The Supreme Court’s Love Affair with the Takings Clause–Not Over Just Yet
One of the biggest differences between the U.S. Supreme Court under former Chief Justice Rehnquist and the Court under current Chief Justice Roberts is the comparative interest in property rights and the Constitution's Takings Clause. From 1978 until Rehnquist's death in 2005, the Supreme Court heard one or more takings cases each Term--culminating in the "takings trifecta" of the Kelo, Lingle and San Remo Hotel decisions in 2005. Later that same year, John Roberts was...
CONTINUE READINGBreathless in Bombay Redux: Corruption and Environmental Law
As I mentioned a few days ago, Bombay has 55,000 taxicabs that all run on CNG. (And as I updated, the municipal buses do, too -- something else that India does better than the United States.). But Bombay's taxis present India-watchers and scholars with something of a problem: if you believe the standard story about India, this simply shouldn't be happening. Talk to anyone about governance in this country, and the first word you will hear will be "corruption." Indi...
CONTINUE READINGImportant New Climate Change Story
In a new and crucial climate change development, the Los Angeles Lakers have won their 15th World Championship. (For the northerners, that's 11 more than the Warriors and Kings combined.). Hooray! Now, all we need to do is figure out how to pay for the parade.......
CONTINUE READINGSelling the deteriorating atmosphere?
In February, I wrote about the quandary of how to refer to the effects of increased atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases so as to better communicate the seriousness of the problem and reach new audiences (recognizing that "global warming" is both too mild-sounding and politically polarized, and "climate change" isn't much better). How about the phrase "our deteriorating atmosphere" as a substitute? An initially-confidential report from ecoAmerica on...
CONTINUE READINGIs EVERYTHING Related to Climate Change?
I don't want to seem obsessed with a single issue, so I keep trying to come up with topics that have absolutely no relationship with climate change. But I can't seem to find any. The fact is that energy is such an integral part of our economy that almost all activities connect one way or another with energy use and hence (in a carbon-based economy) with climate change. Here are some examples chosen more or less at random: Women's fashions. Because fashions chang...
CONTINUE READINGNational ocean policy under construction
President Obama today proclaimed June 2009 to be National Oceans Month, a time to "celebrate these vast spaces and the myriad ways they sustain life." The proclamation calls on "all Americans to learn more about the oceans and what can be done to conserve them." Beyond that symbolic move, Obama took an important step toward a unified national ocean policy. He issued a memorandum creating an Ocean Policy Task Force led by the Council on Environmental Quality, and direc...
CONTINUE READINGFutureGen Back on Track
The U.S. Department of Energy announced today that it will restart FutureGen, a large-scale demonstration project to determine the feasibility of capturing and sequestering carbon dioxide generated from coal-fired power plants. As Dan described in an earlier post, the Bush Administration had cancelled FutureGen based on cost-overruns, overruns that turned out to be based in large part on a mathematical error. The DOE announcement makes good on Energy Secretary...
CONTINUE READINGCongress Looks at Pharmaceuticals in the Water. Here’s What They Should Do.
Cross posted with permission from CPRBlog This week, a subcommittee of the House Committee on Natural Resources held a hearing on the problem of waste pharmaceuticals ending up in the nation’s waterways. The issue sounds trivial – does Congress really need to spend its time worrying about people with a few left-over prescription pills flushing them down the toilet? The answer is yes. The cumulative volume of pharmaceuticals flowing from America’s bathrooms (and ho...
CONTINUE READINGAs Digital TV Goes, So Goes the Smart Grid?
Today, we bid a nostalgic farewell to analog television, as all broadcast stations are required to deliver a digital signal. Do the challenges the nation has faced in making this not-so-momentous transition suggest a bumpy road ahead as policymakers push for a “smart” electric grid? Should low income and minority consumers be especially concerned? Most TV watchers subscribe to cable service. For those viewers, the digital transition is pretty much of a non-iss...
CONTINUE READINGNAFTA tribunal strikes a blow for mining regulation by U.S. states
The U.S. and the State of California have been cleared of liability in a widely-watched NAFTA case involving mining regulations. A foreign mining company challenged the legality of California regulations that prevented a proposed environmentally- and culturally-destructive gold mine from being built in California's Imperial Valley. The company, Glamis Gold Ltd, a Canadian company (now Goldcorp), filed the claim seeking $50 million in compensation from the U.S. aft...
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