Climate Change
New court ruling requires City, Wal-Mart to re-analyze GHG impacts of development and consider a more climate-friendly alternative
Under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), local governments and state agencies in California must analyze the environmental impacts of any permit to approve a new development project, and must identify and promise to implement mitigation to the extent feasible, before approving the project. Over the last two years, it has become clear that climate …
CONTINUE READINGWho will pay for the costs of foreign carbon dioxide in our consumer goods?
I discussed in this post the problem of GHG emissions from imported consumer products. We import and buy more and more goods from China and other countries that rely heavily on greenhouse gas-intensive coal-fired power. As a result, our consumer habits are responsible for a large and growing proportion of GHG emissions in other countries. These …
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CONTINUE READINGGood News for Air, Climate, Traffic?
Two recent interesting and potentially related articles in the LA Times suggest an encouraging trend. California drivers are consuming less gasoline, a trend that began in 2006. And U.S. car buyers may begin to look more like European consumers, buying smaller, more fuel efficient cars and keeping those cars longer. As the Times reports in …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate bill has votes to get through key House panel, says Waxman
Breaking news: Greenwire (via the New York Times) and Grist.com are reporting that Rep. Henry Waxman said tonight he “believe[s] we’ll have the votes for passage” to move his climate bill through the House Energy and Commerce Committee. (The Houston Chronicle is reporting that Rep. Waxman “expects” to have sufficient votes but takes a tone of skepticism.) Waxman …
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CONTINUE READING“Smoking gun” OMB memo on EPA climate change rulemaking is not what it seems
As Dan has mentioned, there has been a bit of a dust-up over a document in EPA’s rulemaking docket relating to EPA’s recent finding that greenhouse gases pose an endangerment to public health and welfare. As Dan notes, the memo, apparently originating at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is harshly critical …
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CONTINUE READINGRagging on Climate Change
OMB’s memo exhibits shocking disregard of or ignorance of the law.
CONTINUE READINGA New Website on Climate Economics
Real Climate Economics offers a wealth of information from a pro-regulatory perspective: The Real Climate Economics website offers a reader’s guide to the real economics of climate change, an emerging body of scholarship that is consistent with the urgency of the problem as seen from a climate science perspective. As the climate policy debate intensifies, …
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CONTINUE READINGWildfires Cause Climate Change, Climate Change Causes Wildfires
An obvious question about the raging wildfire in Santa Barbara is whether climate change is the cause. While it’s impossible to blame any individual fire on increasing temperatures, we know that climate change is responsible for more frequent and more intense wildfires in the southwest. But less obvious and at least as troubling is that …
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CONTINUE READINGNew and Noteworthy from the Ecology Law Quarterly
The latest issue of ELQ — full content available free here — is centered on two broad themes: 1) learning from other states, countries and international experiences and 2) the failures of administrative law as an environmental management tool. The issue includes the following articles: * The Transformation of Modern Administrative Law: Changing Administrations and …
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CONTINUE READINGDo we need a weatherman to know which way the climate goes?
A new report, Climate Change in the American Mind, was just released by the Yale Project on Climate Change and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. This report summarizes and synthesizes original polling research on our opinions, attitudes, and knowledge about climate change. (Statistician Nate Silver has an interesting post at Fivethirtyeight.com about some of …
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