Regulation
Law School News: Sunstein Returns to Harvard
The White House announced that Cass Sunstein will be leaving OMB at the end of the month to return to Harvard Law School. Sunstein was not popular with environmentalists– I have heard people say that he was worse than some of the OMB heads who served under Republican presidents. He also doesn’t seem to have …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat Did Romney Believe and When Did He Believe It?
Two days ago, I posted documentation about Romney’s views about climate change. Today, I want to discuss where he’s been consistent and when he has changed course. What’s causing climate change? Romney has been consistent in saying that the climate is changing. In terms of the reasons, however, he’s been cautious, hedging to varying degrees …
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CONTINUE READINGOverdrafting California’s Groundwater Resources–A Chronic Condition
A recently issued study by a University of Texas-led group of research scientists confirm a discomforting fact: groundwater resources in California’s Central Valley are being depleted at an alarming rate. As reported in the Sacramento Bee, the study warns that current groundwater extraction rates from the Central Valley aquifer–which is primarily mined to serve agricultural …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Politics of State Energy Deregulation: A Hypothesis
If you are interested in environmental policy, state public utility commissions might be the important agencies you’ve never heard of. PUCs determine how much power capacity there will be and even more importantly, what the mix of energy sources will generate it. Sometimes pundits will speak of “national energy policy”, but that is essentially a null set: …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Economist on Natural Gas: Slouching Toward Mediocrity
I was quite interested in finding last week that The Economist’s most recent major survey is about natural gas. Given the explosion of natural gas resources (uh…so to speak) and the world’s growing reliance on it, I needed to get up to speed. Besides, from a climate perspective, getting the fracking issue right is crucial. …
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CONTINUE READINGRomney’s Advisers
As I’ve posted earlier, Romney’s website is staunchly anti-regulatory and pro-fossil fuel. That’s also the position of his foremost energy advisrr, Harold Hamm. Hamm is the 66-year-old founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Continental Resources Inc. (CLR). CLR is an oil producer which is leading the charge for fracking. Not surprisingly, Hamm loves “Mitt’s …
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CONTINUE READINGHealth and Superfund
I belatedly happened across an interesting paper by Michael Greenstone. The Abstract summarizes the key finding: We are the first to examine the effect of Superfund cleanups on infant health rather than focusing on proximity to a site. We study singleton births to mothers residing within 5km of a Superfund site between 1989-2003 in five …
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CONTINUE READINGThe FDA Bans BPA in Baby Bottles
The details are reported here. Such bans on specific production inputs raise interesting economics issues related to “technology forcing” and industrial competition. I am an optimist that there are many different ways to make a relatively low cost baby bottle. In a a world with 7 billion people, if somebody can figure out a low …
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CONTINUE READINGHigh Speed Rail’s A-Coming to California
With the California Legislature’s recent approval of the sale of voter-approved state bonds to fund high speed rail, it looks like the bullet train is actually coming to the state. Since voters approved the bonds in 2008, the economy has collapsed, and the details of the proposed route has made enemies out of many communities …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Strategies: “One Step at a Time” or “Don’t Jump the Gun”??
In some situations, voluntary efforts leads other people to join in, whereas in others, it encourages them to hold back. There’s a similar issue about climate mitigation efforts at the national, regional, or state level. Do these efforts really move the ball forward? Or are they counterproductive, because other places increase their own carbon emissions …
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