Happy Passover!
To those who celebrate: L'Shana ha'ba b'Yerushalyim haShelaimah v'haBenuyah! Next Year in Jerusalem!
EPA GHG Regulations - This Is Huge.
EPA today took action to aggressively advance the Administration's regulatory agenda and expand its control over the economy, despite Congress, and in defiance of the many lawsuits challenging the predicate endangerment determination. EPA regulatory Notice is 115 pages long. It is accompanied by a six page explanatory Fact Sheet. The Notice is tremendously significant with far-reaching consequences and requires careful analysis. What becomes immediately clear is that the Fact Sheet does not capture the economy-wide scope and ramifications of EPA's actions. According to EPA, Clean Air Act PSD permit requirements for cars, light trucks and what EPA calls "larger emitting facilities", i.e., power plants, refineries, large office and apartment buildings, factories, and, if environmental groups are successful in their litigation strategy, potentially all other sources emitting more than 300 tons of CO2 a year, will be triggered in January 2011.
More to follow in a couple days.
What Is EPA Doing? The Assault On Nanotechnology Continues
EPA’s assault against nanotechnology seems to be getting serious. The minutes of a recent EPA Scientifi
c Advisory Panel (SAP) review of silver nanomaterials, commonly used due to their anti-microbial affect, seem to indicate EPA intends to slow down or even stop commercial use of this product. The SAP review comes against the backdrop of an ongoing campaign by anti-technology pressure groups to stop the use of silver and other nanomaterials.
However, given the absence of evidence that these materials pose any meaningful human health or environmental risk, EPA's actions are difficult to understand. To begin with, the SAP conceded an absence of data suggesting silver ions from silver nanomaterials behave differently than silver ions from any other source. Yet, it assumed without data the rate of silver ion production, as well as the distribution of silver in tissue, “may differ substantially” between silver nanomaterials and other forms of silver. As one industry group points out, these assumption are not well-founded. Even so, the SAP concluded “most existing models are not appropriate for use with silver nanomaterials and will not accurately predict nanosilver exposure scenarios.” Significantly, the SAP used the absence of scientific data as justification for implementation of an onerous and costly testing regime that may deter FIFRA nanopesticide registrants.
Continue Reading...Latest On The KGI Energy Bill
Here are the latest rumors about the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman draft Senate energy bill.
- KGL plan to release their bill by the week of Earth Day, which is April 22.
- The bill will tax energy in multiple ways. The taxes will be heavy. To ease the pain somewhat, between 50-60 percent of the revenue taken by the government will be re-circulated back to the taxpayer/consumer.
- Contrary to earlier reports, there will not be much if any new off-shore drilling, due to Democrat opposition. "Drill here, drill now" seems dead.
- There is a major fight over drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus shale. This issue is still up in the air, but the enviros supposedly have vowed to do "whatever it takes to put drilling on the shelf."
- One of the key issues – division of energy rights, likely in the form of emission allocations, among different industries – is being deferred until the other sections of the bill are agreed. However, the KGL bill accepts the proposition that the government should decide much energy consumers, and different sectors of the economy, may properly consume.
- Right now, the “bipartisan” aspect of the Bill seems confined to increased support for the nuclear industry.
Of course, the draft bill is not final, much less law. And these are just rumors.
Could It Be Cap And Trade Lives?
In late February, cap and trade was declared dead. The blogosphere then began buzzing with alternatives, revolving around Senators Graham, Kerry, and Lieberman's revamp of Waxman-Markey and the Cantwell-Collins CLEAR bill, S.2877. But now, in the wake of health care, there are rumors the White House has put cap and trade back on the table confident it has the power to jam at least one more massive government program through Congress prior to the November elections.
Cap and trade's Zombie resurrection is no miracle. Cap and trade has some quiet Republican support, and might prove to be an easier "get" than either financial system reform or a comprehensive immigration over-haul, the other two big Obama initiatives. Stay tuned.
Supremes Deny Cert In Seventh Circuit Case Limiting Citizen Suit Standing
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a cert petition in the environmental citizen suit case of Pollack v. United States, 577 F.3d 736 (7th Cir. 2009). The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeal held the plaintiff lacked standing to sue for remediation of a government gun range because he failed to demonstrate actual harm due to alleged contamination.
Environmental advocacy groups historically have used citizen suits in lieu of legislation to advance policy goals. In many cases, these policy suits are based on very broad and non-specific allegations of harm, or even mere fears of potential harm. Pollack, however, holds that “Without some support for the assertion that he will be affected by the drift of polluted sediment or water, [plaintiff] has not shown that he has standing to pursue this lawsuit.”
In many citizen suit cases, proof of standing is tantamount to a victory on the merits. Pollack is significant because it places genuine scientific limits standing and, by extension, environmental citizen suits generally. However, as the concurring opinion points out, “the Supreme Court's case law on this subject is both unclear in purpose and extraordinarily difficult to reconcile." Consequently, Pollack's long term fate is unclear. For now, at least, Pollack provides GHG emitters with a defense against the environmental groups' promised citizen suit litigation assault.
