Taking the Court’s Temperature on Global Warming
A case on the shadow docket may shed light on the Court’s direction.
Court watchers and environmentalists are waiting with bated breath for the Supreme Court to rule on West Virginia v. EPA, the Court’s most important climate change case in a generation. The issue in that case is what, if anything, EPA can do to regulate carbon emissions from power plants and factories. Yesterday, conservative states asked the Court to intervene in another climate change case. How the Court responds could give us hints into just how far the activist con...
CONTINUE READINGNew Paper Addresses California Air District Authority to End NOx Pollution from Household Appliances
Most household appliances, like furnaces and water heaters, are powered by fossil fuels and emit nitrogen oxides (NOx)—toxic and highly reactive gases that endanger human health and the environment. To address this problem, air districts have adopted policies to reduce NOx pollution from appliances, and others across California are considering similar proposals. In a new policy brief released today, my colleagues Cara Horowitz, Julia Stein, and I argue that air distr...
CONTINUE READINGInsurance Regulators Commit to TCFD-Aligned Risk Disclosure Survey
Updated survey signals greater industry focus on climate risks
Two weeks ago the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) took a significant step in the assessment and disclosure of climate-related financial risk by updating its insurer climate risk survey to reflect the recommended disclosures of Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). The TCFD recommendations are widely recognized as a leading international standard for climate risk disclosure, and the NAIC’s adoption will both increase the qual...
CONTINUE READINGBefore Yellowstone: The Arkansas Origin of National Parks
In a forgotten incident, Congress set aside Hot Springs in 190 years ago.
The origins of the national park system is usually traced back Lincoln’s 1864 signature of the Yosemite Grant Act. But Congress had actually had the idea of protecting extraordinary places over thirty years earlier, in Arkansas of all places. Hot Springs isn’t high on the list of American places to see, which may be one reason this episode had been forgotten. But it deserves to be remembered as a milestone in federal policy. The springs are located in the Ouachi...
CONTINUE READINGBiden Undoes NEPA Rollback
Trump tried to keep climate change out of environmental impact statements. Biden was right to scotch that effort.
Yesterday, the White House undid an effort by the Trump Administration to undermine the use of environmental impact statements. The pre-Trump rules had been in effect since 1978. Restoring the 1978 version was the right thing to do. The Trump’s rules arbitrarily limited the scope of the environmental effects that EPA can consider. Their goal was clearly to prevent consideration of climate change. More specifically, the Trump revision cut references to indirect or ...
CONTINUE READINGRisky Business
Climate Change and the Insurance Sector
Founded in 1871, the National Association of Insurance Commission represents insurance regulators in all fifty states. It’s not a particularly woke group – the current president is the Director of the Idaho Department of Insurance. However, the group has just issued a new “voluntary” survey for insurance companies about climate risks. “Voluntary” is in quotes because about 80% of the insurance market is regulated by states that mandate the survey. Climate ...
CONTINUE READINGA Green Tint for Rio Tinto
It’s not just a U.S. thing. Shareholder worries about climate risks are global.
Rio Tinto historically has been far from an environmental paragon. That made an investor revolt last week over the giant mining company’s climate disclosures especially notable. It’s also notable that this took place in London, showing that investor worries about climate change are worldwide. These are people with real money at stake, unlike conservative politicians and talking heads. It’s unlikely that anyone invests in Rio Tinto as a way of virtue sign...
CONTINUE READINGResponsible EV Batteries
Building a supply chain that drives electrification while advancing human rights and environmental protection
On April 4, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the mitigation chapter of its Sixth Assessment Report (view the full report here). The report’s diagnosis is stark—the window to address climate change is narrowing, and more quickly than we realized. Governments need to deploy mitigation actions rapidly to address the scale and urgency of the crisis, and must implement a diverse portfolio of actions to tackle emissions from different secto...
CONTINUE READINGWhy Energy Conservation Will Remain Crucial
Even after switching to clean power, we’ll still need to limit energy use.
If we switch to renewables, we won’t need to worry about saving energy. Right? Wrong! One reason to save energy is to limit carbon emissions from the energy we use. That's going to important until the energy system has been completely cleaned up. But energy conservation is important for reasons that go beyond the direct effect on emissions. Before I get to the reasons, I need to explain what I mean by energy conservation and why it’s different than energy effi...
CONTINUE READINGRegan Hits His Stride
Under Administrator Michael Regan, the Biden EPA is beginning to churn out important new regulatory proposals.
The Trump Administration left a trail of regulatory destruction behind it. Cleaning up the mess and issuing new regulations is Priority #1 for the Biden Administration. Under EPA head Michael Regan, the effort is beginning to pick up steam. EPA has begun the year with several major new regulatory efforts. No one of them is transformative standing alone, but their cumulative impact will be substantially cleaner air and lower carbon emissions. Feb. 28. EPA pr...
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