Going to the Dogs? Unfair Attacks on Cass Sunstein
A lot of environmentalists are uncomfortable about Cass Sunstein's appointment as "regulatory czar" at OMB. Reasonable people may differ about the validity of those concerns. But now he's been attacked from another direction -- conservatives eager to paint him as an animal-rights fanatic who wants to ban hunting. For instance, For one particularly colorful attack, we turn your attention to a speech from the National Rifle Association's fiery Wayne LaPierre at the a...
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Hypocrisy
Recently, CBS's 60 Minutes ran a story on the current environmental damages litigation 30,000 Ecuadorians are bringing in that country's courts against Chevron. The case arises out the toxic oil wastes a Chevron subsidiary left behind in the Ecuadorian rain forest following decades of oil production deep in the headwaters of the Amazon. The plaintiffs, represented by American lawyers, are seeking $27 billion in damages to clean up and compensate for the abandoned was...
CONTINUE READINGDitching cap and trade (the phrase, not the proposal)
Looks like the White House is taking note of the same polling data Dan blogs about here on the public's antipathy toward, or misunderstanding of, the phrase "cap and trade". This from the LA Times, in a story generally chronicling the administration's efforts to figure out the best language and framing for its climate policies: It seems clear that the White House is absorbing some of these messages. During Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, his website included a sec...
CONTINUE READINGPika next test for the ESA?
If you think the polar bear wrangling has been fun, stay tuned. FWS has announced that it will review the status of the American pika to determine if listing is warranted (hat tip: EarthJustice). The pika, also known as the "rock rabbit," is a cute little creature found in the mountains of the western U.S. and Canada. The key threat to the pika is global warming While Obama's Interior Department has disappointed biodiversity advocates with its decision not to revoke the...
CONTINUE READINGRagging on Climate Change
An White House document surfaced today relating to EPA's proposed finding of endangerment. The document is unremittingly critical of EPA. Some of the criticisms relate to fairly narrow points such as whether EPA should have addressed six greenhouse gases or only four. Other issues are more basic. The document displays stunning ignorance of or disdain for law. It suggests that the EPA should hold back from making an endangerment finding on the ground that "an...
CONTINUE READINGESA in the Everglades
There's something for everyone to like (and to dislike) in the Eleventh Circuit's decision in Miccosukee Tribe v. United States. The case involved the Army Corps of Engineers' management of south Florida's extensive plumbing system. Compliance with the Endangered Species Act in operating the S-12 gates in the Central and South Florida project poses a challenge because the needs of two listed species are tough to reconcile. The Everglades snail kite (pictured), describ...
CONTINUE READINGThe virtual carbon footprint
Is your computer saving the environment or destroying it? Computer use has become a major energy sink both in the U.S. and worldwide. And it's not just the computer on your desk. Duncan Graham-Rowe reports in New Scientist that the internet, including data centers as well as computers and peripherals linked to those centers "could be responsible for as much as 2 per cent of all human-made CO2 emissions, putting it on a par with the aviation industry." And as use of the i...
CONTINUE READINGCap and Trade? Huh??
It turns out that hardly anyone except politicos and policy wonks knows what cap-and-trade means or that it relates to climate change. According to Rasmussen, Given a choice of three options, just 24% of voters can correctly identify the cap-and-trade proposal as something that deals with environmental issues. A slightly higher number (29%) believe the proposal has something to do with regulating Wall Street while 17% think the term applies to health care reform. A plu...
CONTINUE READINGThe Great Yucca Mountain Debacle
Over twenty years ago, the Supreme Court accepted the Nuclear Regulatory Agency's assurances that it would find a safe method for long-term disposal of nuclear waste. Consequently, the NRC was allowed to assign a zero to the risk of any radioactive discharge. As it turns out, this was an empty promise. The solution that the government settled on was permanent underground storage at Yucca Mountain. Many years of planning and litigation and many billions of dolla...
CONTINUE READINGThe Long Environmental Shadow of Palsgraf
Palsgraf is a case known to every American law student. It involves a bizarre accident: a train employee negligently caused a passenger to drop his bag, which contained fireworks, which went off, which caused freight scales at the other end of the platform to fall over, which hit Mrs. Palsgraf and caused her emotional distress. Justice Cardozo's famous opinion for the New York Court of Appeals held that Mrs. Palsgraf couldn't recover, essentially because this chain...
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
