Regulatory Policy
On our reading list: Market framing and morality
Economists offer experimental evidence that market transactions blunt moral intuitions
Take my views on this study with a grain salt, because it confirms my priors. I’ve long agreed intuitively with Mark Sagoff that people make different choices in market settings than in more public-regarding settings. And I’ve been fascinated over the years by the empirical evidence that confirms that intuition, including the work of Samuel …
Continue reading “On our reading list: Market framing and morality”
CONTINUE READINGEnergy Innovation and the Law @ UCLA
A full-day UCLA Law Review symposium on Friday, November 1
The UCLA Law Review is holding a symposium next Friday, November 1 – Toward a Clean Energy Future: Powering Innovation Through Law. Leading scholars from around the country will be at UCLA School of Law for the day to discuss innovative energy technologies, international energy issues, the challenge of new energy technology diffusion, and the …
Continue reading “Energy Innovation and the Law @ UCLA”
CONTINUE READINGELQ’s Annual Review issue now available online
Every year, Ecology Law Quarterly publishes its Annual Review of Environmental and Natural Resource Law. The latest version is now available at ELQ’s web site. Check out these articles from the issue. You’ll find they cover a tremendous amount of ground in a way that is both educational and entertaining. And at the ELQ site …
Continue reading “ELQ’s Annual Review issue now available online”
CONTINUE READINGThe Climate Gamble
Paul Krugman has a review of a new book by William Nordhaus about climate policy. By way of preface, I should say that Nordhaus is not particularly popular with environmentalists, who have generally considered him as too conservative in his policy recommendations. Nordhaus does, however, more or less define the mainstream view — he’s very …
Continue reading “The Climate Gamble”
CONTINUE READINGCEQA Reform 2013 Holds Promise for Improving the Environment
Despite grumblings, the new law contains significant victories for infill development and urban investment
Governor Brown recently signed into law this year’s version of “CEQA reform,” which as Eric noted was decidedly stripped down from what it could have been. SB 743 (Steinberg) got a lot of negative attention for giving the Sacramento Kings basketball arena proponents accelerated environmental review and immunity from injunctive relief unless the project is …
Continue reading “CEQA Reform 2013 Holds Promise for Improving the Environment”
CONTINUE READINGWhere Have You Gone, Justice Stevens?
The Supreme Court Misses Justice Stevens’ Influence & Perspective on Environmental Law
With the commencement of the U.S. Supreme Court’s new Term, it’s appropriate to note–and bemoan–the absence of a strong environmental voice on the Court these days. Until his retirement in 2010 after a quarter century on the Court, Justice John Paul Stevens ably served in that role. By contrast, none of the current justices seems …
Continue reading “Where Have You Gone, Justice Stevens?”
CONTINUE READINGMass. v. EPA bears fruit for environmental petitioners
Court rules that EPA must decide if new water quality standars are needed to protect the Gulf of Mexico
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. A US District Court in Louisiana recently ruled, in Gulf Restoration Network v. Jackson, that EPA must decide whether it has to impose new water quality standards for nutrient pollution in the Mississippi River watershed. Although that might seem far afield from the Supreme Court’s greenhouse gas emissions decision in Massachusetts v. …
Continue reading “Mass. v. EPA bears fruit for environmental petitioners”
CONTINUE READINGStill Waiting For Supreme Court Decision on Greenhouse Gas Emissions Cert Petition
We May Learn This Week Whether Court Takes Up Important Climate Change Case
Court watchers are still waiting to learn whether the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the second most important federal case involving greenhouse gas emissions, Coalition for Responsible Regulation v. EPA. The Court is closed today for a federal holiday (not because of the shutdown) but any day we should hear about whether it will take …
CONTINUE READINGHappy Birthday, TSCA!
With the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) celebrating its 37th birthday today, I was thinking what we should get it as a birthday gift. Here’s one idea; how about a little respect. I’ve blogged before about how the statute has become one of the most denigrated environmental laws on the books. It seems that every …
Continue reading “Happy Birthday, TSCA!”
CONTINUE READINGDenial As a Way of Life
Climate denial is closely related to debt-ceiling denial.
As it turns out, many of the same people who deny that climate change is a problem also deny that government default would be a problem. No doubt there are several reasons: the fact that Barack Obama is on the opposite side of both issues; the general impermeability of ideologues to facts or expert opinion; …
Continue reading “Denial As a Way of Life”
CONTINUE READING