Climate Change
The Kennedy seat, resolved
Just closing the loop on this earlier post, which discussed the uncertainty over whether the late Sen. Kennedy’s seat would be filled in time to get Dems back to 60 seats for the crucial fall legislative season. Today, MA Governor Deval Patrick appointed a longtime aide to Kennedy as his temporary replacement, pending a special election …
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CONTINUE READINGConnecticut v. AEP: Three Comments
The Second Circuit’s recent decision in Connecticut v. AEP, in which a coalition of state attorneys general sued electric power producers to cap and then reduce their carbon emissions, allows the public nuisance case to proceed and gave the environmental plaintiffs virtually everything they wanted. It should also give pause to those of us tempted to see judges …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Change Lesson #2: Watch Out for Those “Unknown Unknowns”
This is the second in a short series of homilies on the lessons we can learn from climate change. Donald Rumsfeld famously distinguished between knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns. He didn’t take the occasion to provide sharp analytical distinctions, but the difference between known unknowns and unknown unknowns is very much like a difference …
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CONTINUE READINGSecond Circuit Remands Connecticut v. AEP
In climate change news, the Second Circuit has (finally!) issued its decision in the case of Connecticut v. AEP, where a bunch of states sued electric power producers, saying that their carbon emissions constitute a common-law “public nuisance.” The appellate court overturned the trial court’s (completely unsupportable and poorly reasoned) decision that such a lawsuit …
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CONTINUE READINGDavid Nawi Appointed to High-Ranking USDOI Post
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has named a respected California environmental lawyer to serve in a key, newly-created Department of Interior post. Salazar appointed David Nawi as his Senior Advisor to the Secretary for California and Nevada. In his announcement selecting Nawi, Secretary Salazar stated, “The current water crisis and land management challenges …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Lesson #1: It’s a Small World After All
This is the first in a short series of homilies on the lessons we can learn from climate change. Thirty years ago, in the early days of environmental law, it seemed that most environmental problems were local. Pollution came from cities and bedeviled the residents of those same cities. Wilderness areas suffered from human incursions, …
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CONTINUE READINGMeg Whitman Would Suspend AB 32
In a rather stunning and little-noticed op ed last week, California GOP gubernetorial candidate Meg Whitman — former CEO of EBay – called on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to suspend the implementation of AB 32. Her rationale? To create jobs in California. AB 32, also known as the Global Warming Solutions Act, cuts California’s greenhouse gas emissions …
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CONTINUE READINGA third is a third is a third?
On the last day of its term, the California legislature did wind up passing SB 14, the hotly debated bill to boost the state’s renewable energy supply requirement to 33% by 2020. But its prospects don’t look good — the Governor announced within hours that he would veto (SacBee story here). Presumably in its stead, …
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CONTINUE READINGIt’s Déjà Vu All Over Again
Since opponents can’t seem to come up with any new arguments against climate change legislation, they seem determined to recycle the old, discredited ones. Here’s today’s example, straight from the GOP press release: Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif, today urged the Environmental Protection Agency to include several relevant studies in its …
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CONTINUE READINGDunking the Big Apple
The IPCC considers it likely that climate change will increase hurricane intensity, and New York may be particularly vulnerable to flooding from hurricanes and other storms, as Climate Progress reports: Sea level may rise faster near New York than at most other densely populated ports due to local effects of gravity, water density and ocean …
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