Environmental Law

In The News (September 19)

By Dennis Pfaff and Kevin Livingston, Editors

• A California state appeals court has rejected a challenge by environmentalists to the operations of wind farms in that state, but the ruling was more narrow than a lower court's earlier decision also throwing out the case. In contrast to the trial court, the 1st District Court of Appeal held that private groups do have the right to sue to protect wildlife, such as birds, under the "public trust" doctrine but that such cases should be brought against the responsible government agencies, including the county. The challengers instead had sued the private companies that own and operate the turbines. By the way, it's now too late to sue the government; from the opinion.
• Australia wants to become the world hub for carbon capture technology and along those lines its government has announed its setting up a new research institute, reports Reuters.
• But on the other side of the world, an even larger effort could be shaping up, as a proposal from the European Parliament could make available hundreds of millions of carbon credits valued at $14 billion, to be awarded to power plants that capture and store carbon dioxide, from Clean Edge News. 
• Meanwhile, developers are looking at installing huge wind farms off the coast of France, with a combined capacity of more than 1,100 megawatts, according to New Energy Finance, from Clean Edge News. 
• The U.S. Department of Energy will invest up to $7.3 million in 14 research projects for advanced water power technologies, including hydropower, wave, tidal, and ocean thermal energy conversion, according to a department publication. 
• It may be scary, recessionary times in certain parts of the economy but the solar boom in the Southwest is producing a big demand for ... wildlife biologists, reports Fortune.
• Chicago's mayor has unveiled what might be the most aggressive plan of any major American city to reduce heat-trapping gases, reports The New York Times.
• A federal minerals agency at the center of a drugs-and-sex scandal may also be having problems keeping track of how much energy companies are extracting from public lands, the flawed accounting system possibly costing taxpayers billions, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. The Denver Post and The New York Times also weigh in with additional stories following up on the travails at the Minerals Management Service. 
• Consolidation could be the name of the game in the energy industry, and the renewable sector isn't immune and might actually be "coming of age," suggests the Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital, with reporting from the newspaper.  

Full post as published by Climate Law Update on September 19, 2008 (boomark / email).