Exploring Climate Change and the Law
Looking for a way to pass the time over the long Labor Day weekend? Want to learn more about the legal and policy dimension of climate change? Check out Berkeley's course on climate law, now available here on YouTube. Scholars discuss everything from the economics of climate change to WTO issues raised by biofuels ,and from IP issues for energy technologies to the evolving role of insurance companies. Not to mention the Supreme Court's decision in Massachusetts ...
CONTINUE READINGWildfires Continue
The California wildfires are still going strong, with serious environmental consequences. As the L.A. Times reports, the effects on wildlife are devastating: Federal wildlife authorities said biologists and environmental rehabilitation specialists were expected to begin inspecting the damage and developing recovery strategies in the near future. Nearly every firefighter had a heartbreaking story to tell about an encounter with dead or dying wildlife. "We came across a...
CONTINUE READINGSacramento debates renewable energy, jobs
With Ken posting about California's renewable energy goals and ways to meet them, I'll point out the battle waging this week in the state legislature over SB 14, a bill that would legislate and broaden the 33%-RPS-by-2020 Ken discussed here (currently derived from an executive order). This from the LA Times: Under the measure, by Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), 33% of the electricity produced by California utilities by 2020 would have to come from renewable energy so...
CONTINUE READINGOne Step Backward, One Nano Step Forward. . . Maybe
The action on nanomaterials continued at the federal level in August, advancing forward in one area (tentatively) and faltering in another (perhaps temporarily). First, on August 4, the Interagency Testing Committee (ITC) issued its 64th report. (The ITC is an independent advisory committee charged with identifying potentially toxic chemicals for which there is inadequate testing data.) The report noted that EPA intends to pursue testing/information collection rule...
CONTINUE READINGThe Royal Society’s geoengineering report
We had a flurry of posts on geoengineering a while back (see here, here, here, and here). If you want to learn more about geoengineering, a great resource is this report, just issued by the Royal Society. It clearly explains the background, the approaches being proposed (which divide broadly into technologies for removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and technologies for reducing the input of solar radiation), and the risks associated with those approaches. The k...
CONTINUE READINGPlease don’t take my sunshine away
Just when we thought we were gaining momentum in the effort to get solar panels installed throughout the state, the word from Napa is that thieves are stealing ground-based solar panels from wineries. While the problem may not be widespread yet, it reveals a potential challenge for ground-based solar installations (a topic that Ken mentions in his post here). This problem could be particularly acute for solar panels installed along highways, as Oregon is pioneering. ...
CONTINUE READINGCan EPA kick-start climate legislation?
The San Francisco Chronicle this morning quotes EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson as saying that her agency will soon finalize its greenhouse endangerment finding (notwithstanding the Chamber of Commerce's absurd demand for an adjudicatory hearing). As the story says, "Supporters of climate change legislation are hoping the threat of EPA-mandated limits will spur congressional action." Although the House passed the Waxman-Markey bill in June, its counterpart has not yet b...
CONTINUE READINGTravel is Broadening: Idaho & the Wider Reality of Water Supply and Water Waste
They say that travel is broadening. The recent experience of this Californian in the wilds of Idaho attests to the wisdom of that axiom. Earlier this month, I had to journey to Idaho to attend a conference and give a talk. While there, I listened with interest as a former Idaho Supreme Court justice and water law expert mused that, a couple of decades ago, Idaho's greatest water-related fear was that thirsty Californians would somehow commandeer Idaho's water reso...
CONTINUE READING“Removing the Roadblocks” op-ed
Assemblyman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) and I had an op-ed published in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle that outlined steps to remove the barriers to more sustainable development. The op-ed is based on findings from the report that the environmental law programs at UCLA and UC Berkeley and the California Attorney General's Office released last week, entitled "Removing the Roadblocks: How to Make Sustainable Development Happen Now." I blogged about it here. Intere...
CONTINUE READINGThe Fire This Time
Here in southern California, we are currently living through our annual late August-early September ritual of wildfires. In the San Fernando Valley, where I live, the air is heavy with smoke, and people are staying inside. It was worse in Pasadena, where I attend a Quaker meeting, and where the houses of several Friends are in danger of going up in flames. The advantage this year is that the Santa Ana winds have not come in yet. But it is somewhat misleading for m...
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