Will the Specter Shift Affect Environmental Legislation?
The answer is probably "yes," not because Specter will become an environmental champion but because his votes will shift at the margin. If you look at the LCV scores (here), Specter is below 50% this year and for his lifetime average. Part of that may be Pennsylvania -- Bob Casey is only at 60%, which is well below the scores for Maine's two Republican Senators. (If you look at the map, environmental voting scores are highest for states that border either Canada or...
CONTINUE READINGRuling by Justice Scalia Makes it Easier to Repeal Bush-Era Rules
In an opinion today dealing with FCC regulation of naughty language, the Supreme Court made it easier for the government to repeal or replace existing rules. Ironically, this green light for the Obama Administration came from conservative stalwart Antonin Scalia. One issue in today's case was whether the FCC needed to give a fuller explanation of its action because it was modifying existing policy. Some courts have read a prior Supreme Court case to require more evi...
CONTINUE READINGA framework for offshore renewable energy
Cymie posted here about the hearings Interior recently held in on both coasts on offshore energy development of all stripes. True to the President's commitment to making renewable energy development a priority, shortly after those hearings Interior's Minerals Management Service finalized regulations governing renewable energy development on the outer continental shelf. The regulations, developed under the authority of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, set out the terms on w...
CONTINUE READINGInterior to pull mountaintop mining rule
UPDATE 4/29: AP reports that the Justice Department's filing requests that the rule be vacated and remanded on the grounds that it was not preceded by ESA consultation. (Hat tip: PLF on ESA). Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced today that his department would ask the court hearing a challenge to a key Bush-era rule on mountaintop mining to vacate the rule and remand it to Interior. The rule, issued by the Office of Surface Mining in December under the Surface Min...
CONTINUE READINGThe fat lady is warming up — make that singing
UPDATE 4/28: The Secretaries of Interior and Commerce have announced that they are revoking the Bush administration's midnight rule on ESA section 7 consultation. They apparently are not revoking the special rule on the polar bear (as they were also authorized to do under the omnibus spending bill). We will have more when the formal decision is released. The New York Times reports that the Department of Interior has sent revisions to the ESA section 7 consultation rules...
CONTINUE READINGPutting a Price on Carbon: Is It Needed? Is It Enough?
In Sunday's New York Times, Thomas Friedman made the case for putting a price tag on carbon: Price matters. Without a fixed, long-term, durable price on carbon, none of the Obama clean-tech initiatives will achieve the scale needed to have an impact on climate change or make America the leader it must be in the next great industrial revolution: E.T., or energy technology. At this stage, I’d settle for any carbon price mechanism — cap and trade, fee-bates, carbon tax ...
CONTINUE READINGUpdating the Delta litigation line-up
The era of collaboration and cooperation that CalFed briefly brought to management of California's water system is well and truly over. Lawsuits are multiplying like rabbits, promising to provide full employment for water and natural resource lawyers in California for the foreseeable future. For those of you scoring at home, here are some of the latest additions to an already crowded field. Central Delta Water Agency v. US FWS: Plaintiffs, in-Delta water users, chall...
CONTINUE READINGShocking News About the Fossil Fuel Industry
Guess what? The fossil fuel industry has been deliberately lying to the public about climate change. According to the Washington Post: "The Global Climate Coalition, a group of representatives of the oil, auto and coal industries, spent years telling the public that the link between human activity and climate change was too uncertain to justify U.S. participation in the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 treaty aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. In 1995, however, a 'pri...
CONTINUE READINGMore Free On-Line Courses
These classes are very popular with Berkeley students. They've had thousands of downloads already. Law 270.7 - Renewable Energy & Alternative Fuels - Steve Weissman (Fall 2008): http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=214AD3BA0B8D3FBA Law 270.6 - Energy Regulations and the Environment - Steve Weissman (Spring 2008): http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=8256AD22B9C1CE53 Law 271 - Environmental Law and Policy - Holly Doremus (Spring 2008): http://www.youtub...
CONTINUE READINGAre we too obsessed with climate change?
Slate has an interesting piece by Brendan Borrell arguing that the current laser-like focus on climate change may be getting in the way of effective conservation measures. As he tells it, being green today "is all about greenhouse gases," to the point that people have forgotten about plain vanilla habitat destruction. That, he thinks, is still by far the greatest threat to biodiversity. Some of Borrell's claims seem a bit overblown, or perhaps misdirected. He complains ...
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