Climate Report from Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen has issued a synthesis report on Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions. A good summary can be found here. The authors include such luminaries as Sir Nicholas Stern (author of the Stern Report) and Dan Kammen (from Berkeley's Energy and Resources Group). The bottom line: "further inaction is inexcusable." Future generations will ask about us: What did we know? And when did we know it?...
CONTINUE READINGNational Cotton Council ruling stayed
In National Cotton Council v. EPA, the Sixth Circuit in January overturned an EPA rule exempting pesticides applied in accordance with the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) from the Clean Water Act's permitting requirements. On EPA's request, the court has now stayed the effect of that ruling until April 9, 2011, giving the agency time to develop a national NPDES permit for pesticide application to or over water. Beveridge and Diamond posted this...
CONTINUE READINGNotes From Japan
A few environmental observations from my family vacation in Tokyo. The first is an obvious one: Tokyo's public transportation system is a marvel. Several American cities have admirable subway systems but what is so impressive about Tokyo's is the sheer area it covers. It's the largest subway and train system in the world. No American subway system comes close to covering the geographic space of the Tokyo system and no American city as sprawling as Tokyo can boa...
CONTINUE READINGNew climate change information resource
The Santa Clara Valley Water District has created a Climate Change Portal on its website, compiling "reports and other technical literature on the subject of climate change" and how it could affect the District's work. The reports can be browsed by topic or date. They include everything from hard-core science to legal analysis, and from local to global scope. No single site can keep up with all the information being generated about global warming and its consequences, bu...
CONTINUE READINGZoi confirmed for EERE post
Energy efficiency isn't the sexiest topic in the world, but it may be among the most important (see this study, showing how much and how cheaply the US could cut GHG emissions by ramping up the efficiency of buildings and appliances). Good news: Today, Cathy Zoi was confirmed as Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, a post within the Dept of Energy. She was CEO of Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection and Chief of Staff in the White Ho...
CONTINUE READINGAnother environmental lawyer joins the administration
Michael J. Bean, longtime head of Environmental Defense Fund's wildlife program and author of the classic treatise The Evolution of National Wildlife Law, has been named counselor to Tom Strickland, Assistant Secretary of Interior for Fish, Wildlife, and Parks. Bean will provide advice on endangered species and other wildlife policy issues. This appointment is very good news. Strickland doesn't have a lot of experience in the ESA trenches. Bean more than makes up for th...
CONTINUE READINGBill would emphasize wildlife on public lands
Reps. Ron Kind (D. WI) and Walter Jones (R. NC) have introduced a new bill, dubbed the America's Wildlife Heritage Act (H.R. 2807), in the House. The bill is intended to shift the balance of power over the nation's multiple-use lands (those managed by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management) a bit away from extractive uses toward wildlife conservation. Current laws leave the land management agencies with a great deal of discretion about how to strike the balanc...
CONTINUE READINGOn Renewable Energy, Is the Senate Bill Worse Than Nothing?
The energy bill passed Wednesday by the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee has renewable energy provisions so weak that a dozen environmental groups teamed up to condemn it. Marchant Wentworth of the Union of Concerned Scientists called the renewable standards in the bill “pitiful”, and added that the legislation could actually lead to less renewable electric generation than is destine to occur without it. Friends of the Earth President Brent Blackw...
CONTINUE READINGA Muslim Attorney General
Not strictly speaking environmental, but I think of interest to Legal Planet's readers. Prime Minister Singh announced a few days ago that Goolam Vahanvati, one of the nation's most distinguished government lawyers, will become the nation's 13th Attorney General, for a term of 3 years. Significantly, he is the first Muslim to hold the position. In India, the AG does not run the Justice Department (or "Law and Justice Ministry," as it is referred to here): that is the j...
CONTINUE READINGHolding Our Breath for a Test Rule for Carbon Nanotubes
Researchers recently reported new findings regarding potential occupational hazards associated with carbon nanotubes. These nano-scale cylinders have a variety of forms (single-walled and multi-walled, coated and uncoated, and so on.) They are widely available and used in a variety of manufacturing, medical and electronic applications. Previously, much attention was focused on whether when inhaled, nanotubes could produce damage similar to that caused by asbestos. ...
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