Climate Change
India’s Prime Minister Slaps Down Attempts at New Climate Negotiating Policy
Well, so much for that: Faced with resistance from within and outside to his advocacy for a dramatic change of stand on climate change negotiations,environment minister Jairam Ramesh was in a damage control mode on Tuesday. The minister retraced his steps against the backdrop of clear signs that the country’s climate negotiators, including Prime Minister’s …
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CONTINUE READINGBad News on the Climate Bill
According to the Post, The climate-change bill that has been moving slowly through the Senate will face a stark political reality when it emerges for committee debate on Tuesday: With Democrats deeply divided on the issue, unless some Republican lawmakers risk the backlash for signing on to the legislation, there is almost no hope for …
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CONTINUE READINGA red-letter day for washing machines
Under the Bush administration, which was implacably hostile to state environmental regulations exceeding federal minimum requirements, the Department of Energy refused to consider California’s request for permission to issue state rules setting water efficiency standards for washing machines. The Ninth Circuit has now set aside that action as arbitrary and capricious, and ruled that DOE …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Ghostly New Halloween Super-Villain
Warning: this thing will have more sequels than Friday the 13th! In fact, it will still be playing in your neighborhood theater for decades to come.
CONTINUE READINGShould Obama Go To Copenhagen?
President Obama has, of course, already been to Copenhagen once this year — in his quest to bring the Olympics to Chicago — and brought nothing home to show for it. The stakes for the December United Nations Climate Change Conference are obviously much higher: the negotiation of an international agreement to govern greenhouse gas emissions …
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CONTINUE READING101 (Or So) Useful Responses to Climate Skeptics
I know a lot of people who have occasion, for one reason or another, to deal with climate skeptics. Sometimes this happens at public events, sometimes at Thanksgiving dinners. There are a lot of arguments that skeptics use, and it’s hard to carry around the responses to all of them in your head. I’ve just …
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CONTINUE READINGCommon Sense is Bipartisan
The WaPo story speaks for itself: “Eleven academies in industrialized countries say that climate change is real; humans have caused most of the recent warming,” admitted Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.). “If fire chiefs of the same reputation told me my house was about to burn down, I’d buy some fire insurance.” An oil-state senator, David …
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CONTINUE READINGCorporate Law and Climate Change
In an important but under-reported development, the Obama has shifted policy on corporate reporting of climate risks. According to Greenwire, In a policy reversal long sought by shareholder advocates, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ruled yesterday that investors can directly call on public companies to describe the financial risks they face from global warming. …
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CONTINUE READINGNews on the Political Front
Both the NY Times and the Washington Post had lead stories on the politics of climate change legislation. The Post’s story centered on the increasing focus of the debate on the economic impact of climate legislation and on the difficulty of establishing the facts: In anticipation, groups on the left and the right — as …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Nuisance Suits Heat Up: Fifth Circuit Follows Connecticut v. AEP
Well, I didn’t expect this one. The Fifth Circuit, in Comer v. Murphy Oil Co., has agreed to follow the Second Circuit by construing Massachusetts v. EPA’s standing holding very broadly. It has allowed a class action by private plaintiffs on a common-law public nuisance claim, for damages occurring from greenhouse gas emissions, to move …
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