Regulation
What 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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CONTINUE READINGBreathless in Bombay Redux: Corruption and Environmental Law
As I mentioned a few days ago, Bombay has 55,000 taxicabs that all run on CNG. (And as I updated, the municipal buses do, too — something else that India does better than the United States.). But Bombay’s taxis present India-watchers and scholars with something of a problem: if you believe the standard story about India, …
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CONTINUE READINGNational ocean policy under construction
President Obama today proclaimed June 2009 to be National Oceans Month, a time to “celebrate these vast spaces and the myriad ways they sustain life.” The proclamation calls on “all Americans to learn more about the oceans and what can be done to conserve them.” Beyond that symbolic move, Obama took an important step toward …
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CONTINUE READINGAs Digital TV Goes, So Goes the Smart Grid?
Today, we bid a nostalgic farewell to analog television, as all broadcast stations are required to deliver a digital signal. Do the challenges the nation has faced in making this not-so-momentous transition suggest a bumpy road ahead as policymakers push for a “smart” electric grid? Should low income and minority consumers be especially concerned? Most …
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CONTINUE READINGBreathless in Bombay
…is not just the name of a terrific volume of short stories by Murzban Shroff (mandatory reading if you come here): it is a condition that most residents here deal with daily. But the government is actually beginning to do something about it, which should be highly embarrassing to their US counterparts. This is a …
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CONTINUE READINGMisfiring on fire policy
A centerpiece of the Bush administration’s national forest management policy was the claim that vegetation management projects would be targeted to places where wildfire poses high risks to human communities — the “wildland-urban interface.” According to a new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (subscription required) led by Tania Schoennagel at the …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia environmental justice advocates sue Air Resources Board over climate scoping plan
UPDATES: California Air Resources Board Chair (and former UCLA colleague) Mary Nichols comments below. The Complaint in this action is available here (caption page separately available here). A coalition of California environmental justice advocates has filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the California Air Resources Board‘s scoping plan for AB 32, the landmark climate …
CONTINUE READINGScientific integrity at EPA
Lisa Jackson was up on Capitol Hill yesterday, telling the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works how her EPA will protect scientific integrity. The webcast is available here. In her written testimony, Jackson said: While the laws that EPA implements leave room for policy judgments, the scientific findings on which these judgments are based …
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