Politics

New California offshore drilling part of budget deal?

Lost in the swirl of reports on what may, or may not, be part of the California budget deal legislators appear to be closing in on is this detail, reported by the AP: Aides to the governor and Legislature spent their weekend rushing to work out legislative language that could resolve the remaining issues. . …

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A Silver Lining to the Supreme Court Term for Environmentalists?

In assessing the environmental train wreck that was the just-concluded Supreme Court Term, the question arises: is there anything from that Term from which environmental interests can take comfort? The answer is at least a qualified “yes.” Somewhat lost in the attention focused on the justices’ five major environmental decisions–all of them clear defeats for …

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Cynthia Giles Tackles Busy Agenda in High-Ranking EPA Post

The following was written by Andrew Cohen for Berkeley Law’s Newsroom. As the new enforcement chief for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Cynthia Giles [Berkeley Law alum of] ’78 is anything but naïve about the enormity of her position and the pressure it brings. “We have a lot of important work to do,” says …

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The Sotomayor Hearing and the Climate Nuisance Case

The NY Times reports that one issue in the confirmation hearing may be a case involving climate change.  The plaintiffs sued under the federal common law of nuisance for injunctive relief against public utilities for their carbon emissions.  The case has now been pending before a panel including Judge Sotomayor for several years. It’s definitely …

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Bad News for Climate Reductions, Troubling Prospects for Copenhagen

President Obama’s failure at the G-8 summit to get the largest developing countries to agree to set goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 was  only one piece of bad news this week for efforts to attack global warming.   Although the House of Representatives narrowly passed the Waxman-Markey bill last week, prospects in the …

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Could Obama have wrung China climate concessions from Hu in Italy? We’ll never know

Jonathan’s recent post about the intersection of religion and environmentalism failed to foreshadow the most important way in which religion may have impacted environmental policymaking this week: by scuttling key climate talks associated with the G8 meeting in Italy.  As reported here, the meeting succeeded in securing a pledge from G8 nations to reduce their …

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National Conversation Starts on Public Health and Chemical Exposure

The CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry recently kicked off their National Conversation on Public Health and Chemical Exposure with a day-long meeting on June 26, 2009 in Washington, DC.  The National Conversation is a stakeholder and public involvement initiative intended to develop an action agenda …

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NAFTA gold mining opinion upholding California environmental regulation issued by arbitration tribunal

As I previously discussed in detail in this post, a NAFTA arbitration tribunal recently decided a closely-watched case in a way that will further environmental protection.  The panel’s 355-page opinion in the Glamis Gold case has been made public: here it is. The panel decided in favor of California’s right to regulate in-state mining by foreign …

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Army Corps finds environmental humor unfunny: Conan O’Brien and Los Angeles River navigability

As Holly has mentioned, last month, Conan O’Brien made humor out of the navigability of the Los Angeles River by attempting to canoe down it.   Holly’s post describes the legal controversy over the “traditional navigable waters” determination for the L.A. River, an appeal of which is still pending. (I note that there’s a small …

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“Betraying the Planet”

Paul Krugman has a terrific op. ed with that title in the today’s Times.  Here’s the gist: Do you remember the days when Bush administration officials claimed that terrorism posed an “existential threat” to America, a threat in whose face normal rules no longer applied? That was hyperbole — but the existential threat from climate …

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