Environmental Law

In The News (September 30)

By Dennis Pfaff and Kevin Livingston, Editors

• California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed what is believed to be the nation's first bill intended to curb greenhouse gas emissions via improved land-use planning to combat urban sprawl, according to a statement from the governor. Schwarzenegger said the new law takes the fight against global warming "to a whole new level." Environmentalists, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, lauded Schwarzenegger's action. The measure, which as Climate Law Update reported, won final approval in the Legislature about a month ago, has as a key goal limiting the amount of time Californians spend in their cars commuting to and from work and conducting errands. One way it does so is by giving financial incentives for metropolitan planners to devise growth blueprints that reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases.
• They're using the "s" word -- for "stalemate" -- to describe what's going on in Congress to extend expiring tax incentives for renewable energy, which themselves aren't controversial but are caught up in a bigger fight over taxes, as reported by The New York Times. 
• The number of polluted "dead zones" in the world's oceans is rising fast and coastal fish stocks are more vulnerable to collapse than previously feared -- and the problem may have links to global warming, according to a scientific study cited in this Reuters dispatch.
• Federal environmental officials have set radiation standards for the planned nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, and among other things they require looking at the effects of climate change, earthquakes, volcanoes, and corrosion of the waste packages over a million years, according to a statement from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
• A key European Union vote on curbing carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles ended in chaos last week, but a consensus is now emerging in favor of swiftly enforced limits and tight controls on potential loopholes, says this Reuters analysis.
• Global financial turmoil will make it harder for international partners to reach important agreements on climate change in the coming months, according to Germany's foreign minister, as reported by Reuters.
• The founder of Sun Microsystems who's now a technology entrepreneur, says he’s found a way to perhaps triple the energy yield of photovoltaic solar systems, as reported by Green Inc., a blog at The New York Times. 
   

Full post as published by Climate Law Update on September 30, 2008 (boomark / email).