Drill baby drill?
Remember last year when gas was at $4 a gallon, and candidates were falling all over themselves to explain how they would bring that price down? Two longstanding moratoria against oil and gas development in federal waters fell to that political pressure. In July, George W. Bush lifted an executive ban, initially issued by his father in 1990 and covering most of the nation's coasts, with the exception of parts of Alaska and the Gulf Coast. In the fall, Congress allowed it...
CONTINUE READINGThis is for the birds
More depressing climate change news on bird migration: An Audubon Society study to be released Tuesday found that more than half of 305 birds species in North America, a hodgepodge that includes robins, gulls, chickadees and owls, are spending the winter about 35 miles farther north than they did 40 years ago. So if it's getting warmer farther north, will climate change impacts be reduced by US snowbirds having to drive shorter distances to find sunshine? Could be a lot ...
CONTINUE READINGLegal Challenge to RGGI
The operator of a cogeneration plant in upstate New York, Indeck Corinth, has filed suit to challenge the Northeastern states' carbon trading scheme, RGGI. Apart from some state law claims, the most significant claims seem to be preemption under PURPA and Compact Clause violation. For reasons, discussed in this article, I think the Compact Clause argument is unfounded. Someone else might be able to comment on the PURPA issues and the state law claims. There are...
CONTINUE READINGGoodbye CCELP, Hello CLEE
Three years ago, the U.C. Berkeley Law School launched a new research center devoted to environmental law and policy: the California Center for Environmental Law & Policy (CCELP). From its inception, CCELP has worked on a variety of energy matters. However, since 2006 the intersection of energy and environmental policy has become both more obvious and more important. Climate change may be the best illustration: the majority of climate change issues have a stron...
CONTINUE READINGHow do we decide what is a “Water of the United States”? Rapanos revisited
Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinions in Rapanos v. United States in 2006, it has been unclear exactly how the U.S. is to go about evaluating which wetlands and tributaries of navigable waters are subject to federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act. Until recently, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asserted federal jurisdiction over wetlands and tributaries even where their connection to open, traditionally navigable waterways were attenuated. T...
CONTINUE READINGMore hot links
Piggy-backing on Dan's post below, here are some more blogs that cover environmental issues. Of course everyone has their own spin, and most of these blogs make no pretense of neutrality. Browse at your own risk. And please let us know what additional sites you find useful. Aquafornia -- the source for all things water in California Climate Progress -- the view of climate change from the Center for American Progress ClimateIntel -- from the climate change practice at...
CONTINUE READINGHot Links to Cool Sites
The platform for this blog limits the number of links that we can list in the left margin. Here are some blogs that cover environmental issues in a significant way: SF Green -- the San Francisco Chronicle's blog on environmental and energy issues in the Bay Area. RealClimate -- an excellent source for reliable information on climate science. Center for Progressive Reform -- the environmentalist viewpoint on regulatory issues. In addition, some of the leading legal ...
CONTINUE READINGMore on climate change and water management
I posted last week about the Secure Water provision of S 22, the Omnibus Public Lands bill that has passed the Senate, which would mandate federal planning for the effects of climate change on water resources. Federal water agencies are already looking at how water planning needs to adapt to climate change. The US Geological Survey, Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, and NOAA have issued a new interagency publication, Climate Change and Water Resources Managemen...
CONTINUE READINGRalph’s Pretty Good Stimulus: A Missed Opportunity
A Prairie Home Companion is sponsored by, among others, Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery: "If you can't find it at Ralph's, you can probably get along without it."That's my initial and preliminary take on some of the energy and transportation provisions of the stimulus, although a lot that isn't in there we probably can't get along without, like a real commitment to energy efficiency and transit. In all, it seems to me that this is okay, but really a missed opportunity: o...
CONTINUE READINGA Victory for the California Team
AP reports that: The Export-Import Bank of the United States and the Overseas Private Investment Corp. agreed to provide a combined $500 million in financing for renewable energy projects and take into account greenhouse gas emissions associated with projects they support. The lawsuit was originally filed in San Francisco federal court in 2002 by Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and four cities that claimed they would suffer environmental and economic damage from global ...
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