Climate Change
Are Polar Bears Really Endangered?
“Glib contrarianism” in environmental journalism
The news web site Slate is known for its counterintuitive articles – so much so, that the term “slatepitch” has been coined. But sometimes trying to write a counterintuitive article leads you to write something, well, just wrong. Today, Slate ran an article about “Five Species You Thought Were Endangered That Really Aren’t (Including the …
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CONTINUE READINGEnergy and Climate Conference — Thursday November 14th at UC Berkeley Law
State Bar event will cover renewables, fuels, and markets in an era of climate change
For Legal Planet readers interested in hearing the latest on energy and climate change law and policy, the Environmental Law Section of the California State Bar will be holding a one-day conference on the subject at the UC Berkeley School of Law on Thursday, November 14th. Entitled “Energy and Climate Change: California’s Efforts to Reduce …
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CONTINUE READINGNew Standing Barriers Erected for Federal Court Climate Change Litigation
Recent Ninth Circuit Decision Likely to Spell the End of Much Citizen Suit Litigation Over Climate Change in Federal Courts
In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court’s famously ruled in Massachusetts v. USEPA that petitioners in that case had standing to sue the Environmental Protection Agency in federal court to challenge EPA’s failure to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. Observers then could have been forgiven for thinking that this ruling flung open …
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CONTINUE READINGELQ’s Annual Review issue now available online
Every year, Ecology Law Quarterly publishes its Annual Review of Environmental and Natural Resource Law. The latest version is now available at ELQ’s web site. Check out these articles from the issue. You’ll find they cover a tremendous amount of ground in a way that is both educational and entertaining. And at the ELQ site …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Climate Gamble
Paul Krugman has a review of a new book by William Nordhaus about climate policy. By way of preface, I should say that Nordhaus is not particularly popular with environmentalists, who have generally considered him as too conservative in his policy recommendations. Nordhaus does, however, more or less define the mainstream view — he’s very …
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CONTINUE READINGA Big Step for the Montreal Protocol
Parties to the Montreal Protocol will hold their 25th meeting next week in Bangkok. In addition to all their normal business related to the continuing phasedown of ozone-depleting substances (ODS), parties at this meeting will consider a huge step, in the form of proposals to amend the Protocol to phase down Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Proponents of …
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CONTINUE READINGCEQA Reform 2013 Holds Promise for Improving the Environment
Despite grumblings, the new law contains significant victories for infill development and urban investment
Governor Brown recently signed into law this year’s version of “CEQA reform,” which as Eric noted was decidedly stripped down from what it could have been. SB 743 (Steinberg) got a lot of negative attention for giving the Sacramento Kings basketball arena proponents accelerated environmental review and immunity from injunctive relief unless the project is …
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CONTINUE READINGMore Musings on the Cert Petition Grant in the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Case
Does Regulating Greenhouse Gases Lead to Absurd Results and What Happens Once the Court Rules?
In follow up to my early morning post of this morning, here are a couple of additional points. 1) A related but different argument petitioners are making about why the PSD provisions don’t apply to the regulation of greenhouse gases is that the application of the provisions would lead to absurd results. The absurd results …
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CONTINUE READINGSupreme Court Grants Cert on One Aspect of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Suit
Court lets stand endangerment finding, rules regulating emissions from automobile tailpipes
This morning, the Supreme Court announced that it has granted six of the nine petitions challenging the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upholding the Environmental Protection Agency’s rules regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. The Court granted cert on only a single question (petitioners had raised a number of them): Whether EPA …
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CONTINUE READINGStill Waiting For Supreme Court Decision on Greenhouse Gas Emissions Cert Petition
We May Learn This Week Whether Court Takes Up Important Climate Change Case
Court watchers are still waiting to learn whether the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the second most important federal case involving greenhouse gas emissions, Coalition for Responsible Regulation v. EPA. The Court is closed today for a federal holiday (not because of the shutdown) but any day we should hear about whether it will take …
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