An important step toward scientific integrity
Yesterday, together with his executive order on stem cell research, President Obama issued a memorandum to the executive branch on scientific integrity. (Dan noted the news of the pending decision here.) The memorandum is just a starting point, but it is a very good one. It elevates the issue to a high profile, assigning the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (John Holdren, if the Senate ever acts on his nomination) "the responsibility for ensu...
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Measures in Spending Bill Clear Congress
At the same time, the measure chips away at several leftover Bush administration policies. It clears the way for the Obama administration to reverse a rule issued late in the Bush administration that says greenhouse gases may not be restricted to protect polar bears from global warming. Another Bush administration rule that reduced the input of federal scientists in endangered species decisions can also be quickly overturned without a lengthy rulemaking process. This ac...
CONTINUE READINGNational Land Use/Smart Growth Policy Coming Soon?
If local governments have maintained control over one policy area, it is land use. Despite tinkering around the edges, states have mostly stayed out, and for good political reasons: land use is the most visible policy that affects people at the local level. But if the Obama Administration moves forward to regulate greenhouse gases, that could all change -- whether or not EPA institutes cap-and-trade or any other new sort of climate policy. How? The key lies in one of t...
CONTINUE READINGVan Jones to CEQ
Another potentially great Obama appointment today to CEQ -- a White House entity that might as well stand for Climate and Energy Questions these days. This from Greenwire: Author and activist Van Jones will serve as a special White House adviser for "green" jobs, enterprise and innovation. Jones, 40, will work within the Council on Environmental Quality, which coordinates President Obama's climate, energy and other environmental policy initiatives with federal agen...
CONTINUE READINGReport from Our Farflung Correspondents: Copenhagen Day 1
A Berkeley student sends a detailed report: The IARU Scientific Congress on Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges, & Decisions is being held in the same conference center that is booked for the official Copenhagen treaty negotiations, a facility called the Bella Center about ten minutes outside of Copenhagen's city center. Like most of the other 1400+ conference attendees, I arrived by public transit and was greeted upon my arrival by a gigantic wind turbine in...
CONTINUE READINGRediscovering the Lost Promise of NEPA
NEPA -- the National Environmental Policy Act -- is the forgotten elderly relative of environmental law. Its requirement of environmental impact statements is now frequently avoided by a clever workaround. Rather than issuing an environmental impact statement, an agency adopts mitigation measures that are supposed to reduce the legal of environmental impacts below the trigger point -- although no one really knows if these measures are successful. Yet, there is much...
CONTINUE READINGIt’s Morning in America (for science)
The Washington Post reports: When President Obama lifts restrictions on funding for human embryonic stem cell research Monday, he will also issue a presidential memorandum aimed at insulating scientific decisions across the federal government from political influence, officials said today. "The president believes that it's particularly important to sign this memorandum so that we can put science and technology back at the heart of pursuing a broad range of national goa...
CONTINUE READINGOne for All — All for One?
The Huffington Post reports that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is seeking a single, comprehensive energy bill that establishes a strategy for deriving energy independence and fighting climate change. She is quoted as saying "I would like to see one bill, which is the energy bill, with the cap and trade and the grid piece." Her desire for a unified approach to energy and climate is understandable. After all, it is the way we use energy that has led to most of the...
CONTINUE READINGIs Geoengineering Inevitable?
As I write, talk, teach and think about climate change seemingly non-stop these days, I frequently come back to the pessimistic conclusion that we cannot solve the climate problem through mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. I have this pessimistic thought while believing wholeheartedly that we must enact aggressive policies to cut emissions dramatically. My pessimism stems from at least three places. An obvious one is China and India. No matter what the U.S. ...
CONTINUE READINGBad ESA rules not yet undone
(Cross-posted at the Center for Progressive Reform blog.) The Bush administration's last-minute ESA (non)consultation rule is getting almost as much attention now as it did during the comment period. Then, the administration reportedly received more than 300,000 comments, the vast majority of them negative. Those objections were, of course, quickly swept under the proverbial rug so the administration could finalize its rule significantly cutting back on the application ...
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