Climate Change
Judge orders changes in ballot language for Proposition 23, which would suspend California’s greenhouse gas emissions law
Today, a judge ruled that the state must change the “title and summary” ballot language for Proposition 23, the oil-company-funded proposition that would suspend California’s landmark greenhouse gas emissions law AB 32. (My colleague Ann Carlson wrote about this initiative campaign earlier this summer.) Proposition 23 would render the law unenforceable until California’s unemployment rate …
CONTINUE READINGThe environmental community mourns the passing of climate science giant Stephen Schneider
Dr. Stephen Schneider, the pioneering Stanford climate scientist whose passion for the topic and concern for the earth’s future led him to become an outspoken public advocate for the role of scientific evidence and scientific judgment in shaping climate policy, has died at age 65 of an apparent heart attack. Andy Revkin of the New …
CONTINUE READINGHeat Waves? Get Used to Them.
Last week the east coast sweltered. Berlin reached 99 degrees and China experienced a heat wave through much of the country. This week it’s our turn in Southern California as temperatures reach triple digits. As I argued last week, when asked if these heat waves are related to climate change, the answer should be yes. …
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CONTINUE READINGAre Heat Waves Related to Climate Change?
Andrew Leonard had a great post on Salon this week arguing — essentially — that liberal bloggers are wimps when it comes to connecting extreme climate events like heat waves to climate change. By contrast, he notes, conservatives eagerly throw barbs at Al Gore any time it snows in D.C.: climate denier James Inhofe’s grandchildren …
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CONTINUE READINGMeg Whitman and the Environment
I thought it would be useful to review the environmental positions of the key candidates in California. My goal is to be informative rather than evaluative. I’m beginning with Meg Whitman. She’s not exactly “Ms. Environment.” In an op. ed last year, Meg Whitman (the GOP gubernatorial candidate) called for a suspension of AB32, as …
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CONTINUE READINGNatural Gas from Shale: The Next Energy Boom? The New Climate Solution?
Steve Levine has an interesting article in TNR touting shale gas as the Next Big Thing in the energy world. He predicts falling oil prices (as low as $30/barrel) and geopolitical dislocations. He does observe, however, that there are some unresolved environmental issues. Some of those issues are addressed in a programmatic EIS that’s available …
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CONTINUE READINGComer craziness: Appellate nuisance victory overturned, despite lack of quorum (!)
Question: If an 3-judge panel on an appellate court unanimously reverses a D Ct opinion, and the full Circuit lacks a quorum to reconsider the substance of that appellate panel decision, what happens? If you answered “the appellate panel decision survives,” you’d be supported by a certain (which is to say, all) logic — but …
CONTINUE READINGEPA’s Clean Air Act tailoring rule finalized today
Just a quick post to point you to the fact sheet on the final tailoring rule, the final rule itself, and an early Greenwire piece on its content. Sure enough, as Adminstrator Jackson had been signaling for some time, the final rule significantly increases the GHG emission thresholds that will trigger New Source Review / PSD coverage, …
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CONTINUE READINGChina’s Growth in Energy Usage Truly Alarming
Cara blogged earlier this week about the fact that U.S. emissions were down “a whopping 7 % in 2009.” Just when you might have been thinking that we are headed in the right direction on the climate change front, today’s New York Times has a distressing story about Chinese emissions. The take home point: Coal-fired electricity …
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CONTINUE READINGUS climate emissions down a whopping 7% in 2009
The arm of the US Dept of Energy that tracks GHG emissions has come out with final numbers for 2009 emissions. Turns out that last year saw the largest absolute and percentage drop in US CO2 emissions since we began tracking the numbers decades ago. The EIA’s report is here. Here’s a key graph illustrating the decrease: One …
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