The future Governor of Vermont is going to try, and he announced the team that he hopes will design a universal health care program for Vermonters. The vtdigger article states, “Shumlin campaigned on the idea that a centralized, Medicare-style state medical plan would control the skyrocketing cost of health care in part by eliminating duplicative administrative costs. If Shumlin is able to pull it off, Vermont would be the first state in the nation to offer a universal health care benefit to all residents.” I’ve been wondering of late what type of federal waiver this would require, and if that is politically attainable. Any health care law scholars out there with an answer?
December 13, 2010
Will Vermont get a single-payer health care system?
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under PoliticsLeave a Comment
December 13, 2010
December 11, 2010
“Climate Talks End With Modest Deal on Emissions”
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under Climate ChangeLeave a Comment
December 11, 2010
Sweden as Climate Change Leaders
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under Climate Change, Energy, EnvironmentLeave a Comment
I’ve already posted about Sweden’s attempt to lower their carbon footprint through food policy. And while I remain a bit skeptical of some biomass energy sources, this article describes efforts to reduce reliance on fossil fuels for heating in a Swedish city.
December 10, 2010
Environmental Law Faculty Sizes
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under Environment, Vermont Law SchoolLeave a Comment
Bridget Crawford posts over at The Faculty Lounge about the relative size of environmental law faculties at the top environmental law programs in the country. There seems to be an implicit suggestion (otherwise why bother collecting this data) that there may be a relationship between environmental law faculty size and top rankings. I suspect this is the case given that more faculty in an area leads to more student programming, research, public outreach, and helps one potential have more USN&WR votes. I had trouble downloading Bridget’s original data from the post, but her numbers for Vermont Law School are either far too low or slightly too high depending on whether she’s counting tenure-track/tenured faculty only, or wants to also included all full-time faculty that teach and write in the area of environmental law. If it’s the former, Vermont Law School has, by my count, 13 tenure-track/tenured environmental law faculty, but if it’s the latter, the number is at least 32 environmental faculty since we have so many full-time long-term contract environmental faculty in the Environmental Law Center who teach and write in environmental law.
December 9, 2010
EPA Delays Emissions Rules
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under Climate Change, Environment, Law, PoliticsLeave a Comment
See here. This will infuriate many environmentalists, and further outrage Democrats who are already outraged by potential extension of the Bush-era tax cuts. The money quote from the NY Times Green Blog:
“Environmental advocates are furious. They fear a similar delay on the approaching start of one of the most far-reaching regulatory programs in American environmental history, the effort to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. But in a striking turnabout, the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute — which have been anything but friendly to Mr. Obama — are praising his administration.”
December 9, 2010
The Climate Talks: What’s Going on in Cancun?
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under Climate Change, Energy, Environment, PoliticsLeave a Comment
I’ve been reading various articles trying to figure out what have been the successes and failures at COP16 in Cancun so far, and came across this nice summary of happenings so far.
December 9, 2010
WI Gov.-Elect Walker “Derails Economic Development and Jobs with Opposition to Rail”
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under Politics, Transportation1 Comment
I earlier posted about the loss of high-speed rail funds in Ohio and Wisconsin to other states. (At least the funds are still going to rail rather than roads.) This post’s title quote is the title this press release from Milwaukee County Clerk Joseph Czarnezki criticizing Wisconsin’s Governor-elect for stopping high-speed rail in Wisconsin. (It seems I agree a lot more with my father as an adult than I suspect I did as a child.) The money quote in the press release:
“Governor-Elect Walker has kicked Wisconsin taxpayers in the caboose by sending our hard earned tax dollars to other states.”
UPDATE: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a long article detailing the redistribution of the rail funds. (At least some of the money is coming to Vermont…I vote for high speed rail from Montpelier to NYC, or any rail from Vermont to Boston.)
UPDATE 2: Train-maker to pull out of Milwaukee.
December 9, 2010
Feds to pull WI and OH High Speed Rail Money
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under Politics, Transportation1 Comment
Mere moments ago, I posted about the absurd railroad politics in Wisconsin and Ohio. Now this: “Sources say feds to pull, redistribute state’s high-speed rail money.” The money quote:
“Congressional sources say the Obama administration is taking $1.2 billion in high-speed rail money away from Ohio and Wisconsin and awarding it to projects in other states. People familiar with the grants say the Department of Transportation will announce Thursday that California, Illinois and New York, among other states, will get a share of the funds. Republican governors opposed to high-speed rail were elected in Ohio and Wisconsin in November. They have promised to kill projects in their states.”
That’s right folks, the states will now have to pay back the feds, will lose high-speed rail infrastructure, and will lose the jobs created by construction, maintenance, and ridership, and might lose the manufacturing jobs for making the trains.
December 9, 2010
JASON J. CZARNEZKI 