Time has an interesting article by Michael Grunwald suggesting that the environmental effects of the BP spill have been exaggerated. The Deepwater explosion was an awful tragedy for the 11 workers who died on the rig, and it’s no leak; it’s the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. It’s also inflicting serious economic and psychological […]
Archive | Environment
Are Asian Carp a “Public Nuisance”?
Five states filed suit against the federal government and Chicago yesterday, alleging that the U.S Army Corps of Engineers and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago have created a “public nuisance” through the maintenance of water infrastructure (locks, intakes, etc.) that could enable the Asian carp to enter the Great Lakes (if they have […]
Trading Carbon for Mercury
Politico is reporting on Majority Leader Harry Reid’s efforts to corral enough votes for a Senate climate bill. Reid says that “cap-and-trade” is not in his vocabulary, but the whole plan is to enact something that can be conferenced with the House bill (“Waxman-Markey”) and enacted in a post-election lame duck session. The problem is […]
ClimateGate Revisited
Last week, the UK Independent Climate Change Email Review (aka the Muir Russell Review) released its report on the alleged scientific misconduct of climate researchers revealed by the disclosure of e-mails from the Climatic Research Unit at East Anglia University. As the NYT reports, the review rejects the claims that the ClimateGate e-mails disclosed scientific […]
Superfund Is Constitutional
This morning the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected General Electric’s constitutional challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s use of administrative orders under the Comprehensive Emergency Response Cleanup and Liability Act (aka “Superfund”). Here is how the opinion begins: In this case, appellant challenges the constitutionality of a statutory scheme that authorizes […]
Sec. Salazar to Reimpose Drilling Moratorium
In response to yesterday’s judicial decision granting a preliminary injunction against the Interior Department’s moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico at depths greater than 500 feet, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that in the next “few days” he would issue a new order, reimposing the moratorium and providing a more detailed explanation of […]
Judge Blocks Offshore Drilling Moratorium
A federal district court judge in Louisiana has issued a preliminary injunction blocking the six-month moratorium on deep water oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico imposed by the Interior Department. Judge Martin Feldman found that the plaintiffs were substantially likely to prevail on the merits in their legal challenge to the moratorium on the […]
Property Rights & Climate Change at AALS
By Jonathan H. Adler on June 20, 2010 11:29 pm in Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Property Rights
I presented on a plenary panel discussing the implications of global warming for property law at the AALS Mid-Year meeting earlier this month. My thesis, in short, was that concerns about global climate change do not justify abandoning or reconceiving traditional property norms. To the contrary, I suggested, environmental problems generally – and the threat […]
Climate Policy Panel at ACS
By Jonathan H. Adler on June 20, 2010 11:02 pm in American Constitution Society, Climate Change, Energy, Environment
On Saturday I participated in a panel on climate change policy, “Environmental Protection in a Climate of Change,” at the American Constitution Society’s National Convention in Washington, D.C. In addition to yours truly the panel featured Vicki Arroyo of the Georgetown Climate Center, Interior Department Deputy Solicitor Rachel Jacobson, and Andrew Light of the Center […]
Preventing the Next Oil Spill with Liability
The University of Chicago’s Richard Epstein argues against liability limits for environmental accidents, like BP’s Gulf oil spill in today’s WSJ. Tort remedies are essential to protect people (and their property) who do not have contractual relations with defendants from harms such as air and water pollution. The legal system should never allow self-interested parties […]
Suing EPA Over Gulf Cleanup
The Center for Biological Diversity has filed a notice of intent to sue the Environmental Protection Agency for authorizing the use of chemical dispersants to faciliate the cleanup of oil from the Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico. According to a CBD attorney, “The fact that no one in the federal government ever […]
Prosecuting BP
University of Michigan law professor David Uhlmann, former chief of the environmental crimes section in the Department of Justice, had an op-ed in the NYT discussing the potential prosecution of British Petroleum and its executives for the Deepwater Horizon blowout and spill. He writes: If the spill had resulted from a hurricane or lightning strike, […]
Is Superfund Unconstitutional?
The BLT reports on the latest act in General Electric’s longstanding effort to challenge the constitutionaliity of portions of the Comprehensive Emergency Response, Cleanup, and Liability Act, aka “Superfund.” Before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit yesterday, GE’s lawyers argued that the Environmental Protection Agency’s use of administrative orders to force cleanup […]
Comment on Kerry-Lieberman Climate Bill
I am a sometime-contributor to the National Journal‘s Energy & Environment Expert Blog. This week the focus is the Kerry-Lieberman climate change bill, the “American Power Act,” and the EPA’s decision to raise the threshold for stationary sources regulated under the Clean Air Act from emissions to 75,000 tons per year for carbon dioxide, even […]
Splitting Up MMS to Prevent Oil Spills
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar plans to break up the Minerals Management Service in the wake of the offshore well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. The rationale is that the MMS has an internal conflict-of-interest because it is responsible for both generating revenue through offshore leases as well as protecting worker safety and the environment. […]