Climate Change
Carbon Auctions & Prop 13
California is planning to auction some of the carbon allowances in its new cap-and-trade system. There’s an interesting question about whether the auctions should be considered a “tax” under state law, which may turn in part on what the money is used for. If the auctions are considered a tax, they would run into trouble …
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CONTINUE READINGUsing a Carbon Tax to Decrease the Deficit
A carbon tax would provide an incentive to reduce the use of fossil fuels, fostering the growth of clean energy. But it would have another benefit as well: providing revenue to help cut the deficit. Much the same effect could be produced by auctioning allowances within a cap-and-trade system. According to Resources for the Future, …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Climate Misinformation Nation
Scientists are more confident than ever that climate change is happening and is largely caused by human activities. Yet, according to a recent poll, the American public is less likely to believe that climate change is caused by humans than they were even last year. When it comes to climate science, are we a misinformation …
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CONTINUE READINGMay 17th Sacramento Lunch on California Infill Policies, Featuring State Sen. pro Tem Darrell Steinberg
For those planning to be in the Sacramento area next Thursday, May 17th, please join us for a lunch event on California’s land use policies, featuring a keynote address by State Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg. Here are the details: The Future of Infill: How CEQA Reform and the End of Redevelopment Will Affect …
CONTINUE READINGCarbon as Commodity and Currency
As a number of writers have suggested, it’s intriguing to think about the ways in which carbon functions like money to an increasing extent as a medium of exchange, and a measure and storehouse of value. Thus, alongside (and intertwined with) the existing money-based economy, we can envision the emergence of a carbon-based system of …
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CONTINUE READINGMurderers, Tyrants, Global Warming and the Heartland Institute
The image to the left is not a joke. It’s instead part of a just-cancelled Heartland Institute campaign — cancelled after howls of protests, including from a climate skeptic who refused to participate in a Heartland event if it went forward. The Unabomber billboard showed up on the Eisenhower Expressway in Chicago (home of the …
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CONTINUE READINGHard and Easy Environmental Questions: A Talk With Ikal Angelei
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IOw9tsS-aI] Ikal Angelei is one of the world’s pre-eminent environmental justice activists: she is the founder of Friends of Lake Turkana, which (as the name suggests) seeks to preserve Lake Turkana from the massive Gibe III Dam planned by the Ethiopian government and World Bank. As the name does not suggest, the issue is …
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CONTINUE READINGCan We Convince 500 People That Climate Change Is Important?
You might have noticed that in this election year, climate change has vanished from the national agenda. There are lots of reasons for that, but in his superb takedown of Ayn Rand-acolyte and pathological liar Paul Ryan, Jonathan Chait may have stumbled on a way out. Chait observes that Ryan’s budget plan does not reduce …
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CONTINUE READINGNew journal issue on using the Clean Air Act to address greenhouse gas emissions
UCLA’s Journal of Environmental Law and Policy has just published its current issue, Volume 30, with all its content available free online in pdf format. This volume is a special symposium issue, featuring articles relating to the use of the Clean Air Act to address greenhouse gas emissions. Several of the articles’ authors were speakers …
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CONTINUE READINGNew Summary Report on California’s Law to Streamline Environmental Review of Infill Projects
As this blog has chronicled, California has undertaken some ambitious efforts to streamline environmental review for certain infill projects under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). One of the most recent and potentially far-reaching attempts, SB 226 (Simitian, 2011), creates an in-depth administrative process to define the standards for what constitutes a “good” infill project. …
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