Another Env Law Prof Goes to Washington
President Obama announced his intention to nominate Chris Schroeder to head the Office of Legal Policy at DOJ. As the announcement indicates, Schroeder is an eminent authority on environmental law: Christopher H. Schroeder is Charles S. Murphy Professor of Law and Professor of Public Policy Studies, and director of the Program in Public Law at Duke University. His publications include a leading environmental law casebook, Environmental Regulation: Law, Science and P...
CONTINUE READINGDebating Environmental Issues
The Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) sponsored a series of debates and colloquies at Berkeley in the Spring semester, all of which are now available on video: Unleashing the Clean Energy Economy Michael Shellenberger vs. Peter Barnes - February 18, 2009 Environmental Program Town Hall February 19, 2009 Climate Change & the View from the Attorney General's Office Cliff Rechtschaffen - March 3, 2009 Arctic Boundaries and Climate Change: The Changi...
CONTINUE READINGClimate bill is out of committee (thanks in part to speed reader?)
Yesterday evening, by a 33-25 vote, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill (full text here - all 946 pages of it). This quick analysis by Kate Sheppard at Grist.org is useful. This New York Times article discusses the opposition to the bill from the agricultural sector, and the likely difficulties that the legislation will face in the House Agricultural Committee. (Opposition by some environmentalist groups was pre...
CONTINUE READINGA Good Week for Environmental Federalism
This has been a very good week for proponents of environmental federalism. On Tuesday, President Obama convened a Rose Garden ceremony to announce first-ever federal regulatory mandates specifically designed to address global warming. The federal government's new CAFE standards for new cars and light trucks, beginning with the 2012 model year, will simultaneously reduce greenhouse gases and substantially improve energy efficiency in America's transportation sector. In ...
CONTINUE READINGGood news and bad news on climate change
First the bad news, which is not exactly new but is getting new attention. In the absence of strong policy interventions, warming may be much worse than the IPCC's projections. MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change issued a report in January projecting median surface warming in a "business as usual" scenario of more than 5° C (9° F) by 2100, roughly twice what the most recent IPCC report predicted. The MIT group believes there is more than...
CONTINUE READINGBroadening the “scientific integrity” discussion
Scientific integrity was a high-profile issue under the last administration, but only in a very negative sense, with a continual drumbeat of stories accusing the Bush White House and political appointees of interfering with the proper role of science. President Obama has brought new positive attention to the topic, first with his inaugural address promise to "restore science to its rightful place," then with a memo on scientific integrity charging the Office of Scien...
CONTINUE READINGCaveat Preemptor
President Obama issued a "memorandum" for heads of departments and agencies. (I guess this must be technically different from an "executive order" but I'm not sure it matters: an order from the Boss is an order from the Boss is an order from the Boss.) The memo contains a reminder about the importance of federalism and some more specific instructions negating Bush Administration practices: No preemptive statements in regulation preambles unless the body contains a ...
CONTINUE READINGAuto Emissions Deal–Enough Credit to Go Around?
The announcement of the deal on auto emissions was roundly hailed as a remarkable achievement of the Obama Administration. There is no arguing with the notion that it was dramatic, both in terms of the bargaining process and the outcome. The Los Angeles Times today provided a behind-the-scenes view of the months-long negotiations, including everything from last minute deal-breakers to hushed cell phone calls at a baseball game. Likewise, the visual of the President...
CONTINUE READINGMountaintop mining update
In March, I wrote here about EPA's newfound boldness on mountaintop removal mining. Under current regulations, the Corps of Engineers issues permits for that practice under Clean Water Act section 404, but EPA has the authority to veto those permits. EPA, which was entirely passive on the matter under the Bush administration, had sent objections to the Corps on a couple of permits, and announced that "it would take a close look" at others. It is now clear that a close l...
CONTINUE READINGBoth Sides are Right on Waxman-Markey
Cara asks what people think about the Waxman-Markey bill. It seems clear to me that both sides are right. And no, this isn't a case of realism versus idealism. Waxman-Markey might be the strongest thing that can get through Congress right now. And even that might be over-optimistic: Waxman can move the thing through the House, but then the process starts all over again in the Senate, where people like Evan Bayh and Ben Nelson will attempt to show the Beltway Elite...
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