Saving the Polar Bear: The Saga Continues
Follow-up: Greenwire now (Oct. 22) has more details: The Obama administration today proposed protecting more than 200,000 square miles in Alaska as critical habitat for the polar bear -- an area the administration said would be the largest the government has ever put forward in a bid to protect an imperiled species. The Interior Department's sweeping proposal, which includes coastal barrier islands, terrestrial denning areas and sea ice off of Alaska's coast, is...
CONTINUE READINGThe New Top 40: Facing Up to the Worst Coal-Fired Powerplants
People are talking about it in emails and all over the blogosphere – it turns out that coal-fired electric power is not as cheap as many people want to think it is. In the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Congress directed the National Academy of Sciences to “define and evaluate key external costs and benefits—related to health, environment, security, and infrastructure—that are associated with the production, distribution, and use of energy but not reflected in marke...
CONTINUE READINGThe Kivalina Climate Change Lawsuit: Wrong Is Right
As Holly noted the other day, Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong of the Northern District of California has thrown out the Kivalina tribe's climate change lawsuit against big oil and coal producers. Was she right to do so? The answer, I think, is yes -- but for procedural, not substantive reasons. Judge Armstrong's argument that the case constitutes a nonjusticiable political question is, in my view, quite wrong. It's a tort suit; courts decide torts suits all the time...
CONTINUE READINGSome Environmental Haiku
Early October: Copenhagen lies ahead. Still Congress dithers. "Yosemite Sam," shedding bitter cartoon tears, mourns for Hetch Hetchy. Certiorari is not welcome legal news -- in a NEPA case. Sovereign plaintiffs easily obtain standing. Thanks, Justice Stevens! American farms -- so many friends in Congress! Carbon offsets thrive....
CONTINUE READINGAdapting to Climate Change? Should the States or the Feds Take the Lead?
A great deal of attention has been devoted to federalism issues relating to climate change mitigation. In contrast, the federalism dimension of adaptation has only begun to receive attention. Regardless of mitigation efforts, however, it is clear that society will experience substantial climate impacts and that major adaptation efforts will be required. What roles should the states and the federal government play in adaptation? States and local governments are in many w...
CONTINUE READINGEPA threatens a mountaintop removal veto
Early on in the Obama administration, EPA did some inconclusive dancing and shuffling about its role in overseeing the issuance of Clean Water Act section 404 permits by the Corps of Engineers for mountaintop removal coal mining projects. Now, though, EPA is bringing the big guns into position. Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act authorizes EPA to veto any permit issued by the Corps upon finding "after notice and opportunity for public hearings," that the permitted ...
CONTINUE READINGKivalina nuisance suit dismissed
As Jonathan noted (here and here) last month, after a lengthy delay, the 2d Circuit ruled that a public nuisance suit brought by states and environmental groups against major power producers based on their greenhouse gas emissions did not pose a non-justiciable political question, and that the plaintiffs had standing. That ruling has obviously not yet swept the field, however. Shortly after it came down, Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong, in the Northern District of Californ...
CONTINUE READINGBad climate news round-up
Sometimes it's hard to be an optimist. The recent climate news all seems ominous: Sciencereports (subscription required) on the latest paper in press from a satellite-based study of the mass of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. Isabella Velicogna of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory finds that both ice sheets shrank at accelerating rates over the past seven years. Others warn against making too much of the new data, which represent a brief snapshot in time. If t...
CONTINUE READINGMore on the Bush-era greenhouse gas endangerment recommendation
The release of documents discussed in Holly's post ends the story of one of the more ridiculous of the last Administration's unceasing efforts to delay climate change regulation. Scientists and policymakers at EPA had concluded that greenhouse gases were a danger to the public and should be regulated under the Clean Air Act. They sent an email, with accompanying memo, to the White House saying so. Rather than deal with the substance of the message and its cons...
CONTINUE READINGEPA releases Bush-era endangerment finding
UPDATE: Cara has more here, including a link to the draft that does not require a subscription. In Dec. 2007, EPA was ready to issue a proposed finding under the Clean Air Act that greenhouse gas pollution endangers public welfare. E&E News has now obtained a copy of the draft proposal (subscription required) through a FOIA request (the Bush administration had denied an earlier request). The draft strongly endorsed the scientific consensus on global warming, stating...
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