General
California Supreme Court to Decide Major CEQA, Climate Change Case
Justices’ Latest Grant of Review Continues Supreme Court’s Focus on Environmental Law
To paraphrase former President Ronald Reagan, there they go again. The California Supreme Court on Wednesday granted review in an important case at the intersection of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and one of the state’s most important climate change laws. The case, Cleveland National Forest Foundation v. San Diego Association of Governments, is the …
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CONTINUE READINGTSCA Reform: That’s A Good Thing, Right?
Reform of the federal chemicals statute, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), is in the news again. It got me wondering, are we are better off with the devil we know? In a legislative era characterized by harsh partisanship and excruciating deadlocks, there are signs that TSCA reform could be a rare example of cooperation …
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CONTINUE READINGEcon101, Ideological Blinders, and the New Head of CBO
There are troubling indications that Keith Hall lets ideology blind him to basic economics.
Last week, in a post about the employment effect of regulations, I mentioned briefly that the new Director of the Congressional Budget Office, Keith Hall, had endorsed some questionable views on the subject. A reader pointed me toward an additional writing that has done a lot to escalate my concerns. There are disturbing signs about both Hall’s ideological bias …
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CONTINUE READINGOn China’s Remarkable Viral Air Pollution Video
Can 200 million viewers (and counting) be wrong?
Last Saturday evening, my research assistant (a wonderful JD student raised and educated in China) sent me a message: “This is a link to a documentary directed by Chai Jing (柴静). It has raised public concern about air pollution.” In perhaps the understatement of the year, she added: “Many Chinese people have been watching it.” …
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CONTINUE READINGReferendum Politics: California’s Pioneering Plastic Bag Ban on Hold
Out-of-State Bag Manufacturers Succeed in Qualifying Referendum Measure for 2016 Ballot
California’s recently-legislated ban on disposable plastic bans–the first in the nation–will not take effect on July 1, 2015 as the new law mandates. That’s because industry opponents of the legislation have qualified for the November 2016 election a referendum measure that seeks to repeal the new law. Last fall I wrote on this site about …
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CONTINUE READING‘The Centers Cannot Hold’ . . . At Least, Not in North Carolina
Attack on academic freedom? Or misunderstood management effort?
Both the NY Times and the Washington Post have reported on a recommendation that the North Carolina Board of Governors close several university centers. [Update: the recommendations were adopted by the Board a week later.] There are strong allegations that this is part of a conservative attack on the university system. There are certainly grounds to suspect …
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CONTINUE READINGProperty, Fairness and the Public Interest (Another Glimpse of the Cathedral)
Why do we recognize some things as “property” and what does it mean to do so? A hugely influential law review article, published over forty years ago, made a valiant attempt to clarify the nature of property law. Looking back on the article and at developments since then, however, only makes it clearer that “property …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Engineering: National Academy Committee recommends starting research (with limits)
An NAS report on controversial engineered responses to climate change gets all the big things right, but avoids the hardest questions
Earlier this week, the National Research Council Committee on Geoengineering Climate released two reports, “Climate Intervention: Carbon Dioxide Removal and Reliable Sequestration” and “Climate Intervention: Reflecting Sunlight to Cool Earth.” Requested and funded by several US federal departments – NASA, NOAA, DOE, and the cutely labeled “U.S. Intelligence Community” – this report is the first …
CONTINUE READINGThe California Supreme Court’s Unprecedented Focus on Environmental Law
California’s Highest Court Has Far More Environmental Cases Pending Than Ever Before in Its History
The California Supreme Court, perhaps the most influential state supreme court in the nation, has of late become unusually and intensely focused on environmental law. More than ever before in its history, the California Supreme Court currently has before it a large docket of environmental cases that, individually and collectively, promise to alter the legal …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Supreme Court to Decide Whether the Mining Law Preempts State Ban on Suction Dredge Mining
Court’s Decision May Affect State’s Ability to Regulate Activities on Federal Lands
The California Supreme Court recently accepted a case that may make it more difficult for the state to protect the environment from the damaging impacts of mining. At issue is the state’s ban on suction-dredge mining in streambeds. Californians engaged in suction-dredge mining have vigorously fought against the state’s ban, and a panel of the …
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