Climate Change

White paper on Habitat Conservation Plans and Climate Change

Cross-posted at CPRBlog. Melinda Taylor at the University of Texas School of Law and I have just put out a white paper on Habitat Conservation Plans and Climate Change: Recommendations for Policy.  It can be accessed here through Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, or here through UT’s Center for Global Energy, …

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The Debt Burden on Future Generations

According to GOP.gov, [T]he amount of debt placed on the backs of children born today is about to explode. If nothing is done, our generation will have the sad legacy of being the first to lower the standard of living of the next generation. . . . Unless drastic actions are taken to reduce spending …

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A “Modest Proposal” for Ending the U.S. Debt Crisis: A Debt-Nature Swap with China

Debt-nature swaps allow countries with major debt over-hang and relatively weak economies to reduce their debt in return for undertaking environmental measures.  The U.S. now seems to be in the same need of debt relief as many developing countries in past decades.  In the meantime, the Chinese have a thriving economy and hold enormous amounts …

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So Much for California’s Anti-Sprawl Law, Ctd.

My post on the shortcomings of SB 375, California’s anti-sprawl law, generated a swift response from NRDC’s Amanda Eaken and TransForm’s Stuart Cohen, two smart growth advocates for whom I hold a lot of admiration and respect.  In their detailed post, which is largely a critique of the San Diego Association of Government’s (SANDAG) sustainable …

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Bolstering Public Transit in California: A New White Paper from UCLA / Berkeley Law

Public transit in California, while historically underfunded compared to roads and freeways, has suffered even worse as the state’s economy has tanked and Sacramento legislators have raided transit funds to pay their general fund bills.  But the buses and trains that comprise the state’s transit system provide badly needed economic benefits for Californians.  These benefits …

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A Nation of Frogs?

It is said that, if you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, it immediately jumps out and is saved.  But if you put a frog in a pot of cold water and gradually warm it, you can boil the frog without it ever realizing that it’s being cooked. It’s not hard to …

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So Much for California’s Anti-Sprawl Law

When California passed SB 375 in 2008, the national media swooned and smart growth advocates issued glossy brochures about the law.  SB 375 was intended to curb sprawl, promote more compact and walkable communities served by transit, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, all through a regional planning process that would coordinate land use plans with …

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Court upholds polar bear “threatened” status

The first big opinion in the polar bear listing case is out. Score two for the Fish and Wildlife Service: the agency’s decision to list the bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act prevailed against challenges from the Center for Biological Diversity on one side and the state of Alaska and hunting groups on …

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The Supreme Court on Climate Torts — A Second Look

Let’s begin with the bad news.  The plaintiffs lost, eliminating one possible tool in combating climate change.  That doesn’t seem like a big loss to me, because I’ve always thought that the defendants’ best argument was that the federal common law is displaced by the Clean Air Act.  It’s an easy argument to make based …

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Add these to your reading list

Here’s some summer reading for environmental law and policy nerds. Okay, it’s not exactly beach material, but it will keep you up to date on some important issues. Elizabeth L. Bennett, Another Inconvenient Truth: The Failure of Enforcement Systems to Save Charismatic Species, Oryx  (subscription required). Dr. Bennett, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, argues that …

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