Climate Change
Climate Change Lesson #6: Every Crisis is an Opportunity
This is the sixth in a series of short homilies about the lessons of climate change. It’s not clear who first observed that every crisis is an opportunity. Probably it’s in the Bible somewhere, if not the story of Gilgamesh. But a crisis, painful as it may be, does present opportunities for innovation. In the …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Change Lesson #5: Send Not to Ask For Whom the Bell Tolls
This is the fifth in a series of short homilies on the lessons of climate change. As far back as Sierra Club v. Morton, Justice Blackmun quoted John Dunne, but Dunne’s words seem equally apropos today, particularly for climate change: No man is an Iland, intire of itselfe; every man is a peece of the …
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CONTINUE READINGNew EPA Greenhouse Gas Rulemaking Not Quite What it Seems
EPA is proposing to tailor the major source applicability thresholds for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and title V programs of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) and to set a PSD significance level for GHG emissions. This proposal is necessary because EPA expects soon to promulgate regulations …
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CONTINUE READINGBoxer-Kerry pre-draft released
UPDATE: The full bill as introduced is posted here on Senator Kerry’s web site, and a 19-page section-by-section summary is here. (Hat tip: Ben Somberg, Center for Progressive Reform.) Senators Boxer and Kerry are expected to introduce their greenhouse gas regulation bill on Wednesday. The Washington Post has posted what it describes as a “close-to-final” …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Change Lesson #4: Small Ordinary Things Add Up in a Big Way
This is the fourth in a series of short homilies about climate change. In terms of climate change, the contribution of any one automobile, light bulb, or felled tree is microscopic. Put enough of these together and you can change the temperature of the world for centuries to come. It’s hard to believe – and …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Change Lesson #3: Everything is Connected to Everything Else
This is the third in a series of short homilies about the lessons of climate change. Barry Commoner called this the first law of ecology. Because “everything is connected to everything else,” he said: the system is stabilized by its dynamic self- compensating properties; these same properties, if overstressed, can lead to a dramatic collapse; …
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CONTINUE READINGSchwarzenegger’s REAL Test on Climate
Like any Hollywood actor, and like any politician, Arnold Schwarzenegger likes to talk a good game. And on climate, he talks a lot. He loves to promote inconsequential gab-fests like the Governors Global Summit on Climate Change. But when the rubber hits the road, will he actually, you know, do anything about it? Whether a bill …
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CONTINUE READINGThe 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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