Politics
Shut Up, Texas
Environmental Factors Smack Down Another Right-Wing Meme
If like me you are tired of Texans gloating about their supposed “miracle,” today’s post from Kevin Drum brings some good news: For years, business lobbyists complained about what they derided as “job killer” laws that drive employers out of California. Rival state governors, notably former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, made highly publicized visits to …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Unreasonable Risk of TSCA Reform
Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place
The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act is no doubt generating significant conflict, including claims of undue industry influence, competing bills from prominent members of the same party, consternation among states, and divisions among health and environmental groups. And it may also be the closest we have gotten to TSCA reform—ever. …
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CONTINUE READINGCould California Supreme Court Review Of San Diego’s Transportation Plan Soon Be Moot?
Legislature may act this year to enshrine the 2050 greenhouse gas goals at issue in the case
As Rick blogged last week, the California Supreme Court on Wednesday granted review of San Diego’s weak transportation plan. I detail the history here, but basically San Diego’s regional transportation agency delivered a plan in 2011 that was supposed to comply with SB 375 (Steinberg, 2008), a landmark law linking transportation spending with long-term greenhouse …
CONTINUE READINGThe Anticommunist Origins of Climate Denial
How Cold Warriors Wind Up Heating the Planet
The other night, my wife and I saw Merchants of Doubt, Robert Kenner’s new film about the climate denial industry. I thought it was excellent. I was surprised by the high production values and the way in which it did not feel like a documentary, at least until the last 15-20 minutes or so. (Then …
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CONTINUE READINGWhy Did Conservatives Support Saving Mono Lake?
The Skillful — and Lucky — Alliance Between Locals and Environmentalists
A little more than a year ago, I asked how the Mono Lake Campaign succeeded. I had previously suggested that a principal cause of the Mono Lake Committee’s success was the enemy: the arrogant, bullying, and reactionary Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Everyone in the state “knew” that Los Angeles had “stolen” its …
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CONTINUE READINGTSCA Reform: That’s A Good Thing, Right?
Reform of the federal chemicals statute, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), is in the news again. It got me wondering, are we are better off with the devil we know? In a legislative era characterized by harsh partisanship and excruciating deadlocks, there are signs that TSCA reform could be a rare example of cooperation …
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CONTINUE READINGEcon101, Ideological Blinders, and the New Head of CBO
There are troubling indications that Keith Hall lets ideology blind him to basic economics.
Last week, in a post about the employment effect of regulations, I mentioned briefly that the new Director of the Congressional Budget Office, Keith Hall, had endorsed some questionable views on the subject. A reader pointed me toward an additional writing that has done a lot to escalate my concerns. There are disturbing signs about both Hall’s ideological bias …
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CONTINUE READINGRepublicans Hate Your Grandchildren, Part 2
Rick Scott Makes Sure Floridians Won’t Know About Climate Danger
It’s a common refrain around the web that Florida’s Republican Governor Rick Scott looks a lot like Lex Luthor, the arch-villain of Superman comics. The term fits, both aesthetically and substantively: in his previous career as CEO of Columbia/HCA, he oversaw what was at the time the largest Medicare fraud in history. But as the …
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CONTINUE READINGReferendum Politics: California’s Pioneering Plastic Bag Ban on Hold
Out-of-State Bag Manufacturers Succeed in Qualifying Referendum Measure for 2016 Ballot
California’s recently-legislated ban on disposable plastic bans–the first in the nation–will not take effect on July 1, 2015 as the new law mandates. That’s because industry opponents of the legislation have qualified for the November 2016 election a referendum measure that seeks to repeal the new law. Last fall I wrote on this site about …
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CONTINUE READING‘The Centers Cannot Hold’ . . . At Least, Not in North Carolina
Attack on academic freedom? Or misunderstood management effort?
Both the NY Times and the Washington Post have reported on a recommendation that the North Carolina Board of Governors close several university centers. [Update: the recommendations were adopted by the Board a week later.] There are strong allegations that this is part of a conservative attack on the university system. There are certainly grounds to suspect …
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