Climate Change
California Adopts Low-Carbon Fuel Standard
Good. The California Air Resources Board has adopted the nation’s first mandate to lower the carbon in fuel. As these things go, it’s pretty mild: a 10% reduction in carbon footprint by 2020. That hasn’t stopped the oil industry from complaining, of course, stating that CARB is “moving too fast.” When will it not be …
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CONTINUE READINGCars, Obama and Climate Change
There’s big news coming out of Washington and Detroit this week about the fate of U.S. automakers. Rumors surfaced yesterday that G.M. will furlough its U.S. factories for most of the summer due to declines in auto sales. And the Obama Treasury Department is said to be pressuring Chrysler to prepare for bankruptcy, to be filed as …
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CONTINUE READINGFlexing Obama’s administrative muscle (& a victory on home furnaces)
Just after the election, the environmental group Earthjustice published a list of six easy things the Obama administration could do to help the environment. On the list was the suggestion that Obama back off from defending Bush-era failures to ramp up the efficiency of home furnaces–a topic that sounds narrow but has remarkable implications for saving …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Mitigation and U.S. Self-Interest
Jody Freeman and my colleague Andrew Guzman have posted an important paper, “Sea Walls are Not Enough.” The paper is particularly significant because Jody is now a senior White House advisor on climate policy. The gist of the paper is this: We demonstrate that even if one accepts that the premises of the climate change …
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CONTINUE READINGWaxman-Markey hearings
As Dan mentioned in his post yesterday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is holding hearings through Friday on the Waxman-Markey climate change bill, dubbed The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. Climate Progress has the schedule here. The hearings can be viewed live or after the fact at the Committee’s website, here.
CONTINUE READINGGetting to the root of recurring water conflicts
This post is co-authored by A. Dan Tarlock, Distinguished Professor of Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law, and cross-posted by permission from the Island Press Eco-Compass blog. The western United States is characterized by highly variable and seasonal rainfall patterns. To deal with the constant threat of drought, the West relies on intensively managed water …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Change Legislation: Is the Train (Finally) Leaving the Station?
I posted yesterday about Rep. Boehner’s bone-headed statement about climate change. My first thought was that this was completely idiotic, making a childish argument that even George W. Bush would have scorned. The fact that some CO2 is normal and even necessary proves nothing about what happens when concentrations go beyond the normal level: salt …
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CONTINUE READINGFlunking Climate 101
John Boehner, the House Republican leader, explains his view of climate change to George Stephanopoulos: George, the idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen, that it’s harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, uh, well, you know when they do what they …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat Next for Greenhouse Gas Regulation of Cars?
There’s been a huge amount of attention — and justifiably so — to EPA’s finding of endangerment. There’s also been speculation about a follow-up finding applying to stationary pollution sources and about the political ramifications. In contrast, there hasn’t been much discussion of what the motor vehicle standards might look like. Here’s an EPA summary …
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CONTINUE READINGWebcast of Climate Law Course
Berkeley Law has begun webcasting some of its courses, including the seminar on Climate Change and the Law that Cymie Payne and I taught last spring. I was pleased to learn that this class has been picked up by the Academic Earth website. I’m not sure, however, that this is the picture that I would …
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