Pollution & Health
Can the Air Resources Board continue to implement measures to reduce greenhouse gases?
One interesting feature of the court decision preventing the state from moving forward with AB 32 is that the court’s decision seems to halt implementation of the entire scoping plan. As I’ll explain, this is an odd result, and one that may be legally required but doesn’t make practical sense. The legal flaw the court …
CONTINUE READINGReflections on environmental justice and AB 32’s emissions trading program
I have a few thoughts on environmental justice and the new court decision halting implementation of the AB 32 scoping plan, inspired by my colleague Ann Carlson’s post, and the comments on that post. Reflecting on the environmental justice community’s successful (at least temporarily) attack on greenhouse gas emissions trading in California – and on the …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Dump Trucks v. CARB
The California Dump Truck Owners Association (“CDTOA”) filed suit in February 2011 against the California Air Resources Board (“CARB”). The suit alleges that CARB’s Truck and Bus Regulation, which is part of the suite of regulations under AB 32 to address greenhouse gas emissions, is unconstitutional. CARB’s Truck and Bus Regulation sets stricter emissions standards for …
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CONTINUE READINGAB 32 Lawsuit: Assessing the Environmental Justice Arguments Against Cap and Trade
As Cara wrote yesterday, a California court has put AB 32 on hold temporarily on the grounds that in preparing its scoping plan, the California Air Resources Board failed to assess alternatives to its plan with appropriate detail. In particular, the court took issue with CARB’s failure , under the California Environmental Quality Act, to …
CONTINUE READINGBill O’Reilly Adopts the Precautionary Principle
Ann Coulter has written a column arguing that low doses of regulation are actually good for you. Through the so-called hormesis effect, she says, the low doses stimulate the body’s protective mechanisms and actually produce health benefits. She was interviewed by Bill O’Reilly about this. As Huffington reports: She repeated this assertion to a skeptical …
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CONTINUE READINGJapan’s Nuclear Reactors, Risk Assessment & Accident Theory
In the wake of Japan’s developing nuclear crisis, people have begun questioning the future of US nuclear policy. Here is Sen. Lieberman, cautiously arguing for a review of nuclear power safety: I think it calls on us here in the U.S., naturally, not to stop building nuclear power plants but to put the brakes on …
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CONTINUE READINGNot even NASA rockets are cooperating with climate scientists these days
I heard renowned climate scientist Dr. James Hansen speak at UCLA last week, and one of his key messages was that we need to get a better handle on the importance and effect of aerosols on the Earth’s warming. He was quite excited about the launch of a new NASA satellite that would gather data to tell …
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CONTINUE READINGBoehner Tweet on Plastics Sums Up Republican Disdain for the Environment
In hardly the biggest news story of the day, but one that really irks me, House Speaker John Boehner tweeted this morning, “The new majority — plasticware is back.” He’s referring to the move by the Republican majority to eliminate deposed Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s initiative to green the House of Representatives. The initiative included — …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Huge Benefits of Air Pollution Regulation
EPA has a new report on the benefits from the increased pollution controls required under the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act. According to E&E, A two-decade-old crackdown on smog and soot under the Clean Air Act will yield about $2 trillion in annual benefits by 2020, according to a study that was released …
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CONTINUE READINGWhy Economists Are Right and the Tea Party is Wrong About Government
The idea that the government should protect public goods and regulate externalities is just common sense.As I said earlier, economists tend to be fairly hard-nosed in applying these arguments, and they tend to favor cap-and-trade or pollution taxes more than conventional regulation. They also tend (in the view of some of us) to undervalue economic benefits and shortchange long-term human interests. But it would be hard to find a reputable economist, for example, who thinks we should do nothing about climate change, although there’s plenty of disagreement about how much we should do and how quickly.
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