Looking Past Copenhagen
A year or two ago, people expected Copenhagen to produce the equivalent of the Kyoto Protocol – a comprehensive climate roadmap for the next decade or more. It seems unlikely that the Copenhagen meeting will live up to those expectations, although there’s always the chance of a last-minute surprise. What does seem clear, however, is that progress is being made on many fronts. Within the U.S., states like California are charging ahead, the federal courts remain a...
CONTINUE READINGCivil disobedience and climate change
On Friday, the New York Times carried a story about Tim DeChristopher, the economics student in Utah who bid on federal oil and gas leases at an auction last December as a form of protest against global warming. DeChristopher was the winning bidder on 14 parcels, but admits that he never had either the intent or the ability to pay the $1.7 million he bid. He is now facing criminal charges of interfering with an auction and making false statements on a bidding form. DeC...
CONTINUE READINGLegalPlanet Gets Its 100,000th Hit
McDonald's used to have signs, back in the day, announcing that they had just sold their one millionth or two millionth hamburger. In a similar spirit, we are excited to announce that the site has now had 100,000 visits!! All the thanks goes to you as our readers. We'll do our best to deserve your continued time and attention....
CONTINUE READINGNew Laws in California
Climatewire reports that that the governor has signed several new environmental laws: •A.B. 920, which expands the state's net-metering program to require all investor-owned and publicly owned utilities to purchase surplus energy back from customers that generate their own wind and solar power, up to 2.5 MW per utility. The CPUC will set the rate. Competing bills would have raised the cap to 5 MW. •A.B. 758, which requires the California Energy Commission to write ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Triumph of the Commons
Elinor Ostrom was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics today, along with Oliver Williamson here at Berkeley. To understand why her work is relevant to environmental law, you have to first know about the "tragedy of the commons." Many medieval and early modern villages had a “commons” where all of the peasants were entitled to graze their animals. (To this day, Boston has a “commons” that now functions as a park.) This history became the basis for an import...
CONTINUE READINGA Rare Example of Bipatisanship
In yesterday's New York Times, John Kerry and Lindsay Graham wrote a joint op-ed about climate change. They agree that climate change is real, that the U.S. must cut its dependence on foreign oil, that we should not allow China or other countries to dominate the market for renewable energy technologies. They also agree that nuclear power should be part of the solution. (I'm a little dubious that we could ramp up nuclear power quickly and cheaply enough to make a di...
CONTINUE READINGArnold Schwarzenegger, Climate Hypocrite
Schwarzenegger loves to talk about how concerned he is about climate change. And talk he does -- mostly at meaningless press events like the Governors Climate Summit. But when it comes to, you know, actually doing his job, he's decided that he'd rather side with the wingnuts in his party. A couple of hours ago, he vetoed SB 406 (DeSaulnier), which would have provided funding for the smart growth bill that the Legislature passed last year by allowing regional plannin...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Change #7: “But the Earth Abides Forever”
This is the seventh in a series of brief homilies about the lessons of climate change. The text for today's sermon is from Ecclesiastes: "One generation passes away, and another generation cometh; But the earth abides forever." The application to climate change is pretty obvious: greenhouse gases can persist in the atmosphere for centuries, and changes in ocean temperature are even more prolonged. The carbon we send up our smokestacks today will be troubling our de...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Change and the Peace Prize (Again)
From the official citation to President Obama by the Norwegian committee awarding the Prize: Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened. Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future....
CONTINUE READINGFree Trade, Deregulation, and Clean Energy — A Good Mix?
Some scholars like to suggest that there is a natural regulatory cycle: the perception of market failures leads to regulation, and the perception of regulatory failures leads to deregulation. While the 1990s were dominated by free trade agreements and economic deregulation, many political observers see greater acceptance of regulation now, in light of investor malfeasance and our recent recession. It is probably fair to say that the anti-regulatory fervor of the ‘90...
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