Common Sense is Bipartisan
The WaPo story speaks for itself: "Eleven academies in industrialized countries say that climate change is real; humans have caused most of the recent warming," admitted Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.). "If fire chiefs of the same reputation told me my house was about to burn down, I'd buy some fire insurance." An oil-state senator, David Vitter (R-La), said that he, too, wants to "get us beyond high-carbon fuels" and "focus on conservation, nuclear, natural gas and new t...
CONTINUE READINGPaying for Those Transmission Lines to Promote Renewable Energy
Even people who could not care less about renewable energy development have heard the plea: in order to deliver big bunches of power from central station renewable sources, we need lots of new transmission lines. If so, then who should put up the money to get the lines built? In a decision issued a few days ago, federal regulators made the answer to that question a little less certain. When one utility company provided everything from power generation to the meter, the ...
CONTINUE READINGCorporate Law and Climate Change
In an important but under-reported development, the Obama has shifted policy on corporate reporting of climate risks. According to Greenwire, In a policy reversal long sought by shareholder advocates, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ruled yesterday that investors can directly call on public companies to describe the financial risks they face from global warming. A staff bulletin, issued a month before the start of the 2010 corporate proxy season, reversed ...
CONTINUE READINGNews on the Political Front
Both the NY Times and the Washington Post had lead stories on the politics of climate change legislation. The Post's story centered on the increasing focus of the debate on the economic impact of climate legislation and on the difficulty of establishing the facts: In anticipation, groups on the left and the right -- as well as government outfits such as the Environmental Protection Agency and Congressional Budget Office -- have issued a spate of analyses projecting the...
CONTINUE READINGOdds Are that Energy Technology Will Advance Faster Than Expected
In a post yesterday, I discussed a point that Sam Savage makes about climate change in his book, The Flaw of Averages. He makes another point that I think is very important: . . . if we continue developing sources of renewable energy at our current average rate, we may indeed be doomed. But we won't continue at this pace because there will be a distribution of success rates, with some technologies evolving faster than others. The technologies that do evolve faster ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Nuisance Suits Heat Up: Fifth Circuit Follows Connecticut v. AEP
Well, I didn't expect this one. The Fifth Circuit, in Comer v. Murphy Oil Co., has agreed to follow the Second Circuit by construing Massachusetts v. EPA's standing holding very broadly. It has allowed a class action by private plaintiffs on a common-law public nuisance claim, for damages occurring from greenhouse gas emissions, to move forward. More to come on this one when I have a chance to finish the opinion. But a couple of points: 1) Comer represents a c...
CONTINUE READINGWhy You Should Worry About Climate Change Even If You Don’t Think It Is Going To Happen
Sam Savage's book, The Flaw of Averages, talks about the ways that we are misled by focusing on averages rather than considering the full range of possible outcomes. It's a fun read that makes some very important points. One of his illustrations is climate change, which is the subject of chapter 37. Savage asks the read to consider a hypothetical in which, on average, we expect no sea level rise -- perhaps because our best estimate is that climate change won't hap...
CONTINUE READINGMeeting the Energy Needs of the Global Poor
I spent yesterday at an important University of Colorado conference organized by Lakshman Guruswamy on energy justice. The conference dealt with a frequently overlooked part of the energy problem. In our discussions of energy policy, we often focus on those who, like Americans, are already high consumers of energy, or the needs of those who, like the Chines, are rapidly increasingly their consumption compensation. But there is a third group -- the billion or more...
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental “Poetry” (Yet Again)
There once was a coal company, Which fought cap-and-trade mightily. “Costs too much,” they complained, “Emissions can’t be contained, Or our profits will face jeopardy.” There once was a scientist (or two), Whose work couldn’t pass peer review: “It’s all cosmic rays, Or perhaps high-level haze, Or something else besides plain CO2.”...
CONTINUE READINGOptimism on a Climate Bill?
At least, optimism seems to be the White House message, according to a TPM report: On Friday the president urged speed in the broader shift in U.S. energy priorities and said he believed lawmakers -- many of whom are skeptical of the energy bill -- are following. "It is a transformation that will be made as swiftly and as carefully as possible, to ensure that we are doing what it takes to grow this economy in the short, medium, and long term," Obama said. "I do belie...
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