Pollution & Health
What Will Trump Do? Maybe Not What We Expect.
If he cares about 2020, he’ll have to do some recalibrating.
To be honest, no one really knows what Trump will do. Maybe not even Trump. The obvious is often the safest best. In this post, I’m going to speculate about another, slightly less dire, possibility. He may take the most obvious path – which would mean ripping the heart out of our environmental laws. For instance, he …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat Does a Trump Presidency Portend for California’s Environmental Policies?
Constitutional Issues Loom Large in Future, Likely Federal-California Legal Confrontations
Sensing political storm clouds ahead, California Governor Jerry Brown yesterday issued a statement on the presidential election results that concludes: “We will protect the precious rights of our people and continue to confront the existential threat of our time–devastating climate change.” Several of my Legal Planet colleagues have recently posted thoughtful commentary on what Donald Trump’s …
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CONTINUE READINGOf Initiative Wars, Plastic Bags and Poison Pills
Deciphering California’s (Intentionally) Confusing Plastic Bag Propositions
California’s longstanding efforts to eliminate single-use plastic bags from the marketplace and the environment have finally reached California voters. The November 8th general election ballot contains a breathtaking 17 separate propositions–16 proposed initiative measures and one referendum measure. Propositions 65 and 67 both deal with the same subject–a proposed ban on single-use plastic bags. Those dueling measures …
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CONTINUE READINGCelebrating California’s Climate Change Leadership
State Government Leaders From Both Parties Celebrate AB 32’s Tenth Anniversary
In stark contrast to a dysfunctional national government and an utterly dispiriting presidential campaign, Sacramento, California was today the site of an inspirational, bipartisan celebration. Current California Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, and his predecessor, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, joined past and present state legislative leaders to commemorate the 10th anniversary of California’s landmark Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, better known as …
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CONTINUE READINGIdling Cars, Dirty Air
The pollution isn’t just indoors. It’s also inside the car or bus.
Being stuck in traffic is even worse than you thought. A new study, reported in yesterday’s NY Times, “pollution levels inside cars at red lights or in traffic jams are up to 40 percent higher than when traffic is moving.” But things could be worse: you could be a kid on an older school bus. …
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CONTINUE READING“We’re Not, You Know, People That Don’t Want Those Things”
Trump promises clean air, clean water, safety, and a free lunch.
Every now and then, you see a car with one bumper sticker that says “Support Our Troops” and another that says “Abolish the IRS.” It doesn’t seem to have occurred to the car’s owner that supporting our troops includes paying and equipping them, and that someone is going to have to collect the taxes to …
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CONTINUE READINGRio’s Dirty Water
Everyone seems to be talking about the pollution in Guanabara Bay
With the Opening Ceremonies for the 2016 Summer Olympics set for tomorrow night, the world’s attention is turned to Brazil. For someone with a great love for the country, it is disheartening to see the series of articles in the run-up to the Olympics emphasizing the negatives—challenges due to political turmoil, security concerns, the Zika …
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CONTINUE READINGDo water managers’ perceptions influence innovation?
New survey probes the innovation deficit
Climate change and population growth are rapidly increasing stress on our water systems, challenging their ability to deliver critical services. To respond to this, we need more than simple course adjustments in how we manage our water – we need entirely new paradigms that will improve resource efficiency and support more sustainable urban water systems. Considerable …
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CONTINUE READINGMajor Settlement Announced in Volkswagen Emissions Fraud Litigation
$14.7 Billion Civil Enforcement Settlement is a Victory for Consumers, Environmental Prosecutors
Federal and state environmental prosecutors today announced a proposed settlement of government civil enforcement litigation they’ve pursued against Volkswagen in response to the automaker’s acknowledged efforts to cheat federal and state auto emission standards and defraud consumers. The complex settlement, lodged with the assigned U.S. district court judge in San Francisco, requires Volkswagen to pay …
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CONTINUE READINGBarry Goldwater, Environmentalist
Goldwater was passionate about saving the planet.
Barry Goldwater’s views on the environment didn’t have much in common with those of the present-day conservatives who are his ideological descendants. His 1970 book, The Conscience of a Majority, has half a chapter about the environment. “Our job,” he said, “is to prevent that lush orb known as the Earth . . . from …
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