Academia
A Friendly Debate with a Conservative Colleague About Climate
My friend and colleague Steve Bainbridge is out with a new article on “Corporate Lawyers as Gatekeepers,” which, if you are interested in corporate law, you should read (Steve is one of the country’s most distinguished scholars in the field). But what piqued my interest when he sent it to me was his offhand remark …
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CONTINUE READINGLaw School News: Sunstein Returns to Harvard
The White House announced that Cass Sunstein will be leaving OMB at the end of the month to return to Harvard Law School. Sunstein was not popular with environmentalists– I have heard people say that he was worse than some of the OMB heads who served under Republican presidents. He also doesn’t seem to have …
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CONTINUE READINGDo “Green Homes” Sell for a Price Premium?
Yes. Nils Kok and I estimate a large 9% price premium for “Energy Star” certified California homes relative to similar homes that are not certified. If you like to read about the “green economy”, here is a free copy. This study builds on my recent work estimating the price premium for solar …
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CONTINUE READINGA Surprising Consequence of Suburban Sprawl?
Environmentalists continue to measure the GHG consequences of suburban sprawl. This is an important topic with relevant policy implications as cities in the developing world decentralize but I want to mention a funny consequence of sprawl. According to the NY Times, it determines your skills in basketball. Urban kids are better dribblers while suburban …
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CONTINUE READINGUCLA and City of Los Angeles Publish First-Ever Detailed Long-Term Climate Forecast for a City’s Neighborhoods
A team led by UCLA researcher Dr. Alex Hall has released a study that projects temperature trends by neighborhood within the Los Angeles region for the mid-21st century. The report is the most sophisticated regional study of climate trends that has ever been developed, and is based on climate modeling two orders of magnitude higher …
CONTINUE READINGHow much of the grid can be renewable?
How far can we go in converting our power supply to renewable sources? On June 15th, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory provided a partial answer when it released a “Renewable Energy Futures Study.” The team undertaking this analysis was comprised of experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as from various national labs, …
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CONTINUE READINGLearning About Renewable Energy in Dialogue with Al Gore and Steve Chu
Two of my colleagues, Jennifer Granholm and Steve Weissman, offered an exciting new course this semester, culminating in a visit with the chair of FERC and with Energy Secretary Chu. Each student examined the renewable energy programs and opportunities in one particular state and then worked as part of a regional team to design an …
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CONTINUE READINGMourning An Uncommon Student of the Commons
Elinor Ostrom, winner 0f the Nobel economics prize, died earlier today. She is best known for her work on how groups manage common resources such as fisheries. The “tragedy of the commons” is a theory that these common resources will inevitably be destroyed unless they are privatized or regulated by governments. Professor Ostrom showed that …
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CONTINUE READINGA Brief Survey for U.S. Environmental Law Professors
At the AALS midyear meeting, as part of the Workshop on Torts, Environment, and Disaster, Bruce R. Huber, John Copeland Nagle, Jessica Owley, Melissa Powers, Kalyani Robbins, Hari Osofsky and I will be co-presenting and co-moderating a session on “Generations of Environmental Law.” To help focus that discussion, we have prepared a brief survey for …
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CONTINUE READINGWho Took the “Think” Out of Think Tanks?
The American Enterprise Institute is an interesting organization, often shrilly ideological but also scholarly from time to time. I was curious to find out what kind of research they were doing on climate change. I did find some interesting policy papers on their webpage on the topic of climate policy. But here’s the surprising part: …
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