Pollution & Health
Good News for Air, Climate, Traffic?
Two recent interesting and potentially related articles in the LA Times suggest an encouraging trend. California drivers are consuming less gasoline, a trend that began in 2006. And U.S. car buyers may begin to look more like European consumers, buying smaller, more fuel efficient cars and keeping those cars longer. As the Times reports in …
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CONTINUE READINGCap and Trade? Huh??
It turns out that hardly anyone except politicos and policy wonks knows what cap-and-trade means or that it relates to climate change. According to Rasmussen, Given a choice of three options, just 24% of voters can correctly identify the cap-and-trade proposal as something that deals with environmental issues. A slightly higher number (29%) believe the …
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CONTINUE READINGESA Does Not Address Carbon Emissions
According to news reports, the Department of Interior has reaffirmed a Bush Administration rule that excludes carbon emissions from regulation under the Endangered Species Act. The Guardian reports: The Obama administration today declined to protect polar bears from the single greatest threat to their survival – the melting of sea ice by global warming. The …
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CONTINUE READINGWhy won’t Arnold back smog checks for motorcycles?
This is a law blog, so call this post Easy Rider v. Planet Saver. The California legislature is considering a bill (SB 435, sponsored by Sen. Fran Pavley of the clean-car “Pavley Regs” fame) requiring motorcyles to undergo bienniel smog checks, just like cars and trucks do. The bill would take aim at a significant remaining source …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Air Pollution–We’re Number One!
California officials and residents take justifiable pride in the state’s continued leadership when it comes to controlling greenhouse gas emissions. But a recent report by the American Lung Association demonstrates that California still has a long, long way to go in addressing conventional air pollutants–especially in Southern California. According to the American Lung Association’s just-issued …
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CONTINUE READINGDon’t breathe the air
For 186 million Americans, that’s the message of the American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2009 report. That’s how many Americans live in areas with unhealthful levels of ozone or particulate air pollution. The ozone problem is much worse than the Association reported last year, primarily because EPA has tightened the ozone standard. But …
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CONTINUE READINGNew life for new source review
The Obama Administration is beyond its 100th day, but still busy on the environmental front undoing the work of its predecessor. One thing that means at EPA is breathing life back into the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review program, which the Bush Administration had been busily trying to write out of existence. In the …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard–& a Paean to Applied Scholarship
Jonathan Zasloff has previously written about the California Air Resources Board’s pioneering decision last week to mandate carbon-based reductions in state transportation fuels. These regulations, known as California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), are the first of their kind in the United States. More importantly, the LCFS is an integral part of CARB’s ambitious plan …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Adopts Low-Carbon Fuel Standard
Good. The California Air Resources Board has adopted the nation’s first mandate to lower the carbon in fuel. As these things go, it’s pretty mild: a 10% reduction in carbon footprint by 2020. That hasn’t stopped the oil industry from complaining, of course, stating that CARB is “moving too fast.” When will it not be …
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CONTINUE READINGMore on the endangerment finding
As Dan mentioned earlier, EPA today issued its proposed finding that emissions of six greenhouse gases, taken together, endanger public health and welfare, and that emissions of four of these gases from cars contribute to the problem. The proposal rests on a robust interpretation of EPA’s authority to find endangerment, supported by a detailed and …
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