Kivalina nuisance suit dismissed
As Jonathan noted (here and here) last month, after a lengthy delay, the 2d Circuit ruled that a public nuisance suit brought by states and environmental groups against major power producers based on their greenhouse gas emissions did not pose a non-justiciable political question, and that the plaintiffs had standing. That ruling has obviously not yet swept the field, however. Shortly after it came down, Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong, in the Northern District of Californ...
CONTINUE READINGBad climate news round-up
Sometimes it's hard to be an optimist. The recent climate news all seems ominous: Sciencereports (subscription required) on the latest paper in press from a satellite-based study of the mass of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. Isabella Velicogna of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory finds that both ice sheets shrank at accelerating rates over the past seven years. Others warn against making too much of the new data, which represent a brief snapshot in time. If t...
CONTINUE READINGMore on the Bush-era greenhouse gas endangerment recommendation
The release of documents discussed in Holly's post ends the story of one of the more ridiculous of the last Administration's unceasing efforts to delay climate change regulation. Scientists and policymakers at EPA had concluded that greenhouse gases were a danger to the public and should be regulated under the Clean Air Act. They sent an email, with accompanying memo, to the White House saying so. Rather than deal with the substance of the message and its cons...
CONTINUE READINGEPA releases Bush-era endangerment finding
UPDATE: Cara has more here, including a link to the draft that does not require a subscription. In Dec. 2007, EPA was ready to issue a proposed finding under the Clean Air Act that greenhouse gas pollution endangers public welfare. E&E News has now obtained a copy of the draft proposal (subscription required) through a FOIA request (the Bush administration had denied an earlier request). The draft strongly endorsed the scientific consensus on global warming, stating...
CONTINUE READINGLooking Past Copenhagen
A year or two ago, people expected Copenhagen to produce the equivalent of the Kyoto Protocol – a comprehensive climate roadmap for the next decade or more. It seems unlikely that the Copenhagen meeting will live up to those expectations, although there’s always the chance of a last-minute surprise. What does seem clear, however, is that progress is being made on many fronts. Within the U.S., states like California are charging ahead, the federal courts remain a...
CONTINUE READINGCivil disobedience and climate change
On Friday, the New York Times carried a story about Tim DeChristopher, the economics student in Utah who bid on federal oil and gas leases at an auction last December as a form of protest against global warming. DeChristopher was the winning bidder on 14 parcels, but admits that he never had either the intent or the ability to pay the $1.7 million he bid. He is now facing criminal charges of interfering with an auction and making false statements on a bidding form. DeC...
CONTINUE READINGLegalPlanet Gets Its 100,000th Hit
McDonald's used to have signs, back in the day, announcing that they had just sold their one millionth or two millionth hamburger. In a similar spirit, we are excited to announce that the site has now had 100,000 visits!! All the thanks goes to you as our readers. We'll do our best to deserve your continued time and attention....
CONTINUE READINGNew Laws in California
Climatewire reports that that the governor has signed several new environmental laws: •A.B. 920, which expands the state's net-metering program to require all investor-owned and publicly owned utilities to purchase surplus energy back from customers that generate their own wind and solar power, up to 2.5 MW per utility. The CPUC will set the rate. Competing bills would have raised the cap to 5 MW. •A.B. 758, which requires the California Energy Commission to write ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Triumph of the Commons
Elinor Ostrom was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics today, along with Oliver Williamson here at Berkeley. To understand why her work is relevant to environmental law, you have to first know about the "tragedy of the commons." Many medieval and early modern villages had a “commons” where all of the peasants were entitled to graze their animals. (To this day, Boston has a “commons” that now functions as a park.) This history became the basis for an import...
CONTINUE READINGA Rare Example of Bipatisanship
In yesterday's New York Times, John Kerry and Lindsay Graham wrote a joint op-ed about climate change. They agree that climate change is real, that the U.S. must cut its dependence on foreign oil, that we should not allow China or other countries to dominate the market for renewable energy technologies. They also agree that nuclear power should be part of the solution. (I'm a little dubious that we could ramp up nuclear power quickly and cheaply enough to make a di...
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