Energy
Fannie and Freddie stop the PACE of clean energy
One of the biggest barriers to getting homeowners to retrofit their homes to make them more energy efficient and install renewables like solar panels is the high up front costs. While these investments pay out over time, most residents lack the thousands of dollars they need to pay for these upgrades. The City of Berkeley …
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CONTINUE READINGValuable New Resources on the Oil Spill
Given the speed with which this story is unfolding and the overwhelming number of voices being heard, it’s very hard to keep up or to separate the wheat from the chaff. The Berkeley Law Library has created a new database of carefully selected resources relating to the BP spill — government reports and hearings, white …
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CONTINUE READINGNew Energy Publications from the National Academy of Sciences
Assessment of Technologies for Improving Light Duty Vehicle Fuel Economy estimates the potential fuel savings and costs for three types of engines: spark-ignition gasoline, compression-ignition diesel, and hybrid. Adapting the full combination of improved technologies in medium and large cars and pickup trucks with spark-ignition engines could reduce fuel consumption by 29 percent at an …
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CONTINUE READINGProp 16 Defeated
Prop 16 was a California ballot measure designed to make it harder for local governments to get into the market as electricity sellers. A CLEE White Paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the proposal. Prop 16 was defeated by 52-48%. PG&E and its parent company had spent $46 million to push the measure, while opponents …
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CONTINUE READINGA Corporate Culture of Criminal Recklessness?
Could the Gulf blowout have been prevented if BP had been prosecuted for some of its earlier reckless conduct?
CONTINUE READINGIs BP a Criminal?
Can a corporation, an artificial legal entity, be a criminal? In an op ed. in this morning’s NY Times, David Uhlmann argues that BP deserves criminal sanctions: Prosecutors must examine all witness statements, internal documents and any physical evidence that remains after the explosion. But if the news articles are accurate, the Justice Department should …
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CONTINUE READINGUp-to-the-Minute Oil Spills News
Yesterday, I posted a link to websites that are providing good information about the spill. Those sites provide rich sources of information, but they won’t necessarily tell you what’s happened in the last half hour. Talking Points Memo has a really helpful “news wire” if you want the very latest news. TPM is a “progressive” …
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CONTINUE READINGNot So Good At Safety But Great Lobbyists
It’s no surprise that the petroleum industry has political heft, but the number (courtesy of the Times) are impressive: The oil and gas industry is a formidable presence in Washington. It spent more on federal lobbying last year than all but two other industries, with $174.8 million in lobbying expenditures, according to the Center for …
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CONTINUE READINGA Gateway to Information on the BP Spill
There’s getting to be too much material on the disaster in the Gulf to keep up with. With the assistance of Aspen Publishing, we’ve posted a list of two-dozen key links here — just click on the “Related Links” tab on the left side of the page. The Berkeley Law Library is working on a …
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CONTINUE READINGWe’ve Known the Risks in the Gulf for Forty Years
We’ve known all along that offshore drilling in the Gulf placed at risk exceptionally valuable and sensitive coastal areas. We need look no further than a forty-year-old court decision on Gulf oil drilling, which made the dangers abundantly clear. In 1971, President Nixon announced a new energy plan involving greatly expanded offshore drilling. In a …
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