ENVIRONMENTAL LEGAL BLOGS

Montana House of Representatives Wrestles Control Of Greenhouse Gas Regulation Away From EPA – South Texas Tenth Amendment Center

The Montana House of Representatives is taking control of greenhouse gas regulation from the federal government.

By a vote of 67-33, Rep. Joe Read’s (R-Ronan) Bill-550, “An Act Prohibiting The State From Implementing Any Federal Greenhouse Gas Regulatory Program…,” passed the Montana House and is on its way to the Senate.

via southtexas.tenthamendmentcenter.com

Robb in pledge to ditch carbon tax - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Opposition frontbencher Andrew Robb says the Coalition will repeal the Government's carbon tax if it wins the next election.

The Opposition has been on the attack over the tax since Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced it on Thursday, but until now had stopped short of saying the Coalition would repeal the scheme.

But Mr Robb says the Coalition will keep the issue front and centre until the next election and will scrap it if re-elected.

via www.abc.net.au

Sun storm may be 'global Katrina' - Telegraph

Professor Sir John Beddington, the Government's chief scientist, said that the Sun was waking up from a quiet period and was likely to throw a lot more "space weather" at the Earth.

Also, the world was increasingly vulnerable to damage because of our dependence on satellites, communication networks and computer devices.

via www.telegraph.co.uk

Parnell claims administration openly hostile to oil states: Gov. Sean Parnell | Alaska news at adn.com

In a speech at the National Press Club, the Republican governor called the federal government "openly hostile" to oil-producing states, particularly for the delays in allowing Shell to drill exploratory wells on leases off Alaska's northern coast that the company purchased in 2008.

"If it looks like a moratorium and walks like a moratorium ... maybe it is," said Parnell, who is in Washington this weekend for the National Governor's Association winter meeting.

Parnell said there's a direct link between the economic recovery and the failure to use Alaska's oil reserves as a national security buffer against the uncertainty in Libya and other oil-producing countries in the Middle East. Higher gasoline prices could harm any economic recovery, Parnell said.

"This is the moment our government must re-examine its 'no new wells' policy when it comes to oil exploration and development here at home," Parnell said. "The U.S. foolishly imports more than 63 percent of our oil. That leaves us vulnerable to the economic shock of disruption of these oil supplies and it drives down that economic recovery."

via www.adn.com

This article presents pro's and con's about Gov. Parnell's argument. Especially see the commetns at the bottom of the article (some of the comments are the ususal ad hominem attacks and contribute nothing to the post-Giffords shooting "civility" cries we hear about so much from the media).

RIGZONE - Salazar: Won't Bow to Political Pressure to Restart Gulf Deepwater Drilling

nterior Secretary Ken Salazar said that U.S. regulators would not bow to political pressure to restart deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico before they are certain the oil-and-gas industry is capable of containing an oil spill like the one that followed last BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Salazar and Michael Bromwich--the head of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which oversees offshore drilling--were in Houston Friday to meet with oil industry executives to assess the spill-containment systems they have developed in the wake of nation's worst-ever marine oil spill.

via rigzone.com

    The longer you wait, gentlemen, the mroe painful it's gfoing to be when mid-east oil becomes the possession of hostile regimes. 

    Also, why is there not much discussion about the fact that a federal judge ruled the moratorium illegal and yet the moratorium persists?

SEC Charges Seven in Global Warming Pump-and-Dump Scheme

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a group of seven individuals who perpetrated a fraudulent pump-and-dump scheme in the stock of a sham company that purported to provide products and services to fight global warming.

(Excerpt) Read more at sec.gov ...

Solar Flare Interferes With Radio, But No Big Auroras - International Business Times

The largest solar flare in several years has disrupted some communications, though it was not in the right position to create auroral displays visible from lower latitudes.

via hken.ibtimes.com

Greenpeace co-founder has second thoughts--NEWS WEEKLY

Canadian environmentalist, Dr Patrick Moore, who helped found Greenpeace, says he left the organisation because it became "increasingly senseless as it adopted an agenda that was anti-science, anti-business, and downright anti-human".

In a hard-hitting article for The Vancouver Sun (January 7, 2011) he said he joined Greenpeace "before it was even called by that name".

Moore went on to play a key role in blocking American and French nuclear testing in the Pacific, and helped launch campaigns against whaling, baby seal hunting, driftnet fishing, and toxic-waste dumping.

He said: "Our campaigns were highly successful at changing opinions and energising the public. Through the power of the media and the people, we were steadily influencing government policies and forcing industries to clean up their acts. We had achieved the support of the majority of people in the industrialised democracies.

"By 1982, Greenpeace had grown into a full-fledged international movement with offices and staff around the world. We were bringing in $100 million a year in donations and half a dozen campaigns were occurring simultaneously."

But just as Greenpeace was moving into full stride, Moore began having doubts.

Read more at http://www.newsweekly.com.au/articles/2011feb05_e.html

Republicans attempt to defund 'nefarious' global warming research group - The Hill's Floor Action

Republicans put forth an amendment late Friday night that would remove American funding for a prominent intergovernmental body tasked with exploring the effects of climate change.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) drew a firestorm of criticism in 2009 when a hacker revealed a series of emails among some of the organization’s scientists that suggested they had suppressed dissenting work and excluded it from a 2002 panel report.

via thehill.com

9th Circuit permits challenge to EPA Clean Water Act decision

On February 3, 2011, a federal 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals panel reversed a US District Court’s finding that a timber company could not challenge an EPA decision to keep a creek near Eureka, California listed as an “impaired water body” under the Clean Water Act.  Barnum Timber Co. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency, et al., Case No. 08-17715.

            Among other things, the timber company contended that public perception of EPA’s “onerous regulation” of the company’s property in the impaired water body area in and of itself lessens the value of the property. This perception is apparently because the use of the creek for transport of timber from the property could be threatened by EPA restrictions on the use of the creek.  As expressed in an expert declaration filed by the timber company:  “The public has ready access to the Section 303(d) listings, including the listing of Redwood Creek. When a listing occurs, the public perceives—whether accurately or not—that the subject property will be subject to additional and onerous regulation. . . . In this case, the market reaction is such as to deem [the company’s] property to be devalued because of the § 303(d) listing.”

               The District Court had rejected this market devaluation argument; but the appellate Court found this market devaluation argument legally sufficient, at least for pleading purposes, to confer standing on the company to challenge the EPA’s decision to keep the creek under Clean Water Act regulation.  Thus, the 9^th Circuit has potentially opened the door wider than before to challenges to EPA regulation under the Act.

 

Originally wirtten for my column in Valley News Group.