Biodiversity & Species
Deploying Large-Scale Solar on Marginal Agricultural Land: A New Berkeley / UCLA White Paper
With California committed to achieving 33 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, some solar and wind developers are rushing to propose large-scale installations on California farmland. These sites can be attractive because they are close to existing transmission lines and substations and have good sun exposure. However, proposed projects on farmland tend …
CONTINUE READINGBirds and your coffee
Jonathan has been going after Peet’s for not actually selling very much coffee that is environmentally friendly or that supports social justice. Among all of Peet’s coffees, he reports that only one is fair trade certified and only one other is organic certified. (And apparently, you have to pick between helping people and avoiding pesticides!) …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Environmental Issue in the Presidential Race
With the partial exception of Mitt Romney, all of the Republican presidential candidates are negative about EPA. According to the NY TImes, Opposition to regulation and skepticism about climate change have become tenets of Republican orthodoxy, but they are embraced with extraordinary intensity this year because of the faltering economy, high fuel prices, the Tea …
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CONTINUE READING“Please Don’t Murder Me”
Musical accompaniment to Justin’s post below. “I cut my deck to the Queen of Spades, but the cards were all the same”: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhqyg_dTaTg] More information here.
CONTINUE READINGGuest Blogger Justin Pidot: The Gray Wolf Delisting Revisited
Last week, Holly posted an excellent discussion of the latest wranglings in the Fish & Wildlife Service’s ongoing effort to delist the gray wolf in the mountain west. I share her discomfort with Congress’s decision to reinstate the delisting decision through an appropriations rider. But stepping back from the arcane separation of powers questions dominant …
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CONTINUE READINGGray wolf update: rider upheld and Wyoming delisting a step closer
A few months ago, Rhead summarized litigation over the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s multiple attempts to remove the gray wolf from the list of endangered and threatened species, and noted environmental groups’ filing of a challenge to the appropriations rider which called for FWS to re-delist (is that a word?) the wolf in Montana …
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CONTINUE READINGThird time not the charm for Columbia River salmon BiOp
U.S. District Judge James Redden has once again found the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Biological Opinion for operations of the Columbia River hydropower system inadequate to satisfy the Endangered Species Act. This is the third time in a decade that Judge Redden has been asked to review a Columbia River BiOp, the third presidential administration …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia suction dredging moratorium extended
California Governor Jerry Brown has signed into law an extension of the existing moratorium on suction dredge gold mining. I confess that the appeal of recreational mining in any form escapes me, and that I don’t even like to vacuum my own living room. So it mystifies me to learn that there are people who …
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CONTINUE READINGWhitebark pine in ESA limbo
Cross-posted at The Berkeley Blog. Today the Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the whitebark pine, an iconic tree of the high-elevation American west, qualifies for listing as an endangered or threatened species. The combined impacts of disease, insect infestation, climate change, and fire suppression mean that the whitebark pine could disappear within a couple …
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CONTINUE READINGWhite paper on Habitat Conservation Plans and Climate Change
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. Melinda Taylor at the University of Texas School of Law and I have just put out a white paper on Habitat Conservation Plans and Climate Change: Recommendations for Policy. It can be accessed here through Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, or here through UT’s Center for Global Energy, …
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