Pollution & Health

Travel Is Broadening–2010 Edition

Having just returned from a trip to Northern Europe, a couple of experiences resonate with me that, I hope, are worthy of sharing here. The first relates to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, British Petroleum, and the distinct ways in which BP’s role and responsibility for the spill are viewed, depending on one’s geographical roots. …

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Environmental Property Rights (Part IV)

Environmental property rights, such as tradable permits, conservation trusts, and the public trust doctrine, can change the constitutional landscape of environmental law.

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FHFA strangles PACE clean energy financing program

Yesterday, the Federal Housing Finance Administration, the agency that regulates bankrupt mortgage insurers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, issued a letter effectively destroying the promising energy efficiency and renewable energy financing program called Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE). I blogged about Fannie and Freddie’s lender letters on the PACE program a few weeks ago. PACE …

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Environmental Property Rights: Part II

The previous post in this series introduced the idea of environmental property rights. There are a surprising number of EPRs.  A complete listing would include at least nine kinds of EPRs:  In addition to the public trust doctrine and tradable permits (which were discussed in the first part of the series), here are seven more: …

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Legislative response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster

What’s happening in Congress since the Deepwater Horizon tragedy and the gusher that followed? There have been a lot of hearings, and a lot of bills introduced. Several are moving ahead. One has become law, one has been passed by the full House, and two have been reported out of Senate committees. 1) Both houses …

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Disturbing Video of Oil Spill Effects on Whales and Dolphins

[youtube=] This video contains some of the most compelling and disturbing footage I’ve seen of the Gulf oil spill.  It demonstrates the vastness of the spread of oil; the effects on marine mammals including whales and dolphins; and the magnitude of the burning BP is doing to try to clean up the oil.  The video …

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Why the San Fernando Valley Ruined Everything

Jonathan is right that the San Fernando Valley is trying its best to maximize the land use around its two subway stations, considering the slow pace of legalizing these developments.  But part of my problem with the extension of the subway to the San Fernando Valley is not just the land use around the two …

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Economy v. Environment Directly at Issue in Lifting of Drilling Ban

As oil continues to gush into the gulf — more bad news on that front today — a federal judge with financial ties to the oil drilling industry has issued an injunction lifting the federal government’s moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf.  The legal intricacies of the lifting of the ban, while interesting to …

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Fumigants Take Center Stage in California

I wrote previously about the strange story of methyl iodide, a chemical purposely used by researchers to cause cancer in labs, being proposed for use as a fumigant for strawberry production in California.  The New York Times recently covered a  legislative hearing by the California Senate Food and Agriculture Committee in which the members of an external scientific review panel lambasted California …

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Toxic Chemicals (3)

This is the third (and for now, the last) in a series of posts on toxic chemicals.  Like the earlier two, it addresses a recent paper on the subject, This one, by Vermont’s Martha Judy and RFF’s Katherine Probst, is about “Superfund at 30.” Superfund — more officially the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Clean-up …

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