Politics
Information or Ideology? The Dilemmas of a Property Professor
It often occurs in teaching law school classes that opportunities present themselves for discussing current issues. And that presents a problem: how can a teacher do it without engaging in ideological indoctrination? The easiest way is to avoid the issue entirely. But is that also avoiding the responsibility to actually address important topics? I ran …
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CONTINUE READINGInitiative Watch: The Polluter Accountability Act
California’s Legislature did manage last year to stanch some of the state’s initiative craziness when it passed a law mandating that all initiative appear on the general election ballot, not the primary ballot. Now, our ballot “pamphlets” won’t resemble a phone book every election. (The fact that general elections get higher turnout, and thus tend to …
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CONTINUE READINGAmbivalence Toward Environmental Scientists
Two seemingly unrelated stories on the NY Times webpage reveal the strangely conflicted place of scientists in today’s society. One story reveals our respect for those who, despite difficult circumstances, dedicate themselves to the pursuit of knowledge. That story is about Samantha Garvey, a homeless teenager who has found recognition for her study of the …
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CONTINUE READINGPreserving U.S. Fisheries: A Bipartisan Pipe Dream?
President Obama’s call in his 2012 State of the Union address for a new spirit of bipartisanship brought to mind a recent Washington Post article on current federal efforts to preserve U.S. fisheries. In what qualifies as a rare “good news” story involving federal environmental policy, that article reports that the Obama Administration is poised to …
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CONTINUE READINGAttention K-Mart Shoppers! Get With the Program
I’ve blogged before about Asia Pulp & Paper, which has one of the worst records on destroying critical species habitat in its logging operations and abusing human rights in the process. (Not surprisingly, it also has a fake certification from greenwahser Programme for the Endorsement of Forestry Certification). Well, the tigers (and humans) have some …
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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 READINGThe CEQA Streamlining “Slippery Slope” May Help Rail Transit
Whenever proposals come along to exempt or streamline environmental review for certain projects under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), CEQA defenders fear the slippery slope. Even if the target projects are environmentally benign, the concern is that once the CEQA armor has been pierced, special interests will be able to exploit the opening to …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Bain-ality of Romney’s Capitalism
Trying to be fair and balanced, Dan says that we should be at least a little heartened by Bain Capital’s environmental posture. I try to be fair, but in modern politics that rarely means being balanced (cue joke here), and I am somewhat less impressed. Look, I like recycling as much as the next guy …
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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 READINGWhere does NOAA belong?
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. Clearly I need to slow down Rick’s internet connection to get him to stop scooping me. Rick reported earlier today that the President has floated a proposal to reorganize the Commerce Department and related agencies which would apparently include moving NOAA (all of NOAA, according to OMB’s Jeffrey Zeints, not just its …
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