Environmental Law

In The News (October 13)

By Dennis Pfaff and Kevin Livingston, Editors

• Here's another journalistic take on the possible disconnect between the world's financial woes and efforts to deal with climate change, with environmentalists worried that economy trumps the green movement, from the San Francisco Chronicle.
• In a report that would seem to bolster that warning, the fallout from the financial crisis may claim as a casualty Europe's plans to tackle climate change, as the continent begins to realize the costs of environmental legislation, according to this posting from the Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital.
• Then again, here's this analysis, in which a top U.N. climate official suggests that the global credit crisis could hasten countries' efforts to create "green growth" industries by revamping the financial system behind them -- if governments help poor countries, according to Reuters.
• An expert talks about how research into the technology of burying carbon dioxide from coal-fired is picking up, as reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
• Some out-of-the-climate thinking from British and American researchers predicts some fairly bizarre scenarios for a warmer world, including an influx of people to Antarctica, and Olympics held only in cyberspace, according to this dispatch from Reuters.
• Leading trade groups representing some of the world's largest electricity utilities have formed an international partnership to promote advanced technologies to lower carbon emissions, with nuclear power, "advanced" coal and renewables, from a statement issued by the groups, including Edison Electric Institute.
• A leading environmental group lauds California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for making 2008 a "banner year" for global warming legislation; however, the organization criticizes his veto of a bill to clean up air pollution from ports, in a statement from the Natural Resources Defense Council.
• The next president will have make reform of the entire food system one of his highest priorities, or else will not be able to make significant progress on other huge issues, such as health care, energy independence or climate change, argues the author of this New York Times Magazine article. 
• Sewage treatment plants could be turned into power-generating stations, yet that potential is going largely untapped, says a private energy expert, as reported by the Kitsap (Washington) Sun.
• Climate change research -- it can be a dangerous and really cold business, as evidenced by the experiences of one Greenland ice sheet expert, in this report from the Toledo Blade.
• A lot of Wisconsin's ethanol plants have faced enforcement actions from state regulators for various alleged environmental violations, ranging from minor to more significant; it's a rate that one state officials calls unusual, according to the Janesville (Wisconsin) Gazette.

Full post as published by Climate Law Update on October 13, 2008 (boomark / email).