New 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. ...
CONTINUE READINGAn Open Letter to Climate Change Denialists
Dear Climate Deniers: From the point of view of the blog, it's good news that you have found us -- it means that we're reaching readers who are well outside our usual circle of friends and acquaintances. And we also welcome dissenting views, even when we think they're unfounded, so you folks are welcome to keep on posting comments. I continue to think that you're absolutely wrong -- about as wrong about climate change as Chamberlain was about Hitler's benign intentio...
CONTINUE READINGClimate change affecting the U.S.
The US Global Change Research Program has just issued a report on Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States. For people who have been paying attention, there's not much new here. But this report, authored by a team of distinguished scientists from inside and outside the government, endorsed by the White House (see this White House blog post), and including region-by-region details, should help spread the word to others. It is already increasing popular media co...
CONTINUE READINGThe end of the Exxon Valdez legal saga?
Rick earlier posted about the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. This week, the Ninth Circuit may finally have brought the litigation that followed that spill to a close. You may recall that last year the U.S. Supreme Court heard Exxon's challenge to the punitive damages award against it, which had been set by the Ninth Circuit (after two remands to the trial court) at $2.5 billion. An equally divided Court upheld the Ninth Circuit's view that punitive dam...
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
