Environment
Judge Sotomayor’s Environmental Record
Now that President Obama has nominated her for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s record as a federal court judge will be under the microscope. Political pundits, legal scholars and advocacy groups from across the political spectrum will all be scrutinizing Sotomayor’s extensive record as a federal …
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CONTINUE READINGEducational Equality as an Environmental Issue
This is the first in an occasional series about surprising dimensions of environmental problems. Today’s thesis is that promoting educational equality in developing countries would be a good thing for the environment. In other words, environmentalists should favor directing more educational funds to girls rather than following the norm in many countries, which is to …
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CONTINUE READINGNew 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 READINGJack Kemp’s Death
Jack Kemp died a few days ago. He had served as a fellow at the Competitive Enterprise institute, where he worked on environmental matters:Jack Kemp is a distinguished fellow at CEI. The CEI page on him states: His work at CEI centers on promoting rational, free-market environmental policies. He has spoken out against the Kyoto …
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CONTINUE READINGGood news for gondoliers
The Gallup poll showing increasing public skepticism about the climate change threat, which Holly blogs about below, does not bode well for Venice, California–unless you’re a gondolier. A report was released yesterday, sponsored by several California agencies, giving more detail than ever before about the threats to California’s coast from rising sea levels. Margot Roosevelt of …
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CONTINUE READINGSupreme Court Denies Cert. in Mercury Case
The Supreme Court has declined to review a lower court opinion striking down the Bush Administration’s regulation of mercury. This isn’t a huge surprise since the Obama Admimistration indicated that the lower court opinion was consistent with its own regulatory policy, leaving only the industry to seek revieew. The lower court opinion is one of …
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CONTINUE READINGEarth, we’re just not that into you
As part of the continual fallout from last month’s Pew poll on the country’s “top priorities” for 2009, which ranked the issue of global warming dead last, I’ve found myself in several conversations recently about terminology. Assuming one believes that this ranking is too low, is part of the problem the poll’s use of the term …
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CONTINUE READINGQuote of the Day
“We have long suspected that the new administration would stress environmental enforcement activities at a faster clip than the last administration, and I think we’re seeing that,” said Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, which represents utilities. The quote referred to DOJ’s filing of an enforcement action involving new source standards.
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