July 30, 2010
Via Political Wire’s Quote of the Day:
“I think they should name it something better. The top ends up flatter, but we’re not talking about Mount Everest. We’re talking about these little knobby hills that are everywhere out here.”
— Kentucky U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul (R), in an interview with Details magazine, on mountain top removal coal mining, noting many people “would say the land is of enhanced value, because now you can build on it.”
July 29, 2010
In a 2003 issue of Science magazine, Tulane Law School Professor Oliver Houck wrote about the troubled marriage between law and science. Simply put, law seeks certainty and rules, while science deals with nuanced and complex data that is far from absolute.
Climate chage now is arguably more a political issue than a legal or scientific one, at least to the extent nations struggle with whether they should regulate carbon. In my College Magazine of the University of Chicago, The Core, I came across the winning essay of the John Crear Foundation Science Writing Prize for College Students entitled “Karl Popper and Antartic Ice: The Climate Debate and Its Problems.” It is certainly worth a read for it illustrates that difficulty that politics (as law) have in dealing with science.
July 27, 2010
The Times has a nice article about the problems with using GDP as a measure of success. This has always been the case in China, which is why city officials in Guangzhou encouraged the purchase of private automobiles to improve/increase production in Guangdong Province, even though Guangzhou is highly polluted and has one of the world’s best subway systems. In addition to economic measures, the Chinese government is finally beginning to use environmental quality measures (e.g., air quality) to evaluate local officials.
July 27, 2010
Yesterday my family and I hiked up to the top of Big Deer Mountain in Vermont’s New Discovery State Park (which is in Groton State Forest), followed by swimming at Boulder Beach. I’d highly recommend the hike for kids; mostly flat and dry followed by a fun uphill rock climb.
State Parks are a fantastic resource. My Natural Resources Law course includes a lot of discussion about National Parks, and we have an annual field trip to Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park in Woodstock, Vermont (the only national park devoted to America’s conservation history). But this year, I’m going to spend some time on the development of state parks, and how states have determined how to best protect these resources and for what purposes.
July 26, 2010
I was a law clerk at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) right after the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case U.S. Army Corps of Engineers v. Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County (known as SWANCC). In an interpretation of the Clean Water Act, the case stripped the federal government of its jurisdiction over many wetlands in the United States, leaving them subject to development and fill. Wisconsin decided to assert state jurisdiction over these wetlands no longer subject to federal jurisdiction, and I helped to play a role drafting the administrative code that implemented the new Wisconsin Statute (2001 WI Act 6).
While Wisonsin has had a fairly progressive tradition in protecting wetlands, the struggle has been in getting other states to protect wetlands. (See this article.) My former colleague at WDNR just sent me info on a program from the Wisconsin Wetland Association that seeks to raise awareness about the importance of wetlands. Called “Wetlands Gems,” they’ve published an awesome book that beautifully identifies and describes that best wetlands in Wisconsin. I think other states would be smart to compile similar books.
July 24, 2010
I’m watching the movie Food Inc. while writing this post. The movie provides more examples of how America’s industrial food system is bad for both human health and environmental health.
Part of the movie discusses “Kevin’s Law,” H.R. 3160, a bill that never became law that would give the USDA greater authority to regulate the meat and poultry industry to help stop the spread of pathogens that result from CAFOs (concentrated animal feed operations) and factory processing.
The Farm Bill also plays a role in impacting American’s diet by subsidizing the production of cheap commodity grain like corn. This means that industrially produced food, fast food, and snack foods are often cheaper than fresh fruits and vegetables. If you’re interested in learning more, read the articles Corn, Carbon and Conservation: Rethinking U.S. Agricultural Policy in a Changing Global Environment by Florida Law Professor Mary Jane Angelo and Paying the Farm Bill: How One Statute Has Radically Degraded the Natural Environment and How a Newfound Emphasis on Sustainability is the Key to Reviving the Ecosystem by Bill Eubanks.
If academic articles are not to your taste, try reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan.
July 23, 2010
Via Politico Playbook:
THE AGENDA — “Kerry Says Democrats May Take Broad Climate Bill After Election,” by Bloomberg’s Lisa Lerer and Viola Gienger: “Senator John Kerry said Democrats may take up his comprehensive climate-change bill in a lame-duck session after the November elections, while calling on President Barack Obama to escalate his advocacy for the measure. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday introduced a more limited energy bill that doesn’t include a cap on greenhouse gas emissions, citing the lack of support for a broader bill. The bigger measure ‘is not dead,’ Kerry said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s ‘Political Capital With Al Hunt.’ ‘If it is after the election, it may well be that some members are free and liberated and feeling that they can take a risk or do something.’”
July 22, 2010
Reports Political Wire: Senate Democrats said they “had abandoned hope of passing a comprehensive energy bill this summer and would pursue a more limited measure focused primarily on responding the Gulf oil spill and including some tightening of energy efficiency standards,” the New York Times reports. Explained Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: “We don’t have a single Republican to work with us.
The question I have is whether this is a good or bad thing. Absent Congressional legislation, pursuant to the Supreme Court case of Mass. v. EPA, and in light of the EPA’s “endangerment finding” under the Clean Air Act that identifies greenhouses gases as an air pollutant, EPA regulation of carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act could, if the Obama administration chooses to push it, be far more environmentally successful than any climate change legislation that passes Congress. But how far is Obama willing to go?
July 22, 2010
Perhaps one of the best things about being a faculty member at Vermont Law School is my weekly afternoon hike to Kent’s Ledge. Without ever needing to get in a car, I walk directly from my office to the top of Kent’s Ledge. It’s about 1.5-2 hours roundtrip.
July 20, 2010
The Wall Street Journal reports that China has become the world’s top enery user, surpassing the United States. China has already passed the U.S. in overall greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time China is reluctant to accept its status as a economic and polluting powerhouse.
Let me start out by stating that the United States has failed in its leadership to develop international climate change policy. And the Chinese government and Chinese scholars often point this out. At the same time, China, in some sense, has not been willing to accept its role as a global leader. At a Roundtable discusion in China that I participated in with Chinese scholars, it was clear that, for strategic purposes, China wants to be seen as the leader of the developing world (i.e., the king of the BASIC countries-Brazil, South Africa, India, China), but, at least on the environmental front, does not want to have the same level of responsibility as the developed world especially the U.S. The problem is that on other accounts China deeply desires to a be superpower–see, e.g., Olympics, World Expo, UN Security Council. The question is whether China’s dramatic rise comes with more responsiblity. This concern might be why my Chinese colleagues and students often downplayed or denied that China is overtaking Japan as world’s second largest economy.
(Note: There is a large cultural aspect to this as well in terms of comfort level with accepting and announcing one’s own success, and choosing to impose one’s value systems on others. Chinese and U.S. citizens and foreign policy are culturally different in this way.)
JASON J. CZARNEZKI 