Climate Change

Heads in the Snow

This isn’t news to any of our readers, but as a massive winter storm descends on the East Coast, let us be clear about one thing: The existence of a terrible, extreme snowstorm, far from belying the existence of “global warming”/climate change, actually confirms it. According to every model and every prediction of the phenomenon, climate change will …

CONTINUE READING

A New Feast for Environmental Policy Wonks

The Winter 2013 issue of the always-invaluable Journal of Economic Perspectives is just out, and it is a treasure for environmental policy people.  It features a symposium on tradeable pollution permits, with contributions from among others William Pizer and Robert Stavins.  It not only reviews the history of tradeable permits in air pollution, but also …

CONTINUE READING

Literally Trashing the Environment

No, not another rap on Joe Biden.  The world literally wastes an awful lot of food, notes the International Herald Tribune: Between 1.2 billion and 2 billion tons of the 4 billion tons of food produced around the world every year never gets eaten, according to a new survey by a group of British engineers. …

CONTINUE READING

Stephen Colbert is a National Treasure

Like Tom Tomorrow.   Click here for his must watch clip from Monday’s show.   http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/423268/january-28-2013/the-word—the-new-abnormal Colbert nails conservative views on climate change.  First, deny.  Second, when the facts belie denial, accept but refuse to acknowledge human contributions.  Finally, throw up your hands and say that even if it’s human-caused we can’t do anything about it …

CONTINUE READING

Environmental Law and Policy Events for Couch Potatoes

UC Berkeley and UCLA School of Law’s joint Climate Change and Business Research Initiative has produced a number of public events featuring experts on pressing environmental law and policy issues. We now have on-line video recordings of many of them, for those of you who prefer not to leave the comfort of your home or …

CONTINUE READING

California cap-and-trade offsets challenge rejected

Breaking: California has successfully weathered (at least in the lower court) another challenge to its cap-and-trade program.  A state court has affirmed ARB’s significant discretion to design offsets protocols that rely on standardized additionality mechanisms, denying a petition that had sought to invalidate those protocols.  Argus has the first story on this that I’ve seen. …

CONTINUE READING

A Case of Intellectual Bankruptcy

It pains me to say this about a fellow alum of my high school, but George Will has apparently reached the point of intellectual insolvency.   A case in point: his recent Washington Post op. ed. about climate change. Will begins by setting up a straw man.  He slams climate advocates like Obama for supposedly basing …

CONTINUE READING

Sunstein on Climate Change

Should the U.S. take action on climate change prior to a global treaty?  Eric Posner and Cass Sunstein argued against unilteral action in a well-known paper.  The argument received more extensive discussion in a book by Eric Posner and David Weisbach (with Sunstein dropping out because of government service).  I’ve argued (see this paper) that …

CONTINUE READING

Call for Cabinet Nominations!

With all the heat generated by the nominations for the Secretaries of State and Defense, it is easy to overlook that President Obama must make nominations for four agencies critical to environmental policy: EPA, Interior, Energy, and USTR.  And it says something that there do not seem to be obvious, strong candidates that environmentalists can …

CONTINUE READING

Join Our Mailing List

Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.

TRENDING