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The ‘Great Pond’ Debate of 1888
Some of the key issues we face today resemble those of 130 years ago.
I suppose most of you, like me, have never heard of the Watuppa Ponds. But in 1888, a battle broke out over the legality of their use to supply drinking water for a nearby city. The issue closely divided Massachusetts’s highest court, and led to a heated debate in the recently launched Harvard Law Review …
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CONTINUE READINGA Dozen Strategies for the Struggle With Big Oil
Big Oil will fight against energy transformation. How do we fight back?
The oil industry is enormous – something like 2-3% of global GDP. Individuals firms like ExxonMobil earn tens of billions of dollars each quarter. Controlling climate change will mean drastic curtailment in the coming decades of the industry’s major products. There’s no way that the industry will accept this lying down, and it’s a formidable …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Politics Down Under
Australia is leaping from the frying pan into the fire.
Australian climate politics has been strange if not chaotic. And in terms of climate policy, things seems to be going from bad to worse. This is partly a function of general political upheaval. In an enlightening 2018 paper, three University of Melbourne law professors (Baxter. Milligan, and McRae) traced the developments from 2007 to 2016. …
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CONTINUE READINGCapturing Methane — Agricultural Waste and Landfills
Barriers to Solutions, continued
In California, over fifty percent of methane emissions come from the agriculture sector and over twenty percent from landfills. Most of the agriculture emissions come from manure and enteric fermentation, sometimes referred to as “cow burps.” As is the case with many sources of greenhouse gas emissions, there are many potential solutions for limiting and …
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CONTINUE READINGToo Many Climate Solutions
It’s all about implementation
It turns out that there are lots of very promising climate solutions. Drawdown, for example, provides an excellent list. Implementing those solutions – moving them to pilots, policy, and scale – remains very challenging, for a variety of reasons, some legal and regulatory, some political, economic, and technical. I have started Project Climate at the …
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CONTINUE READINGFor the Love of Carbon
Understanding Trump’s Drive to Ramp Up Carbon Emissions
Libertarians may oppose government regulation on principle, and to some extent that stance explains the Trump Administration’s environmental and energy policies. But the Trump Administration clearly views the fossil fuel sector as something more than another overly-regulated industry. Instead, expansion of this particular industry is seen as something good in itself. Thus, the Administration not …
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CONTINUE READINGEndangered Deference
The Supreme Court’s recent, misguided, Weyerhaeuser decision displays the Court majority’s hostility to agency expertise
Cross-posted from The Regulatory Review In Weyerhaeuser v. US Fish and Wildlife Service, a unanimous Supreme Court, with Justice Gorsuch not participating, indicated that it is not inclined to defer to agency expertise. Judicial power dominates this Court’s approach to administrative law, not just in the context of Chevron deference, and not just within the …
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CONTINUE READINGWhere’s the Beef?
Mississippi’s “Veggie Burgers” Ban is Almost Certainly Unconstitutional
Mississippi recently passed a law that has the effect of banning terms like “veggie burger.” It’s easy to imagine other states passing similar laws. From an environmental view, that’s problematic, because beef in particular is connected with much higher greenhouse gas emissions than plant products. It’s not just the methane from cow-burps, it’s also all …
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CONTINUE READINGCan Planting Trees Solve Climate Change?
Unfortunately, a new scientific paper overstates forests’ potential
Today, The Guardian reports: Tree planting ‘has mind-blowing potential’ to tackle climate crisis Planting billions of trees across the world is by far the biggest and cheapest way to tackle the climate crisis, according to scientists… As trees grow, they absorb and store the carbon dioxide emissions that are driving global heating. New research estimates …
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CONTINUE READINGUnderstanding the Green Energy Transition: A Conversation with David Spence about EnergyTradeoffs.com
UCLA Professor of Law and Legal Planet contributor William Boyd recently interviewed David Spence of the University of Texas School of Law about EnergyTradeoffs.com, a new web site that explores some under-discussed aspects of the green energy transition. BOYD: Tell me about EnergyTradeoffs.com. Why this web site and why now? SPENCE: EnergyTradeoffs.com is aimed at …
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