Regulation

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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Mayor Villaraigosa Betrays Environmentalism AGAIN

A few days ago, I noted that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa likes to talk a good game when it comes to Greening the city, but conveniently abandons plans when they become politically difficult or require anything like a normal attention span. I was more right than I thought.  I mentioned that the Mayor had …

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Environmental Property Rights: Part I

This is the first of a four part series on environmental property rights (EPRs).  EPRs are property rights that are designed to help protect the environment.  They are either rights to prevent environmental degradation  or limited rights to impair the environment.  A couple of examples may help explain the concept. 1. The Public Trust Doctrine. …

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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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More on Today’s U.S. Supreme Court Property Rights Decision

As fellow Legal Plant contributor, Sean Hecht, reported earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the most important environmental law case on its current docket: Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection, No. 08-1151. The Court’s opinion can be found here. The issue in the Stop the Beach Renourishment case is …

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Toxic Chemicals (2)

This is the second of a series of three posts on toxic chemicals.  On Monday, I discussed a recent paper that appraised the shortcomings of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).  Today, I turn to a paper by David Adelman (University of Texas) proposing some reforms. First, Adelman suggests that the U.S. follow the EU …

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What’s Really Wrong With TSCA?

As Dan Farber discussed in his recent post, David Markell ‘s recent paper on TSCA provides some really interesting history.  John Applegate has some fascinating pieces on the history and future of TSCA as well–well worth the read  also.   I thought it was curious that Dan focused on cost-benefit barriers imposed by the courts as being the obstacle to effective risk regulation, …

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Toxic Chemicals (1)

As it happens, I saw three new papers about toxics regulation at about the same time recently.  Between the three, they give a clear picture about the U.S. stance on toxic chemicals.  I’ll discuss the papers in separate posts this week. The first paper, by David Markell of FSU, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).  …

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“Facing Catastrophe”: A Roadmap to a Safer Future

Rob Verchick’s new book, “Facing Catastrophe: Environmental Action for a Post-Katrina World,” might help avoid future disasters like the Deepsea Horizon blowout. Verchick views wetlands, lakes, forests, and rivers as a kind of infrastructure, providing ecosystem services that are just as important as the services provided by other infrastructure such as roads and dams.  For …

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