pollution
China and the Environment: Some Progress on Lead Pollution
It’s a pleasure to be joining the excellent group here at Legal Planet. My focus will largely be on issues related to China and its environmental and energy challenges. I returned to the U.S. last month after seven years working in China on environmental protection and legal reform (mostly for the Natural Resources Defense Council). …
Continue reading “China and the Environment: Some Progress on Lead Pollution”
CONTINUE READINGScholastic, Inc. publishes pro-coal curriculum for fourth graders, apparently paid for by coal industry
Yesterday, I wrote about a satirical campaign in which anti-coal activists spoofed a Peabody Energy website in order to publicize the link between burning coal and childhood asthma. The satirical campaign included fake child-oriented games and discounted asthma inhalers. But all satire aside, the coal industry really is marketing its product directly to children. The …
CONTINUE READINGAnti-coal satire (with My First Inhaler) punks Peabody Energy
Peabody Energy — last seen on this blog as the real party in interest whose proposal to mine more coal on Indian land in Arizona had to go back to the drawing board because of this UCLA environmental law clinic case , and immortalized in the John Prine song “Paradise” — has been punked. (I’ve …
Continue reading “Anti-coal satire (with My First Inhaler) punks Peabody Energy”
CONTINUE READINGWhy Maureen Gorsen is wrong: Prop 26 will undermine environmental regulation
Followers of this blog know that, yesterday, UCLA Law released an analysis of Proposition 26’s impacts on state funding for environmental and public health programs. Today, the Yes on 26 campaign struck back with a press release in which Maureen Gorsen suggested that we failed to understand Prop 26 and ignored facts. (The Yes on …
Continue reading “Why Maureen Gorsen is wrong: Prop 26 will undermine environmental regulation”
CONTINUE READINGProposition 26: The most important ballot initiative affecting California’s environment?
*UPDATES: UCLA Law released a report analyzing Proposition 26’s impacts on the State’s environmental protection laws. And co-blogger Rhead Enion has responded point by point to some of Maureen Gorsen’s arguments criticizing our analysis of the initative.* My co-bloggers have argued whether Proposition 25 or Proposition 23 is more important to California’s environmental future. I …
CONTINUE READINGNew environmental dating site matches fossil fuel industry lobbyists, elected officials
I’ve never been involved in either of two trends that have exploded in recent years: internet dating, and lobbying of federal officials by fossil fuel-based energy-producing companies. But I just learned about a new website that links the two. The site, Polluter Harmony, says it “is the #1 matchmaking site for polluters, industry lobbyists, & politicians.” Although …
CONTINUE READINGDecriminalizing Our Public Lands
According to media reports, government fire investigations reveal that the recent, extensive brush fires that have destroyed nearly 100,000 acres in Santa Barbara County, California, were ignited as a result of illegal marijuana operations being conducted on federal forest lands. As news accounts point out, clandestine drug operations carried out on public lands may be …
Continue reading “Decriminalizing Our Public Lands”
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Hypocrisy
Recently, CBS’s 60 Minutes ran a story on the current environmental damages litigation 30,000 Ecuadorians are bringing in that country’s courts against Chevron. The case arises out the toxic oil wastes a Chevron subsidiary left behind in the Ecuadorian rain forest following decades of oil production deep in the headwaters of the Amazon. The plaintiffs, …
Continue reading “Environmental Hypocrisy”
CONTINUE READINGA Supreme Court Speed-Bump for Coeur Alaska
With the U.S. Supreme Court’s issuance of its major CERCLA opinion yesterday in Burlington Northern, the Court has now decided four of the five major environmental cases on its docket this Term. But a little-noticed order from the Court–also issued yesterday–suggests that the Court is struggling mightily with the fifth and final case, Coeur Alaska, …
Continue reading “A Supreme Court Speed-Bump for Coeur Alaska”
CONTINUE READINGExxon Valdez: 20 Years Later – Lessons Learned
Today commemorates a sad and calamitous event in American environmental history: the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. The key facts of that ecological disaster, recounted in yesterday’s New York Times, are by now well-known: the spill of 11 million gallons of crude oil into near-shore ocean waters, …
Continue reading “Exxon Valdez: 20 Years Later – Lessons Learned”
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
