The Sting of the Long Tail: Climate Change, Delayed Harm, and Backlash
In the comments to Ann’s earlier post, the question was raised as to why global temperatures haven’t declined in response to the decline in carbon dioxide emissions from Europe in the past year. I made a quick response to this question in the comments, but I wanted to elaborate on that response here. What follow is a brief summary of a recent article I wrote on the issue, which you can find here. The basic problem is a common one in environmental law – there ca...
CONTINUE READINGGambling on Climate Change
Paul Krugman had a great article about climate change in the NY Times magazine on Sunday. It provides a really useful primer on the economics of climate change. In particular, Krugman emphasizes that uncertainty is a reason for action, not a reason to to allow unchecked global warming: We’re uncertain about the magnitude of climate change, which is inevitable, because we’re talking about reaching levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere not seen in millions of ...
CONTINUE READINGJustice Stevens: Architect of Modern Environmental Law Doctrine
When I sat down write this blog posting, I started by going through my environmental law casebook and noting down the cases in which Justice Stevens had written the majority opinion or a major dissent. When I got done, I was startled by the central role Justice Stevens had played in creating modern environmental law. I’ll explain that central role in a minute, but first, why I was startled? Two reasons. First, Justice Stevens still retains some of the “bri...
CONTINUE READINGInteresting Lessons from the EU Cap and Trade Scheme
In a really interesting recent post by Sandbag, a UK-based organization that buys and retires credits from the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, the organization analyzed newly released 2009 data about drops in the emissions covered by the EU scheme. On the good news front, emissions that are covered by the EU scheme have dropped 17 percent over a two year period. Not surprisingly, however, the large drop in emissions appears to be driven largely by the recession, no...
CONTINUE READINGAlaska aborts anti-ESA ad campaign
In February, Alaska lawmakers decided to launch a $1.5 million public relations campaign against the Endangered Species Act, and specifically against the listing of the polar bear as a threatened species. Later, they toned it down a bit, planning to use the money to hold a conference on polar bear listing and ask PR firms "to evaluate whether a public relations campaign . . . could diminish negative economic effects of the Endangered Species Act." Now it appears that ev...
CONTINUE READINGLet’s Not Play the Blame Game Here.
I feel that it is important to take a clear position regarding Jonathan's post this morning, which related to an alleged comment attributed by the press to me regarding a potential Supreme Court appointment. Candor is critical. Were mistakes made? Yes. Have we taken corrective action? Yes. The staff member responsible for the alleged comment is no longer with this office. In conclusion, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to my family and to the Am...
CONTINUE READINGSCOTUS Sweepstakes!
With the retirement of the 89-year-old John Paul Stevens, looking imminent, it's time for the Great Mentioner to, well, start mentioning. Legal Planet's own great mentioner, Dan Farber, commenting at TPM about the possibility of Solicitor General Elena Kagan getting the nod, observes "It would be hard for Republicans to explain how they voted to confirm her for solicitor general without hesitation but she is now unacceptable[.]" Dan, you couldn't have meant that, could...
CONTINUE READING…and another thing about electric rates and the environment…
Last week, I wrote about how a proposal to change the design of residential electric rates might get in the way of efforts to encourage energy efficiency. Sushil Jacob, a keen-eyed student in my Energy Regulation and the Environment class, points to another potential problem. PG&E, the largest utility providing service in California, wants to change its rates. Currently, residential customers pay higher rates the more power they demand. Customers who use a l...
CONTINUE READINGThe Ebb and Flow of Eastern American Forests
As today's WaPo explains, "Between 1630 and the nadir of Eastern forests in the late 1800s, the East lost about 1,000 acres of forest a day." Over the course of the 20th Century, the forests came back. But now they are under threat again from invasive insects, uncontrolled deer populations, and other ecological imbalances. "Already, scientists say, the Eastern forest is shrinking -- between 1997 and 2007, it was reduced by 1.4 million acres, an area larger than Del...
CONTINUE READINGEndangered listing for Delta smelt warranted but precluded
Finally completing work on a petition submitted by the Center for Biological Diversity in 2006, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that reclassifying the Delta smelt from threatened to endangered is "warranted but precluded." That means the population decline is dramatic enough to justify the conclusion that the smelt is in fact endangered, but FWS has too much else on its plate right now to do the work of reclassifying it. There is little doubt that the sm...
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