Climate Change

Your Legal Planet Weekend Movie: Watch the Greenland Ice Sheet Melt!

Forget the cinema or Netflix. Legal Planet can meet your movie viewing needs. This video highlights research done by Dr. Laurence Smith at the UCLA Department of Geography, who spent the summer on the Greenland ice sheet tracking its melting. Somehow seeing the melting happen from the ground has more of an emotional impact for …

CONTINUE READING

Ninth Circuit Finds Public Nuisance Lawsuit Unavailable to Address Climate Change Impacts on Threatened Native Alaskan Village

Today, the Ninth Circuit issued an opinion affirming a federal district court decision to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the Native Alaskan Village of Kivalina that sought damages from oil and electric power companies whose greenhouse gas emissions have contributed to climate change.   Kivalina contended that the companies’ greenhouse gas emissions constituted a public …

CONTINUE READING

Ninth Circuit Rules Against Indian Tribe’s Climate Change Suit

Not much of a surprise here; a Ninth Circuit panel “has ruled against the northwest Alaska village of Kivalina, which sued energy companies over claims that greenhouse emissions contributed to global warming that is threatening the community’s existence.”  The village brought a common-law public nuisance claim against the oil companies, but the panel held that …

CONTINUE READING

Warren versus Brown on Energy and Environment

At the debate between Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown last night, there was a  brief discussion of energy issues. Brown defended subsidies for oil companies but criticized Warren for trying to tie him to Jim Inhofe.  Unlike Inhofe, Brown does believe in climate change (at least right now — he seems to have waffled over …

CONTINUE READING

More Idiocy from the Wall Street Journal Op-ed Page

A few years ago, a friend of mine suggested starting a blog entitled something like, “Why The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page Was Idiotic Today.”  You’d never run out of material for posts! Certainly that was the case today, as Senator Lamar Alexander and Representative Mike Pompeo, both Republicans, make a case against the wind …

CONTINUE READING

Climate Change and National Security

The two parties disagree sharply about whether climate change can be considered a threat to our national security.  A recent paper by Andrew Guzman (Berkeley) and Jody Freeman (Harvard) summarizes the support for this idea among serious students of national security: In 2008, the National Intelligence Council produced the most comprehensive analysis to date of …

CONTINUE READING

Setting the Record Straight on Obama and the Environment

We shouldn’t underestimate Obama’s environmental achievements.

CONTINUE READING

Reasonably Libertarian: Gary Johnson’s Environmental Views

Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson isn’t exactly a household name, but it looks like he’s going to be on the ballot in nearly all states.  That made me curious about his environmental positions. I have to admit that Johnson’s views were better than I expected. You can’t really call Johnson an environmentalist, but he looks quite …

CONTINUE READING

Golden Rules for Fracking

Well, this is embarrassing.  Kevin Drum, one of the best bloggers out there, posted a few days ago on the issue of whether hydraulic fracturing is good or bad for the environment.  Kevin covers the ground that we have here before, namely: Yes, natural gas is better than coal or other fossil fuels in terms …

CONTINUE READING

Comments on FHFA’s Proposed Rule on Enterprise Writing Standards for PACE Programs

As we have chronicled earlier on this blog, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)’s court-ordered rulemaking on Enterprise Writing Standards for Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs resulted in thousands of public comments in response to the Agency’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR)—the overwhelming majority in support of PACE.  Today is the deadline for submitting …

CONTINUE READING

Join Our Mailing List

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

TRENDING