Regulation
White House science advisors call for better ecosystem information
Cross-posted at The Berkeley Blog. If you’ve never heard of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, you’re not alone. It’s not a group that’s often in the news. But its new report, “Sustaining Environmental Capital: Protecting Society and the Economy,” is worth a read. This report does two important things. First, it defends …
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CONTINUE READINGBring Out Your Dead!
For instance, if you’ve been married five times, and each of the five spouses has drowned in the bathtub soon after writing a will in your favor, that “statistical” evidence is enough for a conviction. Similarly, if hospital admissions and ER visits for asthma go up on days when air pollution spikes, it would be irresponsible for the government to ignore that evidence.
CONTINUE READINGEPA finalizes mountaintop removal guidance
Cross-posted at CPRBlog and The Berkeley Blog. After a three-and-a-half month delay for White House review, EPA has finalized its guidance for review of mountaintop removal mining permits in Appalachia. I needn’t have worried that the White House would roll EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on this one. The final guidance maintains the strong stand EPA …
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CONTINUE READINGUK report: behavioral change takes more than a nudge
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. No one seems to like the idea of regulation these days. Nudges, alternatives that try to get people to voluntarily alter their behavior by changing the context in which they make decisions, have been widely touted as a better approach. Cass Sunstein, Obama’s “regulatory czar” in the Office of Management and Budget, …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Great Light Bulb War and the Modern GOP
Saving the 100 watt bulb seems to be a high priority for the House GOP. This issue is revealing about the political dynamics now at work on larger issues like the debt ceiling. Economically, the light bulb ban is a win for consumers: CFLs have a higher initial cost but more than pay for themselves …
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CONTINUE READINGA Judicial Setback for PACE Energy Efficiency and Renewables Financing
Many moons ago, I blogged about the saga of the PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) financing program and the lawsuits to preserve it. As a quick review, PACE allows municipal governments to use funds from the bond market to help property owners finance energy efficiency retrofits and renewable energy arrays on their property. The property …
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CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Regulation as a Jobs Program
This is a continuation of my earlier posting about the impact of environmental law on the economy as a whole, putting aside its benefits in terms of human health and welfare. As in the earlier post, I’m going to use the compliance cost estimate of a report from the Small Business Association of $280 billion …
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CONTINUE READINGSome Simple Arithmetic About Environmental Regulation and the Economy
In absolute terms, environmental compliance costs might be large, but relative to the economy as a whole, they’re not much more than a rounding error.
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Slowing Down on Cap and Trade
Yesterday, Mary Nichols slipped a bit of a bombshell into testimony before the California Senate Select Committee on the Environment, the Economy and Climate Change. She announced that the state’s Air Resources Board is planning to “initiate” the cap and trade program in 2012 but not “start the requirements for compliance” until 2013. This effectively …
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CONTINUE READINGSupreme Court Grants Review in Clean Water Act/Wetlands Case
2012 is shaping up as a busy year for environmental law at the U.S. Supreme Court. Today, as the Court recessed for the summer, the justices granted certiorari in a second environmental case that it will hear and decide in its 2011-12 Term: Sackett v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, No. 10-1062. Sackett involves a development dispute between an Idaho …
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