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Traitors, Militias, Welfare Moochers, or Lobbyists?
Those Who Took Over the Oregon Wildlife Refuge are Robbing the Rest of Us
The Internets are filled with excellent (and some not-so-excellent) commentary on the right-wing militia takeover of a building in Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge: I recommend this piece from the great Charles Pierce on the meta-political aspects. But the standoff is suffused with legal issues, and for Legal Planet readers, particularly environmental legal issues. At FiveThirtyEight, …
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CONTINUE READINGWe’ll Always Have Paris — Or Will We?
Some skepticism from an attendee about what can transpire there
Along with the UCLA Law crew of Ann, Ted, Cara, and Alex, plus six law students, I’ll be attending the UN climate change negotiations in Paris next week, primarily to highlight California’s effort to achieve a strong subnational agreement on greenhouse gas reductions. The “Under 2 MOU” is an impressive commitment by diverse subnational entities, …
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CONTINUE READINGPlanting Biofuels in California
New report on ways to boost in-state production of low-carbon biofuels, plus December 14th webinar
When we think of ways to reduce emissions from petroleum-based transportation fuels, electric vehicles get much of the headlines. Battery electric transportation certainly offers a viable, long-term alternative to petroleum fuels. But we’re still a few years away from an affordable, mass-market electric vehicle, and battery technology may be decades away, if ever, from being …
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CONTINUE READINGAttack of the Killer Blob
A weird patch of warm weather is killing sea lions and poisoning crabs.
There’s a weird area of warm water, which has come to be known as the Blob, sitting offshore of the West Coast. That doesn’t sound too significant, except perhaps in terms of making things more pleasant for swimmers. But actually, it’s causing a whole cascade of impacts on wildlife and humans. As the Chronicle explains: “The …
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CONTINUE READINGExploring Potential Challenges to EPA’s New Source Performance Standard: PART III
CCS for coal power plants, but not natural-gas power plants?
This post is the third in a mini-series (see first and second posts) exploring likely legal challenges to the New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) for power-plant greenhouse gas emissions under Clean Air Act § 111(b), and how those challenges might affect the Clean Power Plan. In my first post on EPA’s New Source Performance Standard …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Coal Export Wars Reach Oakland
In seeking an alternative route to Asian markets, coal’s path from Utah to China via Oakland hits a snag
Expanded west coast infrastructure to support the export of western U.S. coal to Asian markets has long been part of the business plans for some of the nation’s largest coal producers. However, attempts by Powder River Basin coal interests to construct or expand coal export terminals in Washington and Oregon in recent years have been …
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CONTINUE READINGCan We Trust the Science? The Challenge of Irreproducible Results
In the peer review process, articles submitted to scientific journals are sent to experts in the field who then assess the methodology, results and conclusions. Based on their feedback, authors often revise and re-submit, publishing an improved article as a result. Peer reviewers rarely attempt the actual experiments described in the paper. Irreproducible results are …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Horse Manifesto
“The Law of the Horse” is a disparaging term for a legal field. We should embrace it.
It’s fairly common to refer to environmental law or energy law as being like the Law of the Horse – implying that they are somewhat ersatz legal fields. For those who are not familiar with the reference, The Law of the Horse was apparently the title of a legal treatise that collected all the cases …
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CONTINUE READINGReligion’s “Traditional” View: A Friendly Dissent
Faith Has Long Embraced Environmental Values
Dan’s nice summary of Laudato Si will be the first of several commentaries on the page. But before we get going, I have to offer a friendly dissent on one aspect of it — an aspect that unfortunately plays into a lot of discussion of religion. Dan writes that Pope Francis’ encyclical seeks to re-read …
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CONTINUE READINGControlling Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Transport Fuels
The Performance and Prospects of California’s Low-Carbon Fuel Standard
Transportation is the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in California, responsible for about 37 percent of the state’s total emissions. This distinction makes the sector a prime target for regulation. But with tens of millions of emitting tailpipes, fuels sourced from out of state and around the world, decades-long vehicle lifespans, and many other …
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