Showing 301 results
Sho Sato Professor of Law
Daniel A. Farber is the Sho Sato Professor of Law and Director of the California Center for Law, Energy and the Environment at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.
Daniel Farber | December 21, 2012
Cross-posted from Legal Planet. Six months ago, the D.C. Circuit upheld EPA’s finding that greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare, triggering coverage under the Clean Air Act. On Thursday, the full court denied rehearing to the three-judge panel’s decision. There were only two dissents, which obviously were hoping to set the stage for a cert. petition […]
Daniel Farber | December 13, 2012
Cross-posted from Legal Planet. Mayan apocalypse: panic spreads as December 21 nears Fears that the end of the world is nigh have spread across the world with only days until the end of the Mayan calendar, with doomsday-mongers predicting a cataclysmic end to the history of Earth. That’s from a British newspaper, the Telegraph, but […]
Daniel Farber | October 31, 2012
Cross-posted from Legal Planet. Today’s FEMA is a lot different from the organization that flubbed the Katrina response. There have been a number of positive changes, mostly during the past four years. First, as the Washington Post explains, FEMA’s authority has expanded: Congress has broadened FEMA’s authority so that the agency can respond in advance […]
Daniel Farber | October 29, 2012
Cross-posted from Legal Planet. The federal role in disaster response dates back to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, when General Funston sent troops from the Presidio to deal with the city’s desperate emergency. Governor Romney seems dubious about this century-old federal role. During one of the GOP primary debates, Governor Romney was asked what he […]
Daniel Farber | October 24, 2012
Cross-posted from Legal Planet. Deregulation is one of Mitt Romney’s five steps in his plan to add jobs. But how do we supposedly know that deregulation will add jobs? It’s a fascinating story, featuring a Nobel laureate’s economic model. The model is very fancy, lots of complex math, but it’s justified on the basis of […]
Daniel Farber | September 19, 2012
Cross-posted from Legal Planet. Obesity is an environmental issue because the food system (from farm to table) uses a lot of energy and produces significant water pollution. More food equals a bigger environmental footprint. Sweetened soft drinks are a good example: they use corn sweetener, and corn production has a large footprint because so much […]
Daniel Farber | September 5, 2012
Ben Somberg posted here recently about the Republican platform and the environment. He noted that the platform uses a discredited estimate of regulatory costs, calls for making environmental regulations into guidance documents for industry, and proposes a moratorium on new regulations for the indefinite future. Unfortunately, that’s only the tip of the iceberg. If you can […]
Daniel Farber | July 31, 2012
Cross-posted from Legal Planet. There has been considerable discussion of Governor Romney’s views about the causes of climate change and about policies such as cap and trade. It’s not easy, however, to find detailed documentation. For that reason, I’ve assembled as much information as I could find about what Romney has said and done over […]
Daniel Farber | July 23, 2012
Cross-posted from Legal Planet. On Tuesday, the D.C. Circuit decided American Petroleum Institute (API) v. EPA, an interesting case dealing with nitrogen oxide (NO2) levels. The standard is supposed to include a margin of safety.Under the Clean Air Act, EPA sets National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for airborne substances that endanger human health or […]