Shouldn’t Conservatives Be Environmentalists?
It seems to me that the answer is yes, contrary to popular opinion. There are several varieties of conservatism, but in my view each of them should resonate with at least some aspects of environmental protection. Let's start with social conservatives. What does it mean to have a "culture of life"? Shouldn't it mean objecting when companies emit pollution that causes large numbers of deaths, just to make a little extra money? It's true that the company doesn't ...
CONTINUE READINGTwo New EPA Nominees
The President announced two new EPA choices: Cynthia Giles as chief of enforcement, and Michele DePass as EPA's assistant administrator for international affairs. Cynthia Giles is a Berkeley Law grad. She is currently the vice president and director of the Conservation Law Foundation's Rhode Island Advocacy Center, focusing on state and regional programs to combat climate change. She previously headed the Bureau of Resource Protection at the Massachusetts De...
CONTINUE READINGRenewable Energy and Economic Stimulus: Better Luck This Time Around
The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, better known as the economic stimulus package, throws 11 billion dollars at infrastructure development to support renewable energy, particularly improvement and expansion of transmission grids. It's characterized as a win-win scenario, getting people back to work while smoothing the way for substantially less carbon-intensive energy generation. That's quite a difference from what happened the last time we had an economic ...
CONTINUE READINGClimate news gets worse
On Science Insider (subscription required), Eli Kintisch reports on two new scientific studies that together spell bad news for our ability to address the greenhouse gas problem. The first is a computer simulation of the effect on global CO2 levels if developed nations adopt the most aggressive greenhouse gas emission reductions they have proposed or committed to -- including 80% below 1990 levels by 2050 in Europe and the U.S. The authors find that even with those cuts...
CONTINUE READINGInterior team slowly takes shape
President Obama and Interior Secretary Salazar have begun to trickle out the new leadership team for the Interior Department. So far, the team is heavy on legal talent. Like Secretary Salazar, the first three nominees to subordinate positions all hold JDs. David Hayes was nominated late last month to be Deputy Secretary, the number two position in the Department. Hayes, a graduate of Stanford Law School, was a partner at Latham and Watkins before becoming Deputy Secreta...
CONTINUE READINGWALL-E World
For those of us who don't live in or visit heavily-foreclosed neighborhoods, we often read the statistics without understanding the physical reality. But environmentally-speaking, many neighborhoods in this country have essentially become ghost-towns. So what do we do with these abandoned properties? Well, for some enterprising bobcats, these now-empty McMansions represent some low-cost lodging (photo to the left). For local governments, however, abandoned suburbs ...
CONTINUE READINGAn Invitation to Explore the Connections Between Constitutional & Environmental Law
These days, more and more of the most important environmental law disputes arise in the crucible of constitutional law. Preemption, the Dormant Commerce Clause, the foreign powers doctrine, constitutional principles of standing to sue and the separation of powers doctrine are all doctrines of constitutional law that have been invoked in much of the most critical environmental litigation of our generation. Yet, surprisingly, there's been precious little systematic disc...
CONTINUE READINGU.S. state insurance regulators take step toward addressing climate risk
I've spent some time over the past two years studying the relationship between the insurance industry and climate change. Yesterday there was an important development in this area: the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) , the group of state regulators that collectively regulate insurance in the U.S., adopted for the first time a requirement that large insurers complete an annual climate risk disclosure survey. The insurance industry bears much o...
CONTINUE READINGWas it worth it?
Sometimes environmental litigation becomes strikingly divorced from the underlying facts that give rise to it. And sometimes the hardest fought litigation seems to have the least impact on what the parties are ostensibly fighting about. When that litigation creates bad precedents that are difficult to reverse, you have to wonder whether anything of value has come out of the process. Take, for example, the litigation that produced the Supreme Court decision in Department...
CONTINUE READINGTime for NMFS to lead on hatcheries
Demonstrating once again the importance of presidential elections and appointments, the 9th Circuit has upheld the National Marine Fisheries Service’s policy on considering hatchery fish in listing Pacific salmonids. (Hat tip: ESA blawg.) Hatchery fish can be a boon or a bane to salmon conservation. Because hatchery programs have emphasized production of fish for harvest, on the whole they have been far more harmful than helpful to wild fish over the last century. ...
CONTINUE READING