Regulatory Policy
Breaking News: Supreme Court Rules Federal Agricultural Program a Taking
Justices Uphold California Raisin Growers’ Fifth Amendment Challenge
The United States Supreme Court today ended a David-and-Goliath-style, 10-year legal battle between a pair of California raisin growers and the federal government, declaring that the government triggered a compensable taking of the growers’ private property when a federally-controled agricultural board ordered seizure of a portion of their crop. The Court’s decision can be accessed …
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CONTINUE READINGRepublican Change We Can Believe In
Sen. Bill Cassidy’s Bill Would Ditch Wasteful Ethanol Subsidy
As readers of this page know, I am extremely fair and balanced: I criticize each party if it does something wrong, and praise each if it does something right. If one of those parties happens to do wrong things close to all the time, well, that’s not my fault. But let us now praise a …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Supreme Court Upholds Affordable Housing Ordinance
Unanimous Court Rejects Developers’ Takings Challenge to San Jose’s Inclusionary Housing Measure
The California Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision issued today, rejected state developers’ efforts to nullify the City of San Jose’s affordable housing ordinance. That decision, California Building Industry Association v. City of San Jose, is critically important for both state land use policy and for constitutional principles governing private property rights and the proper scope …
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CONTINUE READINGFlame Retardants, Furniture, and Polar Bears
One woman’s search for a toxics-free couch in California
A year and a half ago, I found myself in a position that has caused so many people to rethink the world around them: impending parenthood. One of the many changes I decided to make in advance of welcoming our little bundle of joy was to procure a couch without flame retardants. Flame retardants have …
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CONTINUE READINGControlling Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Transport Fuels
The Performance and Prospects of California’s Low-Carbon Fuel Standard
Transportation is the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in California, responsible for about 37 percent of the state’s total emissions. This distinction makes the sector a prime target for regulation. But with tens of millions of emitting tailpipes, fuels sourced from out of state and around the world, decades-long vehicle lifespans, and many other …
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CONTINUE READINGA (Sometimes) Beautiful Equilibrium
John Nash’s contribution to game theory illuminates environmental issues.
John Nash and his wife died yesterday in a cab crash while returning from a trip to Norway to receive a major mathematical prize. He is best known to the public because of the movie “A Beautiful Mind”, which described his struggle with mental illness. His concept of the Nash Equilibrium is basic to a …
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CONTINUE READINGAbalones and Gulls and Judges, Oh My!
Comparing the Mono Lake Committee with the Abalone Alliance
For several months now, I have been looking for a good comparison case to the Mono Lake Committee, whose work is one of the great success stories of the modern environmental movement. Why did the Mono Lake Committee succeed when other organizations failed? Lots of organizations had good causes and dedicated leaders: what made Mono …
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CONTINUE READINGTracking Coastal Adaptation
Implementing CA’s Innovative Sea Level Rise Planning Database
Higher sea levels are already affecting California’s 3400 miles of coastline, millions of coastal residents, economy, buildings, and critical infrastructure. Yet, oddly enough for a state that is a worldwide leader in climate change mitigation, California has only recently begun to focus seriously on sea level rise adaptation. Recent reports have cited a lack of preparedness …
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CONTINUE READINGJobs & Regs
The empirical evidence suggests that job loss from regulation is small.
It seems to be easy to make arguments one way or another about the effect of regulation on jobs. What does the evidence say? Those seeking an answer would do well to look at a recent book on the subject by Coglianese, Finkel, and Carrigan. Although the book is broader in scope, it provides a careful …
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CONTINUE READINGRequiem for a Bottom-Feeder
UCLA’s Don Shoup Has Transformed Urban Planning
Every scholar wants to do good, productive, important work, but I suppose all us secretly would like to redefine our fields — to go down in academic history, so to speak. Virtually none of us do. But UCLA’s Don Shoup, who is retiring this year from the Urban Planning department, is one who has. And …
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