The San Francisco Chronicle reports on the unintended consequences of San Francisco’s efforts to encourage installation of more low-flow toilets. Among other things, the city’s PUC offers rebates for “high efficiency toilets,” which use even less water than federally mandated low-flow toilets. From the Chronicle: Skimping on toilet water has resulted in more sludge backing […]
Archive | Environment
Still Reckoning with Rapanos:
Yesterday Greenwire published a story, the first of a three-part series, discussing how lower courts have sought to deal with the Supreme Court’s decision in Rapanos v. United States, in which a divided Court held (for the second time) that federal regulations promulgated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (and EPA) under the Clean […]
Judge Holds Government in Contempt Over Drilling Moratorium
In an order issued yesterday, federal district court judge Martin Feldman held the Department of Interior in contempt for seeking to reimpose a blanket moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in defiance of the court’s decision to enjoin the initial moratorium. From the order: The plaintiffs civil contempt claim focuses on the […]
New Year, No New Wells in Gulf
The Obama Administration may have lifted the moratorium on deep water oil and gas development in the Gulf of Mexico, but the federal government has yet to authorize any new drilling activity. As a consequence, according to the WSJ, industry experts do not expect to see any new wells in the Gulf before late 2011 […]
Wind Power’s Not for the Birds
The American Bird Conservancy has renewed concerns that wind power development could threaten several bird species, according to this report. (HT: NYT Green Blog) Officials with American Bird Conservancy . . . cited data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that estimates 400,000 birds of various species are killed by turbine blades annually. The […]
Obama Administration Defends Bush Polar Bear Position
By Jonathan H. Adler on December 24, 2010 4:48 pm in Climate Change, Endangered Species, Environment
Politico reports that the Obama Administration is defending the Bush Administration’s decision to list the polar bear as a “threatened” species, rather than “endangered” species, under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). As I discussed in this series of posts, environmentalist groups petitioned to have the polar bear listed as an endangered species due to the […]
The EPA’s Christmas Present
Yesterday the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it was entering into two proposed settlement agreements to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants and oil refineries under the Clean Air Act. The two agreements resolve lawsuits filed against the EPA by several states and environmental groups seeking the imposition of new source performance […]
D.C. Circuit Denies Stay Request in Greenhouse Gas Cases
Today the D.C. Circuit (panel of Ginsburg, Tatel, Brown) denied the request of those challenging the EPA’s suite of greenhouse gas regulations to stay the regulations pending the outcome of the litigation. The order is available here.
More Commentary on American Electric Power:
Following up on my post from earlier today, here is some more commentary on the Supreme Court’s decision to accept cert in American Electric Power v. Connecticut. Douglas Kysar (Yale), ACSBlog Jonathan Zasloff (UCLA), Legal Planet And here is news coverage from the WSJ and Greenwire. UPDATE: More from NRDC’s Swithcboard and the Center for […]
Global Warming Goes Back to Court
This morning the Supreme Court accepted certiorari in American Electric Power v. Connecticut, a case in which several states and environmental groups alleged that greenhouse gas emissions from several large utilities constitute actionable contributions to the public nuisance of global warming. This case has potentially broad implications for continuing climate change litigation in federal courts […]
Cancun and Copenhagen, and Carbon as Pure Regulatory Object
By Kenneth Anderson on November 29, 2010 11:05 am in Climate Change, Collective Action Problems, Economy, Environment, International Law
Co-Conspirator Jonathan has already remarked below on the seeming collapse of the media-academic-NGO-international organization-et al. global warming coalition in-between last year’s Copenhagen meeting and this year’s much-subdued Cancun event. I broadly agree with Jonathan, and with Margaret Wente, on whom he comments, on the policy merits. I also think the right approach to climate change […]
Saving Environmentalism from Itself
Margaret Wente writes: Mercifully, nobody will pay attention to the climate conference at Cancun next week, where a much-reduced group of delegates will go through the motions. The delusional dream of global action to combat climate change is dead. Barack Obama’s cap-and-trade scheme is dead. Chicago’s carbon-trading market is dead. The European Union’s supposed reduction […]
The End of Ethanol?
Maybe it’s the new mood in Congress. Maybe the stars are aligned. Whatever the cause, opposition to ethanol subsidies is cropping up in some unusual places — and just in time, as ethanol tax credits are set to expire in a few weeks. Back in 2000, then-Vice President Al Gore touted ethanol subsidies as good […]
How Progressives Misunderstand Much Conservative Skepticism of Climate Policy
By Jonathan H. Adler on November 8, 2010 6:51 pm in Climate Change, Conservatism, Environment, Uncategorized
In yesterday’s Washington Post, Bracken Hendricks of the Center for American Progress laments widespread conservative opposition to “government action on climate change.” Responding to the threat posed by global warming should be a conservative cause, Hendricks argues, because a warmer world will breed bigger government. Many conservatives say they oppose clean-energy policies because they want […]
Heinzerling Back to Georgetown
Professor Lisa Heinzerling will be leaving her post as Assistant Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation at the end of the year and returning to the Georgetown University Law Center, Politico reports. Heinzerling has been very active in pushing the EPA to move aggressively to regulate greenhouse gases under […]