The Environmental Argument Against Sotomayor–Sort of
As Dan points out, environmental issues do not figure to be large in the Sotomayor nomination, but there is one case where those interested in the environment (on either side) have a pretty large bone to pick with Judge Sotomayor: Connecticut v. American Electric Power, a major climate change case. In this litigation, several attorneys general sued a consortium of electric power producers, alleging that the carbon emissions from power generation constitute a "public ...
CONTINUE READINGIt’s Sotomayor!
President Obama announced his decision to nominate Sonia Sotomayor for the Souter seat today. Environmental issues are unlikely to loom large in the confirmation battle. So far as we know at this point, her most notable decision was in the Entergy case, which involved the question of whether power plants need to use closed cycle water systems for cooling. Judge Sotomayor ruled in the Second Circuit that the statutory language did not allow EPA to consider the rela...
CONTINUE READINGShould State Cap and Trade Programs Be Preempted?
My general sense is that most environmentalists disfavor federal preemption of state climate change policy making. States have led the way on progressive climate policy during the eight years of federal inaction under Bush, enacting renewable portfolio standards (29 states), greenhouse gas emissions caps (covering more than half the states), utility performance standards (four states), and auto emissions standards (California plus fifteen states set to follow Californi...
CONTINUE READINGTar Sands, Obama, California, and the Economy in Calgary
Spending just a few days in Calgary, Alberta, one thing becomes perfectly clear: oil is Calgary, and Calgary is all about oil. And increasingly, the story of oil all across Alberta has become the story of tar sands. Many around the world have viewed with horror, or at least dismay, Canada’s increased reliance on producing oil from its abundant tar sands fields -- leading to the destruction of much of Northern Alberta, and the consumption of startling quantities...
CONTINUE READINGWar and the Environment
Memorial Day is an apt date to think about how wars, along with their other tragic costs, impact the environment. As Peace Pledge reminds us: Images of devastated battlefields are all too familiar. A German officer in 1918 described ‘dumb, black stumps of shattered trees which still stick up where there used to be villages. Flayed by splinters of bursting shells, they stand like corpses upright. Not a blade of grass anywhere. Just miles of flat, empty, broken and tum...
CONTINUE READINGHappy Birthday, Rachel Carson!
Rachel Carson was born on May 25, 1907, just over a century ago. She once expressed her philosophy as follows: "We still talk in terms of conquest. We still haven't become mature enough to think of ourselves as only a tiny part of a vast and incredible universe. Man's attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. "But man is a part of nature, ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Latest Issue of ELQ
As usual, an intriguing collection of articles, all available free on-line: The Silver Anniversary of the United States’ Exclusive Economic Zone: Twenty-Five Years of Ocean Use and Abuse, and the Possibility of a Blue Water Public Trust Doctrine Mary Turnipseed, Stephen E. Roady, Raphael Sagarin, & Larry B. Crowder Read Article (PDF) Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Vehicle Miles Traveled: Integrating the California Environmental Quality Act with the ...
CONTINUE READINGAnother Env Law Prof Goes to Washington
President Obama announced his intention to nominate Chris Schroeder to head the Office of Legal Policy at DOJ. As the announcement indicates, Schroeder is an eminent authority on environmental law: Christopher H. Schroeder is Charles S. Murphy Professor of Law and Professor of Public Policy Studies, and director of the Program in Public Law at Duke University. His publications include a leading environmental law casebook, Environmental Regulation: Law, Science and P...
CONTINUE READINGDebating Environmental Issues
The Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) sponsored a series of debates and colloquies at Berkeley in the Spring semester, all of which are now available on video: Unleashing the Clean Energy Economy Michael Shellenberger vs. Peter Barnes - February 18, 2009 Environmental Program Town Hall February 19, 2009 Climate Change & the View from the Attorney General's Office Cliff Rechtschaffen - March 3, 2009 Arctic Boundaries and Climate Change: The Changi...
CONTINUE READINGClimate bill is out of committee (thanks in part to speed reader?)
Yesterday evening, by a 33-25 vote, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill (full text here - all 946 pages of it). This quick analysis by Kate Sheppard at Grist.org is useful. This New York Times article discusses the opposition to the bill from the agricultural sector, and the likely difficulties that the legislation will face in the House Agricultural Committee. (Opposition by some environmentalist groups was pre...
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