Regulation
Blowing Off Steam: Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Clean Water Act
The Entergy case, which is now before the Supreme Court, involves EPA regulation of power plant’s cooling systems. This is an important environmental issue because the cheapest systems kill acquatic life in the front-end intake process and then raise the temperature of water bodies in the back-end discharge. More broadly, the case raises questions about whether …
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CONTINUE READINGHip Hip Hoo—-Wait A Minute …..
Two recent announcements seem to offer reason for good cheer on the renewable energy front. But in each instance, it pays to read a little deeper and maybe keep the cork in the champagne a bit longer. The first came in the form of a California Public Utilities Commission report that concluded that there are …
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CONTINUE READINGMary Nichols gets mad
Amid the general relief that California’s legislature has finally passed a budget, our state’s (and nation’s?) chief air & climate conscience makes some serious objections: California’s proposed budget contains a major provision that would weaken air pollution regulations while saving the construction industry millions of dollars. The measure, largely overlooked in a public debate focused on …
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CONTINUE READINGAnd the Beat Goes On . . .
Two recent reports drive home the fact that phasing-out harmful chemicals is typically only the beginning of effective chemical policy rather than the end. Methyl bromide, widely used in the last decade as a fumigant in California and elsewhere, is a toxic volatile organic compound and is ozone-depleting to boot. Although efforts are underway to …
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CONTINUE READINGA Tale of Two Cities
The old adage is that all politics is local. So is much, if not all, environmental policy-making. Recent reports from two American cities vividly demonstrate the wide gulf that often separates local efforts to adopt sustainable environmental and energy policies. A recent story in the Wall Street Journal reports the City of Boulder, Colorado’s groundbreaking …
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CONTINUE READINGStatistician contests George Will’s misguided climate op-ed
Nate Silver, the statistician who blogs at fivethirtyeight.com and made national news (and the Colbert Report) last year by being the most accurate and reliable predictor of the presidential election results, has turned his attention to climate change. In response to an op-ed yesterday by George Will in the Washington Post, Silver analyzes temperature trends and debunks the …
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CONTINUE READINGWhich oysters for the Chesapeake Bay?
Sunday’s Washington Post reports that a decision is expected soon on whether to deliberately introduce the Suminoe oyster, native to China and Japan, to the Chesapeake Bay. A decision would mark the end of an analytic process that has been going on for more than 10 years. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a …
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CONTINUE READINGA Glimpse Inside the Stimulus Bill
Although the stimuls bill passed last week, there still doesn’t seem to be a lot of detailed information about its exact provisions. It does appear, however, that the final legislation has considerable benefits for clean energy, as CNN details
CONTINUE READINGThe future of coal-fired electric power
Tomorrow’s New York Times has an interesting article on the future of coal-fired electric power in the United States. Coal is responsible for fully 20% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, according to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. “Clean coal,” meaning coal plants that result in no net emissions of carbon dioxide, would be possible only …
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CONTINUE READINGA smorgasbord of smelt and salmon news
There have been several developments in the Delta water saga since I posted on the request for relief from water quality standards submitted by the state Department of Water Resources and federal Bureau of Reclamation, and the potential for conflict between the water needs of smelt and of salmon.
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