Politics

Don’t Give Up on the San Fernando Valley!

Ethan is surely right when he notes that MetroRail ridership in the San Fernando Valley: 1) isn’t as high as it should be; and 2) this results in part from a lack of leadership on land use.  But I wouldn’t write the Valley off just yet. First, recall that there are only two Valley stations …

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The Environment and the California AG Race

My original plan was to do four posts, each covering a major party candidate for Governor or Senator.  But the California Attorney General race is also significant in environmental terms.  Under Jerry Brown and his predecessor Bill Lockyer, the AG has been a major player on environmental issues — in particular, providing national leadership on …

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Barbara Boxer and the Environment

This is the fourth and final installment in a series about the environmental views of candidates for major office in California. (The others covered Meg Whitman, Jerry Brown, and Boxer’s opponent Carly Fiorina.) Boxer’s environmental views are easy to summarize: she’s very green.  Her campaign site lists a long list of environmental accomplishments.  It’s also …

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Carly Fiorina and the Environment

Carly Fiorina’s website devotes considerable attention to energy and environment.  Here are the high points: She opposes cap-and-trade, which she says (based on a Heritage Foundation study) would cost each American family $2700/yr. She favors improvements in energy efficiency and “development of all domestic forms of energy, including nuclear, solar, wind and clean coal, and …

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Mayor Villaraigosa, This is NOT How You Do Environmental Policy

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa likes to talk green at every opportunity, but most of his environmental initiatives fall flat due to lack of follow-through (no one has ever accused him of too long of an attention span), his own political incentives, or both.  He pushed a charter amendment to mandate the development of solar power for the …

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U.S. Supreme Court Issues Decision in Monsanto case

The U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision today in Monsanto v. Geertson Seed Farms,   a case involving Monsanto’s efforts to introduce Roundup Ready Alfalfa, a genetically modified crop engineered to tolerate the herbicide Roundup.   The Court, on a 7-1 vote (Stevens dissenting, Bryer recused), held in favor of Monsanto but did so in a way …

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Jerry Brown and the Environment

Unlike Meg Whitman’s website, Brown’s website features the environment front and center, with long lists of his environmental accomplishments as California Attorney General and in his time as Governor.   I was particularly  interested in what he said about his accomplishments as mayor of Oakland, which (according to the website) included: • Reducing Greenhouse Gases: Under …

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Fumigants Take Center Stage in California

I wrote previously about the strange story of methyl iodide, a chemical purposely used by researchers to cause cancer in labs, being proposed for use as a fumigant for strawberry production in California.  The New York Times recently covered a  legislative hearing by the California Senate Food and Agriculture Committee in which the members of an external scientific review panel lambasted California …

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Supreme Court issues decision in Florida beach sand takings case

UPDATE: Rick Frank has published some insighful analysis here of the decision discussed below, including discussion of the impacts of the changing Supreme Court composition on the development of doctrine in the so-called “judicial takings” area. The U.S. Supreme Court just issued its decision in Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection …

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What’s Really Wrong With TSCA?

As Dan Farber discussed in his recent post, David Markell ‘s recent paper on TSCA provides some really interesting history.  John Applegate has some fascinating pieces on the history and future of TSCA as well–well worth the read  also.   I thought it was curious that Dan focused on cost-benefit barriers imposed by the courts as being the obstacle to effective risk regulation, …

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