Energy
Rebound 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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CONTINUE READINGGuest blogger David Pettit: In the Weeds with GHGs
This post, by David Pettit of the Natural Resources Defense Council, is part of an occasional series by guest bloggers. As Ann Carlson and Rick Frank have previously blogged, on December 29th 2011, U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill ruled that California’s low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. …
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CONTINUE READINGAn Economist’s Perspective on Technology Forcing
Matthew Wald reports that companies that supply motor fuel will face million dollar EPA fines for not blending in cellulosic biofuel into gasoline and diesel. What excuse do such sellers make? They say that cellulosic biofuel doesn’t exist — so they can’t meet a legal mandate. If the regulator gently nudges the firm to engage in …
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CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Disasters and Regulatory Failures
There is a strong nexus between environmental disasters and regulatory failures. The connection is most obvious for the BP oil spill, where weak regulation contributed to a massive spill whose ecological consequences are not yet completely known. It’s also apparent in the reactor melt-down after the recent Japanese tsunami, which has resulted in radioactive releases. …
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CONTINUE READINGHey Conservatives! Let’s Make a Deal on Keystone XL!
The always-thoughtful Jared Bernstein has a, well, thoughtful take on Keystone XL. It might be called the view of a Realist Progressive Economist. Bernstein’s point is that given the global demand for oil, and the Canadian government’s commitment to getting it out of the ground and selling it (much stronger now that the Tories have …
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CONTINUE READINGTen of the Top Environmental Stories of 2011
Nuclear reactor meltdown in Japan. EPA issues new rules limiting mercury emissions by power plants. Durban climate summit produces modest progress, as developing countries begin to acknowledge the need for binding limits on their carbon emissions. White House kills scheduled new regulations of ozone. California adopts cap-and-trade system under AB 32. White House announces stringent …
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