Climate Change
Exploring Potential Challenges to EPA’s New Source Performance Standard: PART III
CCS for coal power plants, but not natural-gas power plants?
This post is the third in a mini-series (see first and second posts) exploring likely legal challenges to the New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) for power-plant greenhouse gas emissions under Clean Air Act § 111(b), and how those challenges might affect the Clean Power Plan. In my first post on EPA’s New Source Performance Standard …
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CONTINUE READINGIs CCS the “best” system of emission reduction for coal-fired power plants?
Exploring Potential Challenges to EPA’s New Source Performance Standard: PART II
This post is the second in a mini-series (see first post) exploring likely legal challenges to the New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) for power-plant greenhouse gas emissions under Clean Air Act § 111(b), and how those challenges might affect the Clean Power Plan. In my first post on EPA’s New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) for …
Continue reading “Is CCS the “best” system of emission reduction for coal-fired power plants?”
CONTINUE READINGThe Future of Fire Policy
Climate change will require reconsideration of how we manage fire
It has been a brutal fire season here in California. It’s been brutal in part because of a historically bad drought. But unfortunately, the end of the drought (when it comes) will not be the end of our fire problems. Those fire problems are the result of long-term, human-caused trends that will only continue: climate …
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CONTINUE READINGIs Carbon Capture & Sequestration (CCS) the Biggest Threat to the Clean Power Plan?
Exploring potential challenges to EPA’s New Source Performance Standard: PART I
This post is the first in a mini-series exploring likely legal challenges to EPA’s New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) for power-plant greenhouse gas emissions under Clean Air Act § 111(b), and how those challenges might affect the Clean Power Plan. I will leave detailed exploration of the Clean Power Plan for later posts, but suffice …
CONTINUE READINGLast Week in Climate Change
Is climate action finally starting to develop momentum?
There was some good news last week for those of us who worry about the future of the planet,. Both inside and outside of Congress, Pope Francis spoke about the need to protect the environment and address climate change. Some conservative Catholics are eager to dismiss this as simply another misguided opinion by a left-learning Pope. But …
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CONTINUE READINGPope Francis Goes to Washington
What he said and didn’t say
Pope Francis arrived in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday to begin a much anticipated trip to the United States. While here, the pope will visit DC, New York City, and Philadelphia. Pope Francis, a former chemist, has gained much attention for his calls for action on climate change, in addition to his focus on inequality and …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat’s New in Environmental Economics?
Some interesting recent publications.
It sometimes takes awhile for journals to reach my desk as they circulate among faculty, so this isn’t hot off the presses. But I’ve been looking at some recent issues of JEEM (the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management), and I found a number of very interesting articles. Fully grasping the articles would require a …
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CONTINUE READINGResources on the Clean Power Plan
and EPA’s Other Rulemakings under Clean Air Act § 111
On August 3rd, EPA released its long-awaited Clean Power Plan, which implements Clean Air Act § 111(d) to set the first-ever national standards for carbon emissions from existing fossil-fuel-fired power plants. The Clean Power Plan calculates reasonably achievable performance rates for existing coal, oil, and natural gas power plants across the country, and assigns an …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia’s Effort To Set 2030 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Fails
What are the implications for ongoing climate efforts?
In another, even bigger setback for the environmental community in California, SB 32 (Pavley), the bill to set greenhouse gas targets for 2030 and 2050, was pulled yesterday and will be tried again next year. The winners are the oil companies, who face tough regulations and competition from California’s climate efforts. The failure is a …
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CONTINUE READINGBuilding Climate Coalitions
A New Paper in Science Illuminates the Political Dynamics
Economists are used to evaluating policy instruments based on their economic effects. No surprise there. But a recent paper in Science argues that the political effects may be just as important. Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that three of the four authors are political scientists; the fourth is Eric Biber, a frequent contributor to this …
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