Carbon Sequestration: Is There a Lesson from Offshore Drilling?
When he lifted the moratorium on new offshore leasing in July of 2008, President Bush assured us that "advances in technology have made it possible to conduct oil exploration in the OCS that is out of sight, protects coral reefs and habitats, and protects against oil spills." We know now that he was wrong, in part because drilling has pushed into newer and deeper waters where technologies have not yet become tried and true. I'm not bringing up his statement as a belate...
CONTINUE READINGIn Memoriam: Jamie Grodsky
We learned this weekend of the tragic death of Jamie Grodsky, a rising star in environmental law who taught at George Washington University. She died after a brief illness. Jamie joined the GW faculty in 2006, after serving as an associate professor of law at the University of Minnesota Law School. Jamie was a meticulous scholar and deeply dedicated teacher. She recently served as a co-investigator on a multi-university NIH grant dealing with the impacts of new bio...
CONTINUE READINGRand Paul and the Environment
Rand Paul, Kentucky's Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, has obviously garnered huge attention in the last few days for his comments on civil rights. But his views about environmental topics ought to grab a few headlines too. Consider the following: -- He's called the Environmental Protection Agency "out of control,", and " a regulatory body run amok," -- He says that a cap and trade system to control greenhouse gas emissions could lead to "toilet pap...
CONTINUE READING1001
1001 of what? Arabian nights? No, 1001 posts on Legal Planet -- including this one. As of today, that's the total number, along with over 300,000 views. We've only been on-line for a little over a year. As Al Jolson used to say in the days of vaudeville ," you ain't seen nothing yet."...
CONTINUE READINGRetrofitting homes to make them more energy efficient
When we ponder ways to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, nothing says "low hanging fruit" more than retrofitting our existing homes and small businesses to make them more energy efficient. Energy use from commercial and residential buildings accounts for 22 percent of California's greenhouse gas emissions. But relatively simple steps like insulating air ducts, sealing leaks in the building, and improving insulation in the walls can result in ...
CONTINUE READINGKerry-Lieberman and State Government
The Georgetown Climate Center has put together a very useful summary of how the bill would impact state regulation, both positively and negatively. The most important fact is that the summary is fifteen pages long. The bill is obviously a big deal in terms of helping state regulation in some respects and curtailing it in others....
CONTINUE READINGMMS needs more than a facelift
The Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has brought new attention to the Minerals Management Service, the obscure branch of the Department of Interior responsible for overseeing offshore oil and gas production. MMS has been on the hot seat together with BP, Transocean, and Halliburton as Congressional committees and others have begun to look at the combination of technical and regulatory failings that allowed this human and environmental tragedy. The init...
CONTINUE READINGNational Academy of Science Says the Science of Climate Change is Clear and It’s Time to Act Now
The National Academy of Science has joined a growing chorus of scientists and policymakers in underscoring the need for strong action to combat climate change. The Academy released three reports today as part of its America's Climate Choices project, a project Congress requested in the last year of the Bush Administration to address what Congress should do domestically to combat climate change. (In the interest of full disclosure I served as a member of one of th...
CONTINUE READINGBP’s Disastrous PR Blowout
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZidQAf8epE] Even Fox News is berating BP for its callous and inapt public response to the oil blowout. And for good reason. As Newsweek says: This hasn't been a good few weeks for Tony Hayward, the chief executive officer of BP. In the weeks since the huge oil spill in the Gulf began, he has struck an occasionally Churchillian tone: "We are going to defend the beaches," he proclaimed. "We will fix this." But the British leade...
CONTINUE READINGCosts and Benefits of Offshore Oil
In thinking about the economics of off-shore oil, the main benefit is increased energy security. According to an RFF study, Netted out, the Brown and Huntington estimates suggest that the effect of increased U.S. oil production is about $1 per barrel (or 2.4 cents per gallon of gasoline); for each barrel of increased U.S. oil production, the risk to the U.S. economy of supply disruptions is reduced by an expected value of about $1. What is being "netted out"? The d...
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