Lawyers, Climate Change and Coal
In December 1952, John W. Davis, the senior name partner in one of the nation’s most prominent law firms and the Democratic candidate for President in 1924, appeared before the Supreme Court. He was...
View ArticleCole Porter Was Right: The Economic Cost of Climate Change
There has already been significant discussion of the economic impacts of climate change. Damage from catastrophic events, the cost to build adaptation measures such as sea walls; these have all been...
View ArticleEnvironmental Law in “the Last Place on Earth”
A century ago expeditions to Antarctica, “the last unexplored place on earth,” made Amundsen, Scott, Mawson, and Shackleton household names. Today Antarctica’s pristine environment attracts tourists to...
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EPA Is Not an Expert in Determining Electric System Reliability
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals just reversed and remanded EPA’s rule allowing backup generators to operate for up to 100 hours per year as necessary for demand response. It’s an important decision...
View ArticlePOLITICS, POPES AND POLLUTION
Vatican officials have confirmed that a Papal encyclical will be released in June. The encyclical, which is the official proclamation of the Catholic church on a particular issue, will address the...
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Do Climate Change and Same-Sex Marriage Have Anything in Common?
Recent events have me pondering this question.Most notably, in two court decisions last week, courts ordered the State of Washington and the government of the Netherlands to take more aggressive action...
View ArticleDUTCH COURT: NETHERLANDS MUST DO MORE TO REDUCE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
On June 25, 2015, The Hague District Court in the Netherlands issued an order and opinion requiring the Netherlands to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent below 1990 levels by...
View ArticleI’m tired of waiting, says another judge
On June 23, 2015, a Superior Court judge in Seattle ordered the Washington State Department of Ecology to reconsider its decision denying a petition for rulemaking on climate change issues. Ecology had...
View ArticleRuminations on the Transition to a Low Carbon Economy
Amid the controversy around the just released EPA Clean Power Plan rule, the impacts of climate change are becoming apparent with a proliferation of heat waves, droughts, floods, wildfires and other...
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What Do Opponents of the Clean Power Plan and the Oklahoma Sooners Have In...
So the Clean Power Plan has been published in the Federal Register. For those who cannot get enough, you can find all of the important materials, including EPA’s Technical Support Documents, on EPA’s...
View ArticleDOIN’ THE DUNES – PART VI
As we left off, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that in obtaining easements to build dunes, the amount of compensation for the partial loss of ocean view would have to take into account a credit for...
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Some Hard Truths About Addressing Climate Change
Last week, the Boston Globe had an op-ed by Joshua Goldstein and Steven Pinker concerning some “Inconvenient truths for the environmental movement.” I’m sorry to say that I agree with pretty much...
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Does Colorado Support the Clean Power Plan? Yes. And No.
I have never understood why 43 states– including the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts – have independent elected attorneys general. I’m sure my new colleague, former Massachusetts Attorney General...
View ArticleDoin the Dunes – Part VII
In my latest blog, I related that New Jersey Superior Court Judge Julio Mendez had taken under advisement the City of Margate’s request for an evidentiary hearing on the reasonableness of the state’s...
View ArticleParis to Earth: Act Locally Within a Global Framework
Paris—In the run-up to the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention, a short humorous video, “Earth to Paris,” was widely viewed. It was a call to delegates for take serious action...
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Promises, promises: how legally durable are Obama's climate pledges?
As part of a global agreement on climate change, the US has pledged, among other things, to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 26%-28% compared to 2005 levels by the year 2025. But opponents...
View ArticleAre Obama’s Climate Pledges Really That “Legally Durable”?
In his December 16 ACOEL post Professor Robert Percival concludes that President Obama’s Paris GHG reduction pledges are most likely “legally durable.” Two of his key points: (1) EPA’s Clean Power...
View ArticleWHY, WHY DO I LOVE PARIS
The Paris Agreement resulting from the COP21 Climate Conference was extraordinary, far better than any of the pundit “experts” expected (indeed most were predicting gloom and doom until the very last...
View ArticleLegal Implications of the Paris Agreement for Fossil Fuels
The Paris Agreement on climate change reached on December 12, 2015 has a heavily negotiated sentence that, when closely read, seems to call for the virtual end of fossil fuel use in this...
View ArticleDisclosures: Do They Help Reduce the Risks of Climate Change?
In 2010 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued interpretive guidance titled Commission Guidance Regarding Disclosure Related to Climate Change on how to apply existing SEC...
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