Energy
Inconceivable!
During the Fukushima nuclear crisis, government officials and industry representatives said that the tsunami that struck the reactors was “beyond our imagination,” thus excusing the failure to consider such a risk in the planning process. As it turns out, there had been warnings about this possibility, but the risks were ignored. The reactor was situated …
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CONTINUE READINGPreviewing a VERY Big Week for Environmental Law in the Courts
UPDATE: The Associated Press reports that late Sunday, February 26th, U.S. District Court Judge Carl Barbier announced a one-week postponement of the trial in the BP oil spill case that had been scheduled to begin the next day. The postponement is reportedly due to substantial progress that has been made in marathon settlement talks that …
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CONTINUE READINGNo Free Lunch In The Desert
A tough, heartbreaking story from the Los Angeles Times about the painful choices environmentalists are faced with in combatting climate change. The issue is BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah solar power project, a massive, 6-square-mile city of 173,500 mirrors that will scar much of California’s desert beyond recognition. This was a hard compromise, reports Julie Cart, as “the …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia’s New Clean Car Rules: How Can They Succeed?
Yesterday, the California Air Resources Board significantly toughened the state’s regulations on carbon emissions from automobiles: The package of Air Resources Board regulations would require auto manufacturers to offer more zero- or very low-emission cars such as battery electric, hydrogen fuel cell and plug-in hybrid vehicles in California starting with model year 2018. By 2025, …
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CONTINUE READINGEnergy and the State of the Union
There’s quite a bit about energy in the State of the Union, including a discussion of the potential for natural gas and this about clean energy: We can also spur energy innovation with new incentives. The differences in this chamber may be too deep right now to pass a comprehensive plan to fight climate change. …
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CONTINUE READINGRebound Redux
I’ve posted previously about the rebound effect. Improving energy efficiency frees up money, which can be used to purchase more of the same product or different products that use energy. This “rebound” cuts away at the energy savings and correspondingly at the carbon reduction achieved through energy efficiency. Everyone seems to agree that the rebound …
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CONTINUE READINGObama Administration Rejects Keystone XL
Here: Obama laid the responsibility for the rejection of the pipeline on political gamesmanship by Republicans. “As the State Department made clear last month, the rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by Congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline’s impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our …
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CONTINUE READINGBain and the Environment
We’ve been hearing a lot about Bain Capital because of the Romney connection. I thought it would be interesting to see what I could find about Bain and the environment. I thought I might find that Bain shared Romney’s (current) anti-environmental views, but apparently not. Here’s what it says on Bain’s webpage: We have worked …
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CONTINUE READINGLocalized Renewable Energy Conference in San Diego, February 2nd
A heads-up for Legal Planet readers in the San Diego area (or those who would like to be in the San Diego area) on Thursday, February 2nd: the Environmental Law Section of the California State Bar will be holding a one-day conference on localized renewable energy generation at the University of San Diego School of …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Very Hungry City
No — not a children’s book for an urban environmentalist. A grown-up book published just yesterday for anyone interested in urban environmentalism, by the University of Vermont’s Austin Troy. Here’s the blurb from the publisher (Yale): As global demand for energy grows and prices rise, a city’s energy consumption becomes increasingly tied to its economic …
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