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California Headed for Record Drought: Will Critically-Needed Reforms Follow?
Confronting a Looming Environmental Disaster
The Sacramento Bee’s fine environmental reporter, Matt Weiser, yesterday reported on a looming, major drought facing California and its regional neighbors. The figures aren’t pretty. A persistent high-pressure front stretching over the Gulf of Alaska and most of the Northern Pacific has diverted the normal fall and winter storm track away from California and other …
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CONTINUE READINGIf You’d Like to Support Our Environmental Work
It’s not too late for the last tax-deductible gift!
“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To speak of many things, Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax– and gifts to the UCs.” OK, so Lewis Carroll didn’t write that. But just in case you might be thinking about making a gift at the end of the year, you might consider the UC Berkeley and UCLA environmental law programs …
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CONTINUE READINGScholarship Trends in International Environmental Law
What do the numbers show about the trajectory of scholarship in international environmental law?
It can be difficult to identify patterns in legal scholarship. One way of doing that is to check on the frequency of key words, using Westlaw or Lexis-Nexis to track the numbers. There are some interesting patterns in scholarship on international environmental law: The field came into its own in the decade from 1987 and …
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CONTINUE READINGAn Unhappy Anniversary for Hetch Hetchy
Is It Time to Consider Restoring Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley?
December 19th marks a sad event in American environmental history. It was 100 years ago today that President Woodrow Wilson signed the Raker Act, authorizing the City of San Francisco to build a dam that would flood the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park in order to deliver water supplies to San Francisco. Contemporary …
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CONTINUE READINGGoing for Broke at the Climate Casino
The new Nordhaus book is good as far as it goes. But its analysis is muddled in crucial respects.
I finally had a chance to read Nordhaus’s new book, The Climate Casino, on a long flight. There are some goods lessons in the book. The book makes the case for serious mitigation, even rhough Nordhaus takes a fairly optimistic view about adaptation. Nordhaus also tells us that “it would be relatively inexpensive to slow …
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CONTINUE READINGWith Utility Power Purchases, Does the Environment Matter?
When does the approval of a contract trigger environmental review?
If an electric utility asks regulators to approve a contract to purchase power from someone else’s power plant, should the regulators consider the environmental implications before saying yes or no? Of course they should. But let me ask the question again, using a bit of California legalese: Does a decision by the California Public Utilities …
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CONTINUE READINGWhy Pollution Regulations Aren’t Taxes
Opponents of environmental regulations love to call them hidden taxes. But constant repetition doesn’t make this idea true.
If you’ve seen a statement that regulations are hidden taxes, that’s not too surprising. Googling “regulation hidden taxes” produces over three million hits. But in fact, pollution regulations and taxes are completely different. The reason is simple. A tax removes value from the private sector. Environmental regulations simultaneously remove value from one part of …
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CONTINUE READINGSkinning Cobras and Climbing Trees in Belgium
Trying to save energy in Europe and around the Mediterranean
Brussels is at least two cities in one: a modern European municipality rich in history and containing some spectacular gilded palaces, and a capital city. It is the seat of government for Belgium – a flag flies over the palace when the king is nearby – and the capital for the European Union. The governing …
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CONTINUE READINGA Follow-up on the NYT’s Environmental Coverage
Environmental journalism in decline at the NYT
Last March, the New York Times killed its Green blog and disassembled its environment desk, distributing the staff into other units. Jayni noted the possible concern that this change might result in diminished resources for environmental coverage at the Times; she also noted the positive spin that some Times people put on the change, …
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CONTINUE READINGCOPs: The Erratic Evolution of Global Climate Policy
The latest Conference of the Parties (COP) in Warsaw didn’t make headlines — more like footnotes. Two things have become clear. First, the formal UN negotiations are only part of the transnational development of climate policy. And second, the UN negotiations are moving slowly and fitfully, but they are making progress. Neither of these things …
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