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Showing 1,485 results

Daniel Farber | July 15, 2019

Where’s the Beef?

Originally published on Legal Planet Mississippi recently passed a law that has the effect of banning terms like "veggie burger." It's easy to imagine other states passing similar laws. From an environmental view, that's problematic, because beef in particular is connected with much higher greenhouse gas emissions than plant products. It's not just the methane […]

Alice Kaswan | July 12, 2019

Beyond Carbon Pricing: Envisioning a Green Transition

High hopes that putting a price on carbon emissions would provide the most effective and politically expedient climate change policy keep getting dashed. In June, Oregon's Republican senators fled the state and hid rather than enact a carbon cap-and-trade program. Washington State citizen initiatives to pass a carbon tax have failed – twice. Even in […]

Alice Kaswan | June 27, 2019

Replacing the CPP’s Visionary Energy Planning with the ACE’s Technical Tinkering

The Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, the Trump administration's recently released substitute for his predecessor's Clean Power Plan (CPP), has been widely criticized as an ineffectual mechanism for addressing power plants' greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. More broadly, the rule substitutes a technocratic, plant-by-plant approach for the more comprehensive and participatory state planning required by the […]

Hannah Wiseman | June 26, 2019

The ‘Advancing Coal Energy’ Rule? EPA’s Misguided Approach to Carbon Emissions from the Dirtiest Power Plants

The EPA released its finalized rule for carbon emissions from existing power plants last week. The agency calls the rule the "Affordable Clean Energy" (ACE) rule, but it would be better named the "Advancing Coal Energy" rule given its explicit aim to keep old, dirty coal-fired power plants running. A bit of background first for […]

Evan Isaacson | June 26, 2019

EPA Abandons Role at the Center of the Chesapeake Bay Accountability Framework

On June 21, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its evaluation of the third and final round of state Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs) under the Chesapeake Bay restoration framework known as the "Bay TMDL" (Total Maximum Daily Load). EPA's evaluation of the seven Bay jurisdictions broke no new ground regarding the quality or contents of […]

Emily Hammond | June 18, 2019

Opinion Analysis: Virginia’s Moratorium on Uranium Mining Is Not Pre-empted, but the Role of Legislative Purpose Remains Open for Debate

This post was originally published on SCOTUSblog. It is republished here under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US). The Supreme Court has concluded that Virginia's decades-old moratorium on uranium mining is not pre-empted by the Atomic Energy Act. But there is no clear answer to the question that pervaded the briefing and oral argument: […]

Lisa Heinzerling | June 17, 2019

A Meditation on Juliana v. United States

In a recent essay posted to SSRN, I try to see, and to appreciate, the wisdom in a species of climate litigation that has many detractors. This litigation asks the courts to hold the government and private parties judicially accountable for their active promotion and pursuit of climate-endangering activities, even after they knew better – […]

Daniel Farber | June 10, 2019

Updates on the War on Science

Originally published on Legal Planet. The Trump administration's hostile attitude toward science has continued unabated. The administration has used a triad of strategies: efforts to defund research, suppression of scientific findings, and embrace of fringe science. Budget. The administration continues to favor deep cuts in research support. Its initial 2020 budget proposal calls for a 13 […]

Daniel Farber | May 28, 2019

Trump EPA Hiding Hundreds of Deaths in Plain View

According to press reports, EPA is preparing to ignore possible deaths caused by concentrations of pollutants occurring below the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS). This is a key issue in a lot of decisions about pollution reduction. For instance, there is no NAAQS for mercury, but pollution controls on mercury would, as a side benefit, […]