Another one bites the dust (RIP Cannon nomination)
Ann touted the nomination of Jon Cannon to be EPA Deputy Administrator here as "a great appointment," but last week he became the most recent Obama nominee to fall. Here's the WSJ coverage. His withdrawal is being met with real sadness in many quarters. At a conference of public and private bar environmental lawyers in Los Angeles on Friday, Cecilia Estolano, CEO of the LA Community Redevelopment Agency and someone who had worked with Cannon as part of...
CONTINUE READINGIn Mexico, Life Goes On
A sign protests the proposed La Parota Dam As President Obama announced plans to move National Guard troops to the Mexican border and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton traveled to Mexico City to discuss a new relationship between the two nations in light of accelerated drug wars, representatives from various nations were also in Mexico City this week to talk about ways to get new electric transmission lines and other infrastructure projects up and running. Delegates...
CONTINUE READINGHUD and DOT, sitting in a tree…
The two federal agencies that should go together like peas and carrots are finally making moves. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) announced a new joint task force to identify strategies to link affordable housing with transportation and to create sustainable communities. The task force will set a goal to have every major metropolitan area in the country conduct integrated housing, transportation, and ...
CONTINUE READINGLubchenco on scientific integrity
Shortly after her confirmation as NOAA administrator, Jane Lubchenco sat for an interview (subscription required) with Science and Nature. Asked about her priorities, she listed science at the top (others include ending overfishing, getting NOAA's satellite program back on track, establishing a National Climate Service, and protecting and restoring ocean ecosystems). When pressed to expand on what it would mean to make science a priority, she explained: It's my belief t...
CONTINUE READINGEPA asserts itself on mountaintop removal mining
EPA is finally flexing its muscle on mountaintop removal mining, taking on the Corps of Engineers and stepping in for states that have been reluctant to attack the practice. Mountaintop removal mining involves blasting the tops off of mountains, typically in Appalachia, to get at coal. The ecological problems are less about removal of the mountaintops than about the filling of valley streams with the excess spoils. The practice has been going on for more than 20 years w...
CONTINUE READINGAction on Nano-regulation Likely in California This Year
On March 19, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) hosted its third symposium on nanotechnology. The symposium featured speakers from industry, government, the NGO community, and academia and focused upon potential regulatory approaches for dealing with health and environmental effects of nanotechnology. In his remarks, Assemblyperson Mike Feuer announced his intent to introduce nanotechnology legislation this year. While the content of the l...
CONTINUE READINGExxon Valdez: 20 Years Later – Lessons Learned
Today commemorates a sad and calamitous event in American environmental history: the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound. The key facts of that ecological disaster, recounted in yesterday's New York Times, are by now well-known: the spill of 11 million gallons of crude oil into near-shore ocean waters, the despoiling of some 1300 miles of Alaskan shoreline, pollution of one of the planet's richest fishing grounds, the disrupti...
CONTINUE READINGCarlson to Nat’l Academy of Sciences panel on mitigating climate change
Contributor Ann Carlson's too modest to post this herself, but she's recently been named as one of two lawyers to the National Academy of Sciences' expert panel on "limiting the magnitude of future climate change." (The other is CARB chair Mary Nichols.) As called for by Congress, NAS is convening experts from across disciplines to produce a science-based report on "the most effective short-term actions and most promising long-term strategies, investments, and opp...
CONTINUE READINGThe US Chamber of Commerce on Carbon Regulation: Sub-zero stupid
Holly referenced the Chamber of Commerce's hysterical claim that regulating carbon dioxide would stop all the infrastructure projects in the stimulus. Not only is that not true, but it might in fact be exactly the opposite. The reason is pretty straightforward: to the extent that the government places caps on carbon dioxide, such a policy could catalyze spending on transit and other environmentally-friendly infrastructure. If we've got to reduce carbon, then that me...
CONTINUE READINGEndangerment finding reportedly in the works
The New York Times and Washington Post are reporting that EPA has sent a finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare to the Office of Management and Budget for review. If OMB approves, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson can sign and officially issue the finding. That would be the first step toward regulating GHG emissions under the Clean Air Act. It would also finally complete a task set for EPA by the Supreme Court nearly two years ago when it i...
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