Pollution & Health
What EPA should do with its delayed performance standards for GHGs
On September 15, EPA announced that it would not meet its September deadline for proposing performance standards for greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution from power plants. (That is the second delay; this proposal was originally scheduled for July 2011.) Some are asking if this delay is a big deal, and several environmental leaders sent President Obama …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Ozone Rule: What Sunstein Didn’t Say
On September 2, Cass Sunstein wrote a letter to Lisa Jackson about the ozone rule, “requesting” that EPA withdraw the regulation. Beyond the fact that it was written at all, the letter is remarkable for its significant silences: Although the letter notes that the rule was based on science that is five years old, it …
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CONTINUE READINGOzone: Three More Comments
1) Ann argues persuasively that Obama’s decision was terrible politics. But it is also terrible economics. As the Shrill One pointed out the other day, we are currently in a liquidity trap, i.e. there is not enough demand in the economy to pull us out of the recession, and a lot of money is simply …
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CONTINUE READINGIsn’t Obama’s Capitulation on Ozone Bad Politics?
Numerous commentators have blasted Obama for abandoning his pledge to tighten the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for ozone despite the recommendation of a scientific advisory board that a new standard would deliver large public health benefits. The commentary has been loud and vociferous. For two compelling examples see Georgetown Law Professor Lisa Heinzerling’s post …
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CONTINUE READINGWhen Agencies Want to Get Sued
The Friday afternoon before Labor Day announcement by the White House that it would not lower the ozone standards under the Clean Air Act has received (rightly) a whole lot of criticism. There’s been a fair amount of speculation among environmental law observers about the legality of the decision (including Dan). What’s interesting is that …
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CONTINUE READINGBackpedaling on Air Quality
The White House decided to abandon a proposed revision of the air quality standard for ozone in order not to further burden a faltering economy. The story is a bit complicated. The Bush Administration tightened the standard, but not as much as EPA’s science board recommended. Environmentalists sued, but desisted when Obama’s EPA said it …
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CONTINUE READINGTwo weeks of protest against Keystone XL ends Saturday
Two weeks of civil disobedience and protest against the Keystone XL pipeline ends this Saturday (Sept. 3), with a rally and final sit-in. Over 1,000 people have been arrested, including my former professor , Gus Speth. The protestors want President Obama to deny a permit to construct a pipeline to bring oil from Canadian tar …
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CONTINUE READINGIs Cap and Trade Unfair?
I should probably start by putting my cards on the table. I’m not really an advocate of cap and trade as compared with other forms of regulation. What I care about is getting effective carbon restrictions in place, whether they take the form of cap and trade, a carbon tax, industry-wide regulations, or something …
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CONTINUE READINGMurder, Pollution, Illegal Drugs & Our Public Lands
The murder this past weekend of Fort Bragg, California City Councilman Jere Melo puts an all-too-human face on a long-festering environmental crisis. Melo was shot and killed in a remote area in Mendocino County by a squatter who was reportedly growing marijuana on forest lands there. Councilman Melo, whose day job was to manage 150,000 …
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CONTINUE READINGQuest for the Best
Public Health Degree has a list of the twenty cities in the world with the cleanest air. (I was pleased to see my prior home Minneapolis on the list — not surprisingly, my current home in the Bay Area didn’t qualify.) That got me interested in looking for other listings of high environmental quality. There …
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