Regulation
The costs and benefits of coal
It was widely reported earlier this week that outspoken NASA climate scientist James Hansen and 30 others were arrested at a West Virginia coal operation where they were protesting mountaintop removal mining. The protesters were met at the mine by several hundred counter-protesters, described by the Charleston Gazette as “miners and family members” defending their …
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CONTINUE READINGNew EPA air toxics report presents sobering assessment of cancer risk
A new U.S. EPA report released today presents a scary picture of our exposure to hazardous pollutants in our air. The National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment for 2002, which analyzed health data based on chronic exposure to air toxics for 124 pollutants for which those data are available. (The assessment’s name is potentially confusing; the report …
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CONTINUE READINGAn Invitation to Review the Supreme Court’s Environmental Record
This has been a blockbuster year in the U.S. Supreme Court for environmental law and policy. In the Term that concludes this month, the justices have decided five major environmental cases, involving many of the nation’s most important environmental laws. Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE), one of the sponsors of …
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CONTINUE READINGFisheries governance and sustainability
An interesting new paper by a group at Dalhousie University compares several key aspects of fisheries management with a measure of the probability that fisheries are sustainable. The authors conclude that “policy transparency” is more strongly related to sustainability than scientific robustness, implementation capability, or the extent of subsidies, overcapacity, and foreign fishing. The measure …
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CONTINUE READINGAnother environmental lawyer joins the administration
Michael J. Bean, longtime head of Environmental Defense Fund’s wildlife program and author of the classic treatise The Evolution of National Wildlife Law, has been named counselor to Tom Strickland, Assistant Secretary of Interior for Fish, Wildlife, and Parks. Bean will provide advice on endangered species and other wildlife policy issues. This appointment is very …
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CONTINUE READINGOn Renewable Energy, Is the Senate Bill Worse Than Nothing?
The energy bill passed Wednesday by the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee has renewable energy provisions so weak that a dozen environmental groups teamed up to condemn it. Marchant Wentworth of the Union of Concerned Scientists called the renewable standards in the bill “pitiful”, and added that the legislation could actually lead to less …
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CONTINUE READINGHolding Our Breath for a Test Rule for Carbon Nanotubes
Researchers recently reported new findings regarding potential occupational hazards associated with carbon nanotubes. These nano-scale cylinders have a variety of forms (single-walled and multi-walled, coated and uncoated, and so on.) They are widely available and used in a variety of manufacturing, medical and electronic applications. Previously, much attention was focused on whether when inhaled, nanotubes …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat Does the CBO Report on Waxman-Markey Actually Mean?
The Congressional Budget Office issued its report on the Waxman-Markey bill recently. The Washington Times immediately trumpeted: “CBO puts hefty price tag on emissions plan: Obama’s cap-and-trade system seen costing $846 billion.” This is quite misleading. Actually, the CBO report tells us virtually nothing about the economic costs of the bill or how much consumers …
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CONTINUE READINGConfronting Uncertainty Under NEPA
Quantifying risks with confidence is often difficult. For the past thirty years, agencies and courts have struggled with the treatment of uncertainty in environmental impact statements. This problem is all the more important today. Climate change will require innovative solutions – new energy technologies, new adaptation strategies. These innovations will inevitably pose risks, often in …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Supreme Court’s Love Affair with the Takings Clause–Not Over Just Yet
One of the biggest differences between the U.S. Supreme Court under former Chief Justice Rehnquist and the Court under current Chief Justice Roberts is the comparative interest in property rights and the Constitution’s Takings Clause. From 1978 until Rehnquist’s death in 2005, the Supreme Court heard one or more takings cases each Term–culminating in the …
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