US won’t appeal Casitas decision
Last month, when he posted about the Supreme Court taking up the Florida beach renourishment case, Rick noted the possibility that the Court might hear another takings case, Casitas Municipal Water District v. U.S., 543 F.3d 1276 (2008). Indeed, the Casitas case, in which the Federal Circuit held that the physical takings doctrine applied to a NMFS order requiring that a water district construct a fish ladder at a diversion dam, had attracted a lot more attention than ...
CONTINUE READINGTime for mining law reform?
Hardrock mining (as opposed to oil and gas drilling) on federal land is a topic that rarely hits the national news. And there are plenty of other high-profile items on the agenda in DC at the moment, like health care reform and climate legislation. So I was a bit surprised, but pleased, to see this editorial calling for reform of the General Mining Law in the NY Times today. The Times is right that this is an area ripe for legislative work. Hardrock mining on public l...
CONTINUE READINGNew California offshore drilling part of budget deal?
Lost in the swirl of reports on what may, or may not, be part of the California budget deal legislators appear to be closing in on is this detail, reported by the AP: Aides to the governor and Legislature spent their weekend rushing to work out legislative language that could resolve the remaining issues. . . . Those include Schwarzenegger's plan to permit oil drilling from an existing rig off the Santa Barbara coast. The proposal opposed by many conservation groups wo...
CONTINUE READINGStanding for trees, redux
The Sunday Boston Globe includes this lengthy piece by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow on the revival of arguments first made in the 1970s that nature should be granted legal rights and perhaps even standing in court. USC law professor Chris Stone argued in a celebrated 1972 article that places like the Mineral King valley should be allowed to stand as plaintiffs in their own right, with the help of human attorneys or guardians ad litem. He managed to convince Supreme Court Justice...
CONTINUE READINGNate Silver’s Challenge to Climate Denialists: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
Nate Silver, the well-known statistical and polling guru, has issued this challenge to climate change denialists on his website: The rules of his challenge are as follows: 1. For each day that the high temperature in your hometown is at least 1 degree Fahrenheit above average, as listed by Weather Underground, you owe him $25. For each day that it is at least 1 degree Fahrenheit below average, he owes you $25. 2. The challenge proceeds in monthly intervals, with the ...
CONTINUE READINGWater wars, eastern style
Those of us in the west have grown used to thinking of water wars as a regional specialty. But they happen in the east too. Florida, Alabama, and Georgia have been in court for nearly 20 years fighting over the waters of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River system, popularly known as the ACF. On Friday, a federal judge handed the downstream states, Florida and Alabama, a major victory in the latest battle. The Army Corps of Engineers manages a series of federal ...
CONTINUE READINGIs India Going Green?
According to a story in today's NY Times, India is making a major push toward renewable energy: "We need to get our act together," said Gauri Singh, joint secretary in India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, which was set up 26 years ago, "because India is growing faster than anyone can imagine. Renewable energy will have to supplement conventional power supply. "Our priority is to achieve energy security and self-reliance. Climate change is not the main driver ...
CONTINUE READINGFour Years Later, and Still No Real Plan
A new report by the National Research Council gives "thumbs down" to the Army Corps' plans for preventing another Katrina disaster. This is the kind of planning that we simply have to learn to do right-- not just for the sake of those immediately at risk, but because rising sea level and more extreme weather events due to climate change will require similar planning elsewhere. The NRC pans the Corps' plan in no uncertain terms: Despite being given authority from the U...
CONTINUE READINGCronkite on Climate
Some people are calling him "the last journalist" because his breed of even-handed, fact-based report seems to be an endangered species. Be that as it may, it's interesting to note that he spoke out on the subject of climate change a few years ago in the pages of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Not surprising, his perspective was different from that of the Bush Administration, which made a practice of scoffing at the "reality-based community": The contempt of the Bush adm...
CONTINUE READINGDeputy Director Named for CEQ
The White House has announced that Gary S. Guzy, former general counsel and counselor to the administrator of EPA during the Clinton administration and previously a senior attorney in DOJ's environmental division, will be named deputy director of the Council on Environmental Quality. Guzy has also been a partner at Foley Hoag, a consultant to the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and a Visiting Scholar at the Environ...
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