Politics
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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CONTINUE READINGFumigants 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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CONTINUE READINGSupreme 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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CONTINUE READINGWhat’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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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Ocean Science Trust Releases Study Evaluating Alternatives for Decommissioning California’s Offshore Oil and Gas Platforms
Last week, the California Ocean Science Trust released a long-awaited study that synthesizes scientific and legal information to inform policymakers and stakeholders on alternative paths for the decommissioning of California’s offshore oil and gas platforms. 27 of these platforms operate off the coast of California, and eventually all of them will stop producing fossil fuel …
CONTINUE READINGReforming the Reforms: Building Safe Alternatives into Safety Standards
Chemical policy reform is heating up at the federal level. Senator Lautenberg has introduced a comprehensive reform bill in the Senate, and Congressmen Rush and Waxman are circulating a discussion draft bill in the House. In their current form, both the Lautenberg bill and the Rush/Waxman discussion draft rely upon risk-based safety standards to protect against toxic …
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CONTINUE READINGReflections on the BP disaster and today’s Bhopal criminal verdict
As Dan has pointed out, there has been discussion of possible criminal liability for BP for its conduct leading to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. David Uhlmann of the University of Michigan, a former federal environmental criminal prosecutor, has expressed optimism that a robust criminal prosecution of BP would appropriately punish BP, make it more likely …
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CONTINUE READINGTime to resuscitate the Office of Technology Assessment?
Ninety organizations, including many with an environmental protection focus, have called on Congress to revive its Office of Technology Assessment. OTA was established in 1972 by the Technology Assessment Act to provide Congress with “competent, unbiased information concerning the physical, biological, economic, social, and political effects” of changing and expanding technology. It was defunded in …
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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 READINGRand Paul and the Environment
Rand Paul, Kentucky’s Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, has obviously garnered huge attention in the last few days for his comments on civil rights. But his views about environmental topics ought to grab a few headlines too. Consider the following: — He’s called the Environmental Protection Agency “out of control,”, and ” a regulatory body run amok,” — …
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