Politics
California 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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CONTINUE READINGBP’s Disastrous PR Blowout
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZidQAf8epE] Even Fox News is berating BP for its callous and inapt public response to the oil blowout. And for good reason. As Newsweek says: This hasn’t been a good few weeks for Tony Hayward, the chief executive officer of BP. In the weeks since the huge oil spill in the Gulf began, he has …
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CONTINUE READINGMurkowski Favors Bailout for Big Oil, Not for Failing Banks
I thought one of the most audacious political stances I’d seen in many years was the Republican position — dreamed up by GOP pollster Frank Luntz — that a tax on big banks was actually a big bank bailout. Converting a tax to a government bailout was pure political chutzpah, and some sick form of genius. Now …
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CONTINUE READINGMore Intrigue for India’s Environment Minister
India’s current Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh, is not a man to hold his tongue, and has become the most powerful minister in that post since it was founded. Recently, he’s been in a lot of hot water for a speech he gave in China, where he castigated other government ministries for being “alarmist” and “paranoid” …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat We Know About Kagan and the Environment
Basically, the answer is “nothing.” Nada. Zip. I thought about leaving the body of this post blank in order to communicate that, but I figured that would simply look like I’d pushed the “publish” button by mistake. Anyway, it’s not quite true that we know nothing at all. Actually, there are a few tiny straws …
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