Water
The Top 10 Environmental Developments of 2009
10. Cass Sunstein becomes regulatory czar. Sunstein is a true believer in cost-benefit analysis, the bête noire of many an environmentalist. Obama’s appointment of Sunstein to oversee health and environmental regulations may put the brakes on regulatory initiatves. 9. California passes AB 758. The first mandate for energy efficiency standards for existing buildings. 8. Water …
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CONTINUE READING60 Minutes flubs the California water story
Last night, 60 Minutes had a long story on the California water crisis, featuring Lesley Stahl interviewing (among others) Arnold Schwarzenegger and UC Davis professor Jeff Mount. On the positive side, the story accurately portrayed the vulnerability of California’s fragile through-Delta water delivery system to a major earthquake or catastrophic levee break. But CBS News …
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CONTINUE READINGTwo Stories from Eastern Europe
Arthur Max from AP has an excellent piece on the environment in Eastern Europe, contrasting two rivers. The Danube flows through Germany and then Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Romania, and Bulgaria. It was an environmental disaster, but both the river itself and its environs have been improved greatly for three reasons: (a) the countries involved have …
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CONTINUE READINGNPDES permits on impaired waterways
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. Precisely what the Clean Water Act requires of point sources that discharge to already-polluted waterways has long been a point of confusion. Now, according to Inside EPA (subscription required) EPA may revise the rules it applies to new permits on impaired waterways. A rulemaking seems far from certain at this point — …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Challenge of Regulating the Ordinary
The title is a play on a great paper of Holly’s about the converse challenge of saving the ordinary. Whether the ordinary is good or bad, however, it tends to escape our interest and attention because it’s so darn . . . ordinary. Case in point: nitrogen pollution. We emit a lot of nitrogen oxides …
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CONTINUE READINGCan You Teach an Old Corps New Tricks?
Five years of Katrina, the Corps may be trying to mend its ways — but is it succeeding?
CONTINUE READINGEPA to reconsider water transfers rule
I can’t find this on EPA’s web site, but BNA’s U.S. Law Week and the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies are reporting that the agency plans to reconsider the Bush-era rule exempting water transfers from the Clean Water Act’s NPDES permit requirements. As I previously explained, the 11th Circuit upheld the water transfers rule this …
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CONTINUE READINGA New Beginning for the California Delta?
Early this past Wednesday morning, following an all-night session that would have made any college freshman proud, the California Legislature enacted major legislation designed to address the myriad problems affecting California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The package of five bills, SB 7X 1, SB 7X 2, SB 7X 6, SB 7X 7, and SB 7X 8, …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia water deal struck (just in time for UCLA event)
After months (years) of negotations, the California legislature has passed what many are calling the most comprehensive California water legislation in half a century. The task was difficult: Figure out a way to fix our ailing Sacramento-San Joaquin delta; address shortfalls in water supply affecting urban, agricultural, and environmental interests; anticipate additional shortfalls and water supply …
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CONTINUE READINGA red-letter day for washing machines
Under the Bush administration, which was implacably hostile to state environmental regulations exceeding federal minimum requirements, the Department of Energy refused to consider California’s request for permission to issue state rules setting water efficiency standards for washing machines. The Ninth Circuit has now set aside that action as arbitrary and capricious, and ruled that DOE …
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