Wow, things really have changed in Washington: a Cabinet official speaks about climate change’s impacts on California
The Los Angeles Times has a story today in its (venerable but soon-to-be-axed) California section discussing new Energy Secretary Steven Chu's public statements on the dramatic challenges California will face as a result of climate change. From the story: Chu warned of water shortages plaguing the West and Upper Midwest and particularly dire consequences for California, his home state, the nation's leading agricultural producer. In a worst case, Chu said, up to 90% o...
CONTINUE READINGJudd Gregg on oceans
It often seems that Commerce Secretaries come in knowing little or nothing about their Department's responsibilities for ocean resource management and ocean and atmospheric research. One reason many environmentalists were excited about the prospect of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson taking on the job was that Richardson had expressed a strong commitment to ocean protection. But Richardson bowed out because of an ongoing federal investigation of "pay-to-play" allega...
CONTINUE READINGDEMON SPAWN OF THE STIMULUS
From an initial concept by H.P. Lovecraft: The Boxer-Inhofe Amendment SEE! $50 billion in new stimulus money for highways to be introduced on the Senate floor tomorrow!!!! HEAR! Nothing for transit!!!!! SMELL! (TASTE?) (FEEL?) Alleged environmentalist Barbara Boxer (D-Marin County) writing a bill with climate denier James Inhofe (R-Olduvai Gorge) to build thousands of miles of roads and increase our dependence on fossil fuels! THE STIMULUS THAT ATE THE ENVIRONMENTAL...
CONTINUE READINGEnergy law courses
If you're interested in learning more about energy law, you might want to take a look at these two Berkeley classes which are now available on youtube:: Law 270.6 - Energy Regulations and the Environment - http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=8256AD22B9C1CE53 Law 270.7 - Renewable Energy & Alternative Fuels - http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=214AD3BA0B8D3FBA The downloads are free and available to anyone....
CONTINUE READINGUnnatural disasters
Scientific American's 60-Second Science blog is reporting, picking up on a news story from Science, that last year's devastating earthquake in southern China may have been caused by the filling of an enormous reservoir behind a dam built in 2004. The weight of the water in that reservoir, located just over 3 miles from the quake's epicenter, may have increased stress on the nearby fault enough to trigger its rupture. The Chinese government denies any connection....
CONTINUE READINGOn the International Renewable Energy Agency
Steve's post on the proposed International Renewable Energy Agency raises an important question: why do it this way? It would seem to me that if one really wanted to make a difference here. you would try to integrate renewable energy issues (and perhaps mandates) into the one international organization that really matters: the World Trade Organization. I say that the WTO matters because (virtually) alone among world bodies, it has real enforcement teeth: its judgments...
CONTINUE READINGBarack Obama: America’s #1 Liberal
...if you follow Robert Frost and define a liberal as a man "who is too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel." He lets Daschle go today after allegedly fully backing him yesterday. More to the point for this weblog, in the Senate, he completely checks out on the fight over transit funding, which could be the best long-term, energy-independent, and greenest stimulus there is. Obviously, Larry Summers, who did such a wonderful job with the international economy ...
CONTINUE READINGKlamath takings litigation heads to the Oregon Supreme Court
As Dan Tarlock and I detailed in our book Water War in the Klamath Basin: Macho Law, Combat Biology, and Dirty Politics, the Klamath Basin has been a hotbed for litigation on a variety of fronts since irrigation deliveries from the Klamath Reclamation Project were temporarily curtailed in the critically dry summer of 2001. Now there's a new twist in the takings litigation brought by the Project irrigators. In two opinions issued in 2005 and 2007, the Court of Claims ...
CONTINUE READINGA Public Lands Agenda for the New Administration
Given the overarching issue of climate change, it's probably unrealistic to assume that the question of how best to manage the nation's public lands will be an immediate priority of the Obama Administration. And the economic crisis currently confronting the U.S. likely pushes environmental issues off the top tier of the Administration's priority list as a general proposition--at least temporarily. But creating a new public lands agenda for America remains hugely impor...
CONTINUE READINGAn International Renewable Energy Agency
Prometheus and Nature News report that on January 26th, 75 nations signed an agreement calling for the creation of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Its mission is to become "the main driving force in promoting a rapid transition towards the widespread and sustainable use of renewable energy on a global scale. Acting as the global voice for renewable energies, IRENA will provide practical advice and support for both industrialized and developing co...
CONTINUE READING