Climate Change

LA Times Climate Reporter Laid Off

Just got a forwarded email from Margot Roosevelt, the LA Times’ terrific climate and energy reporter, sharing the news that she’s been laid off. She and her work will be missed.

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California’s Role in the New Fuel Economy Standards

Dan rightly praised the good news about newly agreed to federal fuel economy standards for the 2017-2025 time frame that will reach 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 (though there will be a review at midpoint and a possibility for readjustment if the 54.5 mpg standard proves too tough).   In all of the press …

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The Greening of South Korea

Lincoln Davies has a nice post over at Environmental Law Prof about clean energy in South Korea.  He discusses a conference relating to Korea’s planned change from a feed-in-tariff to a renewable portfolio standard as means of promoting clean energy.   Most Americans aren’t aware of this, but Korea has embraced “green growth” as a national …

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“Too Darn Hot”:The Summer of 2011 and the New Normal

DotEarth, the NY Times environmental blog, has a nice posting about how the current heat wave fits into climate-change predictions.  It seems clear that the “summer of 2011 is emblematic of the new climatological norms that are emerging as conditions neatly echo longstanding projections of the consequences of steadily raising the concentration of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.” …

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Frogs, Boiling Water, and Climate Change: For the Record

Catching up on my LegalPlanet reading after being gone for a couple of weeks (and who doesn’t do that first?), I noticed Dan’s post referencing the famous story about frogs not jumping out of hot water if you put them in when it’s tepid.  Referring to humanity’s inability to combat climate change, Dan asks: “are humans smarter than …

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The Debt Burden on Future Generations

According to GOP.gov, [T]he amount of debt placed on the backs of children born today is about to explode. If nothing is done, our generation will have the sad legacy of being the first to lower the standard of living of the next generation. . . . Unless drastic actions are taken to reduce spending …

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A Nation of Frogs?

It is said that, if you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, it immediately jumps out and is saved.  But if you put a frog in a pot of cold water and gradually warm it, you can boil the frog without it ever realizing that it’s being cooked. It’s not hard to …

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California Slowing Down on Cap and Trade

Yesterday, Mary Nichols slipped a bit of a bombshell  into testimony before the California Senate Select Committee on the Environment, the Economy and Climate Change.  She announced that the state’s Air Resources Board is planning to “initiate” the cap and trade program in 2012 but not “start the requirements for compliance”  until 2013.  This effectively …

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The Supreme Court on Climate Torts — A Second Look

Let’s begin with the bad news.  The plaintiffs lost, eliminating one possible tool in combating climate change.  That doesn’t seem like a big loss to me, because I’ve always thought that the defendants’ best argument was that the federal common law is displaced by the Clean Air Act.  It’s an easy argument to make based …

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Court allows California to continue developing cap and trade program pending appeal

This just in: Late today, a California appellate court granted the State’s request to stay (in other words, lift), pending appeal, the injunction issued by the lower court in Ass’n of Irritated Residents vs. CARB, the environmental justice community challenge to California’s work so far under its Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32).  Absent any …

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