Most recent 40 articles: Legal Planet
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Addressing Corruption In Electric Vehicle Battery Supply Chains - Legal Planet (Dec 5) |
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Dec 5 · In the race to scale up a global supply chain for electric vehicle batteries, mining justice advocates have sought to ensure that the ongoing clean technology minerals boom does not exacerbate longstanding negative impacts from the global mining industry. Chief among these are corruption risks.
To provide guidance to electric vehicle purchasers (particularly fleets), advocates, and leaders in “downstream” markets about how to support anti-corruption measures in the battery supply chain, Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) partnered with the Natural Resource Governance Institute to issue a new policy brief: Corruption Risks in the EV ... Read more ...
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The New Frontier of Methane Regulation? - Legal Planet (Dec 5) |
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Dec 5 · Methane is ready for its close-up. The first week of COP28, the UN climate talks taking place in Dubai, saw a handful of big announcements about how world leaders plan to tackle human-made climate change by targeting methane, a powerful short-term climate pollutant. The UCLA Emmett Institute is also drawing attention to the issue of methane. Several members of the Emmett Institute team are at COP28, where we are hosting a side event on methane in conjunction with the release of our new discussion paper, “Advancing Methane Regulation: Implications of New Monitoring Technologies.”
To recap: The Biden administration announced Saturday that it would, for the first time, require ... Read more ...
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Climate Change and the Hard-Headed Realist - Legal Planet (Dec 4) |
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Dec 4 · It’s not surprising that Bernie Sanders said, rather emphatically, that he was not a friend of Kissinger’s. Yet there was one issue where they did agree: climate change.
If there was one thing that Henry Kissinger stood for, it was the hard-headed “realist” view of foreign policy - a view that prioritizes national interest at all costs, rejecting idealism as weak-minded sentimentality. Nobody in all his long career ever called him progressive. We already know that idealists like Pope Francis support climate action. What about the anti-idealist, brutally realist Kissinger?
Kissinger was - and remains even after his death - a polarizing figure. As his biographer Jeremi ... Read more ...
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When Communities Take Over Their Energy Systems - Legal Planet (Dec 4) |
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Dec 4 · This Post was Co-Authored by Sharon Jacobs and Dave Owen.
For many decades, most people in the United States have obtained their electricity from a large investor-owned utility company (IOU). They had no real choice. Much of U.S. energy law was built on the belief that the best way to provide electricity was to give investor-owned utilities monopolies over large areas but to require regulators to review and approve those utilities’ rates to prevent pricing that was either “unjust” or “unreasonable.” Even where people were frustrated with their utility provider - and such frustrations are common - they had limited options.
In recent years, at least in some parts of the ... Read more ...
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Why Do Small Changes in Global Temperature Matter So Much? - Legal Planet (Nov 30) |
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Nov 30 · Scientists are warning us that even comparatively small changes in average temperature may have disastrous results. If you turn up your thermostat 2 ºC (about 3.6 ºF), the difference may be noticeable but it’s no big deal. So why is that a scary increase in global temperatures? Some reasons are physical, particularly the difference between being one degree below freezing versus one degree above. But another key reason is that we’ve finely tuned our society to a specific climate regime, which is abruptly changing.
In the natural world, there are generalists species that do pretty well in a wide variety of settings and specialist species that are finally tuned to a ... Read more ...
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Climate Backlash - Legal Planet (Nov 27) |
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Nov 27 · Presumably, no one actually wants rising seas, dangerous heat waves, severe droughts, runaway wildfires, and floods. Nor, I assume, are there many who want those climate disasters for their children and grandchildren. Still, there are all too many politicians and public figures who act as if their goal was to foment climate change. No doubt the real motives are more mundane: ignorance, financial gain, political ambition, or fear of change. Regardless of motive, the result has been a relentless campaign to wipe out any sign of progress in controlling climate change.
Donald Trump is, of course, the poster child for this campaign. His administration attempted to eliminate every ... Read more ...
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A Guide to Environmental Law Centers - Legal Planet (Nov 22) |
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Nov 22 · Many law schools consider public service a key part of their missions. More than most people appreciate, they play an important role in public policy in areas as diverse as intellectual property, criminal justice, and environmental law. Research centers are an increasingly common institutional setting for that work. With that in mind, I’ve tried to put together a list of environmental law centers.
Please let me now if I’ve missed some centers. I’ll be more than happy to add them to the list.
In terms of coverage, I was looking for research/policy centers rather than pedagogical programs. There are a lot of environmental clinics, including some that do policy ... Read more ...
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U.S.-China Climate Deal Means Good Vibes for COP28 - Legal Planet (Nov 21) |
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Nov 21 · The chances for a productive COP28 - the U.N. climate talks that get underway Nov. 30 in Dubai - got a big boost from the recent climate agreement between the U.S. and China, the world’s two biggest polluters.
Announced just before President Joe Biden and China leader Xi Jinping met at the APEC Summit in San Francisco, the Sunnylands Statement on Enhancing Cooperation to Address the Climate Crisis was negotiated by Climate Envoy John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua who met for tough negotiations in July and again this month. The hope is that a high-level statement from Chinese and American leaders like this one will unleash more activity among climate experts, ... Read more ...
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Four EV Trends - Legal Planet (Nov 20) |
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Nov 20 · The automotive world is changing quickly. Most of the trends are mutually reinforcing. But one points in the opposite direction.
The first and most obvious trend is the rise of EVs. In the twenty years since Tesla arrived, EVs have gone from 0.2% of new cars to 13%, and Bloomberg predicts that this figure will nearly double in the next few years. According to the Economist, by 2040 about three-quarters of global sales will be EV even under conservative assumptions. The industry certainly thinks this trend is real, with investments expected to total over a trillion dollars by 2030, and established companies like GM, Ford, and VW firmly on board.
The second trend is ... Read more ...
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Have We Begun the Third Age of Climate Law? - Legal Planet (Nov 16) |
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Nov 16 · An international agreement in 1992 committed the world’s nations to addressing climate change but contained few specifics. The US ratified that agreement, but there was little concrete action here through the end of the 20th Century. As this century began, things looked optimistic, with both presidential candidates favoring reductions in carbon emissions. Promptly after taking office, however, George W. Bush reversed himself and fervently embraced fossil fuels. The time since then can be divided into three eras, each about a decade long.
Waiting for Congress: 2000-2010. So far as I can tell, the first serious American effort to cut emissions was the passage of California’s ... Read more ...
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How to Get to Zero Emissions at the Ports - Legal Planet (Nov 14) |
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Nov 14 · The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are well on their way toward electrification, but the road to zero emissions is a long one. This new report - A Heavy Lift: Policy Solutions to Accelerate Deployment of Zero-Emission Cargo Handling Equipment at the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles and Beyond - surveys the biggest obstacles to speedy electrification and makes some recommendations.
The Ports are the largest in the United States, serving as a hub of economic activity for the L.A. region and the State of California. Goods movement through these Ports also benefits consumers throughout the U.S. However, goods movement through the Ports is a major source of air pollution ... Read more ...
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Climate Policy in the World’s Fourth Largest Country - Legal Planet (Nov 13) |
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Nov 13 · Indonesia has the world’s fourth largest population, right after India, China, and the U.S. It has about the same GDP as Spain. Indonesia ranks in the top dozen carbon emitters. It gets relatively attention in the United States. Yet Indonesia’s role in cutting energy emissions is crucial.
As an archipelago, Indonesia is at the prey of sea level rise. Jakarta, a city of ten million, is only two feet above sea level. A quarter of the densely populated city could be under water by 2050, and flooding is already a serious problem. In fact, Indonesia is moving its capital 600 miles away for this reason. Indonesia is also heavily exposed to tropic storms, which are expected to get ... Read more ...
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Getting to Implementation - Legal Planet (Nov 9) |
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Nov 9 · This post is co-authored by CLEE Climate Policy Fellow, Hanna Payne
In the arc of climate action, we are firmly in the era of implementation. As climate change accelerates, communities across the state are experiencing the effects of a changing climate. To avoid the worst of these impacts, it is critical that we rapidly implement actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build resilience to the effects of a changing climate. Meeting this challenge requires implementation to be a priority at all levels of government.
Local governments – cities, counties, and special districts – are critical for successful implementation for several reasons. Local ... Read more ...
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Environmental Policy on the Political Firing Line - Legal Planet (Nov 6) |
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Nov 6 · We’re now a year away from Election Day, but things are already starting to heat up. And the outcome couldn’t be more important. The next election could transform U.S. environmental policy, for better or worse.
A GOP trifecta in 2024 would put Trump in the White House with GOP control of Congress. That would be at best a replay of 2017-2019 in terms of environmental policy. There would probably be an even greater impact due to shifts within the GOP. A Democratic trifecta, in contrast, would cement Biden’s environmental policy and provide a basis for further advances.
This is an environmental blog, not a political one. Yet, given intense polarization over ... Read more ...
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What to watch for, and ignore, at the upcoming climate talks in Dubai - Legal Planet (Nov 6) |
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Nov 6 · Each year since 1995, the countries of the world have gathered to negotiate what to do about climate change. They do so under the auspices of the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the universally adopted climate change treaty that sets a goal of avoiding dangerous interference with the climate system.
Those talks have had ups and downs through the years and have resulted in (among other things) the adoption of the Paris Agreement. Twenty-eight years in and with climate change essentially unchecked, but with significant and viable options available for controlling it, the talks continue later this month in Dubai, under the Presidency of one of the world’s leading ... Read more ...
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A Compendium of Climate Conspiracy Theories - Legal Planet (Nov 2) |
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Nov 2 · Conspiracy theories about climate change are widespread. They cover a wide range, but the theme is generally that the world is run by some elite that is secretly using climate change as an excuse to take over the world.
My favorite conspiracy theory is that the world is run by the Lizard People, evil reptiles disguised as humans. (About 4% of the U.S. public apparently believe this.) I couldn’t find anything connecting the reptilian cabal to climate change, but I did come up with a lot of other conspiracy theories. Here’s a sample:
Climate Lockdowns. “A plan by Oxford’s government to use cameras and fines to limit through-traffic in the congested city center and ... Read more ...
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It’s High Time to Ban “Monster Fracking” in California - Legal Planet (Nov 2) |
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Nov 2 · Recently, the New York Times published an important and disturbing expose’ titled, “‘Monster Fracks’ Are Getting Far Bigger. And Far Thirstier.” The Times article focuses on the alarming intersection of three current environmental crises–water supply shortages, groundwater contamination, and excessive greenhouse gas emission levels–that threaten California and other states across the nation.
Fracking (the shorthand term for “hydraulic fracturing”) is a petroleum industry drilling practice designed to extract more oil and gas from underground wells than is possible through conventional drilling practices. Currently, ... Read more ...
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Halloween Ideas for a Changing Planet - Legal Planet (Oct 31) |
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Oct 31 · Children will be roaming the streets tonight dressed as Superheroes, Princesses, and Evil Villains. But really, these invented figures can’t hold a candle to the real ones in our world. Here are some possibilities:
Cruela de Coal. This is an easy make-over of the Disney costume. Simply coat the costume with soot and add a “Coal Kills” sign.
The Sea-Level Witch. Another easy one: just take a Sea Witch costume and wear shoe lifts. OR for the more adult crowd, high heels. Stilts, of course, would be even better.
Buzz Windmill. Another costume conversion – take a Buzz Lightyear costume and glue cardboard turbine blades to the back.
Unfrozen Arctic. For this ... Read more ...
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The Scariest Movie Ever: “President Trump, Part II” - Legal Planet (Oct 30) |
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Oct 30 · Given that Halloween is tomorrow, here’s a frighting story– the tale of what a Trump victory would mean for the future climate. Would a Trump victory be the end of the world? That might be an overstatement. But the result would surely be a surge in carbon emissions, dooming us to even more severe climate change.
The federal government has gotten a late start in cutting US emissions anyway, due to Republican resistance. If we fall further behind, we could blow past any chance of meeting our climate targets. And Trump would also, no doubt, do his best to prevent climate action in other countries.
On Trump’s list of “Day One” actions would certainly be a repeal ... Read more ...
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Livestock Operations Are Responsible for Over Half of California’s Methane Emissions - Why Won’t CARB Regulate Them? - Legal Planet (Oct 26) |
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Oct 26 · At a recent California Air Resources Board (CARB) meeting, a staff member responded to a question about why CARB’s program for reducing emissions from transportation fuels incentivized the capture of methane from landfills so much less than the capture of methane from dairies: “Landfills have a different CI [carbon intensity] score because they are regulated,” the staff member explained. (Timestamp at 2:05:10).
CARB’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) seeks to incentivize the production and sale of alternative, lower emissions transportation fuels in order to displace conventional fossil fuels. To identify which fuels should be promoted, CARB calculates the life cycle greenhouse ... Read more ...
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See You at the Ribbon Cutting - Legal Planet (Oct 26) |
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Oct 26 · “You know, I’ve joined many of you on the groundbreakings . . . And as I told my Republican friends, we’ll even do their districts too. (Laughter.) And I’ll be there for the ribbon cutting. (Laughter.)”
That was President Biden tweaking the GOP members of Congress who had all voted against the Inflation Reduction Act but will be sure to show up for the ribbon cutting to take credit for new projects.
As part of this effort to bring home the benefits of the IRA to Republican districts, Biden planned to visit Lauren Boebert ten days ago, The visit was cancelled at the last minute due to the impending Israeli invasion of Gaza, but we know what Birden would have ... Read more ...
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Speaker Mike Johnson Could Be Disaster in the Making - Legal Planet (Oct 25) |
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Oct 25 · So, the Republicans finally settled on a Speaker: Religious Right activist Mike Johnson. Johnson is a climate denier. In 2017, he said: “The climate is changing, but the question is, is it being caused by natural cycles over the span of the Earth’s history? Or is it changing because we drive SUVs? I don’t believe in the latter.”
Mike Johnson’s record promises little but trouble, not least for the environment. Having spent all of seven years in the House, he has never chaired a House committee. He is the least experienced Speaker in 140 years.
His environmental record is as bad as Jim Jordan’s. His lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters is 2%. In his first ... Read more ...
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Taylor Swift and Climate Change Songs - Legal Planet (Oct 24) |
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Oct 24 · We don’t need Taylor Swift to “fall in love with a climate scientist,” we just wish she’d write a song about the climate crisis.
When the breathless coverage of her relationship with Travis Kelce first boosted ratings for NFL football, some suggested Swift should use her star power for good by “dating a climate scientist.” Though they probably meant well, it’s offensive - misogynist even - to suggest that Taylor Swift has nothing more to contribute to the climate movement than a date. Let’s be real: her talents as a poet, songwriter, performer, and inspiration to millions could be a game changer for messaging around climate actions, like phasing out fossil fuels and holding ... Read more ...
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The New Speaker Nominee and the Environment –Whoops, Never Mind! - Legal Planet (Oct 24) |
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Oct 24 · [First posted at 10:18, revised at 2:10]
The revolving door for Republican GOP nominees continues. Tom Emmer, who was briefly the [ newly picked] Republican nominee for Speaker of the House on Tuesday, is a relative unknown despite having been part of the House Republicans’ leadership team.
Emmer, who grew up in an affluent suburb of Minneapolis, became a lawyer and then state representative. He successfully ran to replace Michele Bachman. If you’ve forgotten about her, she was essentially the Marjorie Taylor Greene of her era.
Emmer’s scores from the League of Conservation Voters are about par for a House Republican: 5% for both the 2022 scores and the ... Read more ...
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California Climate Policy: A Preliminary Report Card - Legal Planet (Oct 23) |
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Oct 23 · We all know that California’s climate policies have led the nation. But how well have these policies actually worked? That’s not as easy to answer as you might think. You have to do some digging to come up with the numbers, and their meaning isn’t always completely clear. If you compare California with the country as a whole, however, it does seem clear that our climate policies have had a real impact on emissions.
What’s the Overall Verdict?
California has done well in terms of total emission reductions – about a 10% reduction from 2009 to 2019. That reduction amounts to roughly 45 million tons of CO2, equivalent to taking ten million cars off the road. ... Read more ...
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Gov. Newsom Goes to China to Talk Climate - Legal Planet (Oct 19) |
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Oct 19 · We’re learning more about what Gov. Gavin Newsom will see, say, and do on his trip to China. All told, Newsom is slated to visit 6 cities in 5 provinces, including Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Shanghai - where he’s signing a new climate agreement. He plans to meet with representatives from the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and the Environment in Beijing, as well as local officials. The trip is entirely focused on climate talks.
Newsom should also do some deep listening, as my colleague Alex Wang wrote in this Op Ed for the Los Angeles Times titled “What California Gov. Gavin Newsom Can Learn from China’s Response to Climate Change.”
Yes, the governor was the talk of the town at ... Read more ...
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Recharge net metering (ReNeM) provides win-win-win for groundwater agency, landowners, & sustainable groundwater management - Legal Planet (Oct 18) |
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Oct 18 · An insidious issue has been growing along the Central Coast and throughout the state of California for decades: groundwater overdraft. In response to this growing threat and 2014 legislation designed to put an end to chronic overdraft, many basins have identified managed aquifer recharge (MAR) as an essential supply-side tool for managing water resources. MAR promotes infiltration using natural or engineered infrastructure and available water, thereby improving water balance.
Distributed MAR is an even newer concept, relying on catchment systems spread throughout a groundwater basin rather than centralized in a single location. However, areas most suitable for MAR––spaces with ... Read more ...
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The Speaker Race and the Environment - Legal Planet (Oct 13) |
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Oct 13 · In what felt like one of the few times I’ve actually been right about a political prediction, I told my wife that Steve Scalise would probably be the GOP’s pick to replace Kevin McCarthy. Sadly, I was only right for about 24 hours. Then Scalise, supposedly the more moderate candidate, dropped out. That left Jim Jordan. Neither would be a plus environmentally, to put it mildly. But Jordan is worse.
Scalise.
Let’s start with Scalise, who apparently still wasn’t conservative enough for the right wing of the party. Even so, there’s little in his record to give cause for happiness among environmentalists, starting with his 4% lifetime score from the League of ... Read more ...
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Nikki Haley & Climate Policy - Legal Planet (Oct 12) |
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Oct 12 · Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign has gained a following. According to the NY Times, Haley’s performance “in front of crowds and in the first two Republican debates - during which she successfully fended off interruptions and delivered pithy, memorable one-liners - has delivered buzz, attention and money.” Unlike Trump, she’s not actively hostile to the very idea of renewable energy. But she shares his love of fossil fuels.
In the first debate, Haley had this to say: “Is climate change real? Yes, it is. But if you want to go and really change the environment, then we need to start telling China and India that they have to lower their emissions. That’s what our ... Read more ...
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One More Key Groundwater Bill Just Became Law - Legal Planet (Oct 12) |
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Oct 12 · Earlier this week the San Francisco Chronicle declared that California’s legislative session would close with just a single bill addressing injustices in the state’s water rights system. Now you can add one more to the list.
Gov. Newsom signed Assembly Bill 779 into law this week. It’s an important step to reforming the state’s murky - often unfair - groundwater adjudication process of settling disputes over water rights.
AB 779 by Assemblymember Lori Wilson aims to level the playing field for small water users and disadvantaged communities, including small farmers and farmers of color. UCLA Law students Adrianne Davies, Owen McAleer and Gabi Rosenfeld helped write the ... Read more ...
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What’s Been Killing U.S. Coal? - Legal Planet (Oct 10) |
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Oct 10 · From 1960 to 2005, coal use grew more or less steadily by 18 million tons per year. It then tread water for a few years and began a steep decline in 2008, going from half of U.S. electricity to about one-fifth today. What happened in the middle of the Bush Administration to halt growth? And what sparked the ensuing plunge in coal use starting with Obama’s presidency?
The decline probably wasn’t due to environmental regulation. The passage of the 1970 Clean Air Act and its major 1990 Amendments don’t show up at all in a graph of coal use. In fact, there was a surge in construction of new coal plants after 1970 due to high electricity demand. Coal began to really plunge in ... Read more ...
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RFK Jr. and Climate Change Conspiracy Theories - Legal Planet (Oct 9) |
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Oct 9 · When an old acquaintance of mine recently shared a series of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. videos on Instagram, I couldn’t resist asking him what was appealing about the long-shot presidential candidate. He said that RFK Jr. would end corporate influence, including when it comes to industries that pollute the environment. RFK, he said, has done more on climate change as an environmental lawyer than Biden ever has. That viewpoint - though fringe - is a problem that we should confront.
RFK Jr., once a leading environmental lawyer who even taught and led a law clinic, is now a danger to climate progress. That’s the case Dan Farber and I make in this Op Ed in the San Francisco Chronicle. ... Read more ...
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The Climate Crisis, the Tribes, and the IRA - Legal Planet (Oct 9) |
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Oct 9 · Five hundred and thirty-one years ago today, Christopher Columbus went ashore at Guanahaní, an island in the Bahamas. That date marked the beginning of an era of European settlement and colonialism, accompanied by widespread destruction of existing American societies.
Today, Native Americans communities face another crisis: climate change. Many tribes are at high risk from climate change. Tribes are especially vulnerable to climate change because they were displaced from their original homes onto lands that were often marginal to begin with and are becoming more challenging due to climate impacts. A 2021 study confirmed what everyone probably already knew: tribes were ... Read more ...
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Reading the Tea Leaves: Biden’s and California’s Vehicle Regs at the D.C. Circuit - Legal Planet (Oct 5) |
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Oct 5 · Transportation is now the source of 28% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, more than the electric power sector. The transportation sector is also a substantial source of nitrogen oxides and particulates, both of which are dangerous to human health. The Biden Administration has taken important regulatory actions bearing on these problems, with others in the pipeline. The fate of these measures depends on three cases argued before the D.C. Circuit in mid-September. To get a better sense of where the court may be heading, I spoke with Sean Donahue, an environmental lawyer who argued one of the cases and was there for the other two oral arguments.
Before starting, here’s a little ... Read more ...
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The Not-So-Good News About Carbon Offsets - Legal Planet (Oct 5) |
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Oct 5 · In case you missed it: there’s some good news about Amazon deforestation continuing to plunge. Jason Gray and I spoke recently about why tropical deforestation is down in Brazil, Colombia, and Indonesia. That’s good news because deforestation of tropical forests is a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions. The World Resources Institute’s Forest Pulse report found that in 2022, emissions from tropical deforestation were equivalent to the annual emissions of India (currently the world’s third largest emitting country). So, to address global climate change, we must better protect tropical forests.
This second installment of our conversation centers on the always confusing, often ... Read more ...
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Germany’s Role in Climate Policy - Legal Planet (Oct 2) |
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Oct 2 · We need to understand the history of climate action as we plan for the future. In terms of climate leadership, Americans tend to think of California. At the global level, however, Germany has its own claim to a leadership role, particularly in its early support for renewable energy. It has helped to shape EU climate policy, while at the same time its own policies were shaped by the EU’s.
Although its track record has some complexities, this timeline of German actions shows just its early and sustained attention to clean energy policy:
1990. The Federal Cabinet adopts its first climate target, a 25-30% cut in carbon emissions by 2005 under 1987 levels. [Note: the ... Read more ...
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An Important Groundwater Bill Lands on the Governor’s Desk - Legal Planet (Sep 27) |
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Sep 27 · Earlier this month, California’s Legislature passed a slate of bills that cover a range of environmental and climate issues. Among those was Assemblymember Lori Wilson’s AB 779, a bill we helped create to improve the groundwater adjudication process for all water users.
Adjudications legally determine groundwater rights but can take years and cost millions of dollars. This hurts all groundwater users, and is especially burdensome for small farmers, farmers of color, and other historically marginalized groundwater users. Assemblymember Wilson, and we, wanted to ensure those communities were not left behind in these crucial proceedings. So as students in UCLA Law’s?California ... Read more ...
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The Overshoot Commission Addresses Geoengineering - Legal Planet (Sep 26) |
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Sep 26 · In this, my third post on the recently released report of the Climate Overshoot Commission, I’ll discuss their treatment of the most challenging and controversial part of their mandate, Solar Geoengineering or Solar Radiation Modification (SRM). As I noted in my introductory post on the Commission, I served as an advisor to the Secretariat and my students in the UCLA International Climate Law and Policy Clinic provided research and analytic support to the Secretariat. The commentary and discussion I’m posting are my own views, not those of the Commission.
As noted previously, the bedrock of the Commission’s charge was to take the prospect of significant climate overshoot and ... Read more ...
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No, There’s No Scientific Conspiracy About Climate Change - Legal Planet (Sep 25) |
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Sep 25 · Among the host of conspiracy theories out there, a perennial one depicts climate science as a global hoax perpetuated by scientists. There are thousands of climate scientists around the world, which is an awful lot of people for a secret conspiracy. But even if there were only forty or fifty, a successful conspiracy of any kind would probably be well outside their capabilities.
I speak as someone who, over the course of my career, has attended hundreds of faculty meetings and even more meetings of faculty committee. I once attended three very divisive two-hour meetings about whether to switch from a 14-week semester with 50-minute classes to a 13-week semester with 55-minute ... Read more ...
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What’s a Major Question? Opinions differ. - Legal Planet (Sep 25) |
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Sep 25 · In West Virginia v. EPA, the Supreme Court used the “major question doctrine” to overturn Obama’s signature climate change regulation. Once an issue reaches a certain level of significance, the Court says, Congress generally would want to make its own decision rather than allowing an agency like EPA to decide.
Scholars have criticized the opinion for its lack of clarity about what makes an issue “major.” I decided to check out the court of appeals opinions after West Virginia to see if this criticism is valid. The short answer is yes.
I found six cases that actually decided the issue. (There were about an equal number of cases where the issue was raised but ... Read more ...
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