Wind turbines may be a promising low-carbon power source, but the communities in which they are sited do not always welcome them with open arms. Residents of the Forest hills subdivision in Washoe Valley, Nevada, were none to pleased when one of their neighbors planned to erect a wind turbine to power his home. They […]
Archive | Environment
On Conservatives & Environmental Protection
Earlier this week I was interviewed by Brad Plumer of the Washington Post‘s Wonkblog about my ideas for “conservative” approaches to environmental protection (and my recent paper on the subject). The resulting article is here.
Justice Scalia, Environmental Champion
Today the Supreme Court decided Decker v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center. By a vote of 7-1 (with Justice Breyer not participating) the Court held that the Clean Water Act and its implementing regulations do not require timber companies to obtain NPDES permits for stormwater runoff from logging roads. The sole dissenter was Justice Scalia, who would […]
A “Conservative Vision” for the Future of Environmental Policy
Last fall, I participated in a conference at Duke Law School on “Conservative Visions of Our Environmental Future,” sponsored by the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum, Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Nicholas School for the Environment, Duke Federalist Society, Duke College Republicans and the Energy & Enterprise Initiative. I blogged the event, summarizing […]
D.C. Circuit Rejects Challenges to Polar Bear Listing
This morning the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit handed down a unanimous opinion rejecting both industry and environmentalist group challenges to the Fish & Wildlife Service’s decision to list the polar as a “threatened” species. Environmentalist groups argued the FWS should have listed the polar bear as “endangered. Industry groups and their […]
Exaggerating Species Extinction – The Sequel
By Jonathan H. Adler on January 26, 2013 8:57 am in Endangered Species, Environment, Politicizing Science
In 2011 I noted a report in Nature suggesting that species extinction rates have been overestimated. A new report in Science has similar implications, suggesting that fears many species will go extinct before they are even discovered are overblown. Specifically, the study suggests many common estimates exaggerate the likely number of species and presume greater […]
Are Plastic Grocery Bag Bans Bad for Public Health?
San Francisco banned disposable plastic grocery bags in 2007. It’s not alone. Several dozen communities around the country have adopted similar policies, all in the name of environmental protection. Those thin plastic bags may require far less material than in years past, but some still see them as wasteful. New research, however, shows that banning […]
Yet Another Bush EPA Air Rule Goes Down – 2013 Edition
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. Circuit struck down rules promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency to implement the national air quality standards for fine particulates in Natural Resources Defense Council v. EPA. (Story here.) One thing that’s notable about the decision is that the Court was reviewing a pair of rules […]
Merrill on “Fear of Fracking”
This morning, Columbia’s Thomas Merrill delivered the keynote address at the Case Western Reserve Law Review symposium on “The Law and Policy of Hydraulic Fracturing: Addressing the Issues of the Natural Gas Boom.” His talk, “Fear of Fracking,” sought to addressed four important questions about fracking: 1) Why did fracking technology emerge in the United […]
Dispatches from the Duke Conference on “Conservative Visions of Our Environmental Future”
Today I am at Duke to participate in a conference on “Conservative Visions of Our Environmental Future,” sponsored by the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum, Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Nicholas School for the Environment, Duke Federalist Society, Duke College Republicans and the Energy & Enterprise Initiative. The conference is being live streamed […]
Assessing Gary Johnson’s Environmental Views
At LegalPlanet, Dan Farber takes a look at the environmental policy positions of Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson.
Sackett v. EPA and the Due Process Deficit in Environmental Law
Last term, in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, a unanimous Supreme Court rejected the EPA’s effort to deny private landowners an opportunity to challenge the agency’s assertion of jurisdiction over their land. The Sacketts wanted to build a home in a subdivision, but the EPA concluded the Sacketts’ land to contain jurisdictional wetlands under the […]
Is Organic Food Healthier or Safer?
A new study fails to find scientific support for claims organic food is healthier or safer than conventional alternatives and everyone acts as if this is a surprise. It shouldn’t be. Scientific research has fairly consistently failed to validate the claimed superiority of organic food, as I’ve noted in prior posts over the past ten […]
En Banc Petitions in D.C. Circuit Greenhouse Gas Litigation
By Jonathan H. Adler on August 28, 2012 3:48 pm in Administrative Law, Climate Change, Environment, Standing
Earlier this month, several of the parties challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act filed petitions for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc in Coalition for Responsible Regulation v. EPA, in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit turned away all of the state […]
Why Gasoline Prices Are Volatile
Andrew Morriss and Donald Boudreaux have an op-ed in today’s WSJ explaining why gasoline prices have become more volatile. The short version: Boutique fuel requirements have balkanized the gasoline market, magnifying the effects of local supply disruptions. For most of the 20th century, the United States was a single market for gasoline. Today we have […]