeting of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) focused on the use of nanoscale silver and other nanomaterials in pesticides. The notice of the meeting observed that “it appears that there may be potential...
CONTINUE READINGA Better Day for Salmon on the Klamath River
Why would a major utility corporation agree to remove four of its hydroelectric power plants and pay hundreds of millions of dollars for the privilege? As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, that is exactly what would happen under a tentative agreement between PacifiCorp and various other parties, including several American Indian tribes. The dams in question are along a stretch of the Klamath River that crosses the California-Oregon border. One goal is to resto...
CONTINUE READINGInching closer to Klamath dam removal
Today's San Francisco Chronicle has encouraging news for the Klamath River. In this front-page story, Peter Fimrite reports that a final agreement has been reached "among 28 parties, including American Indian tribes, farmers, fishermen and [PacifiCorp,] the hydroelectric company that operates the dams," subject to formal ratification by their various boards, commissions, and councils. A Department of Interior news release says that the agreement will be made available fo...
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