- “Maryland To Cut Estate Tax As Blue States Fall In Line” [Ashlea Ebeling, Forbes]
- Why is the state doling out tax credits to the successful House of Cards TV series? [David Boaz, Cato]
- Union boon at kids’ expense: assembly moves to impose prevailing-wage scheme on school construction [Carroll County Times, Maryland Reporter]
- Bill appears to have stalled: “Proposed Maryland Law Could Lead to Confiscation Of Guns from Noncomplying Folks with Criminal Records” [Brian Doherty, Reason, HB0623]
- “HHS Inspector General To Examine Maryland’s Troubled Health Exchange” [Kaiser Health News]
- Bill to prohibit fracking reported unfavorably by environmental committee, but opponents set sights on blocking LNG terminal at Cove Point in Calvert County, compressor at Myersville in Frederick County [MLW; Sean Hackbarth, US Chamber; Frederick News Post]
- “Maryland politicians already reneging on pension reforms” [Steve Malanga, Public Sector Inc.]
Posts Tagged ‘oil industry’
Environment roundup
- California officials profess surprise: fracking’s been going on for decades in their state [Coyote]
- Taxpayers fund Long Island Soundkeeper enviro group, affiliated with RFK Jr.’s Waterkeeper network, and a Connecticut state lawmaker does rather nicely out of that [Raising Hale]
- Backgrounder on Louisiana coastal erosion suit [New Orleans Times-Picayune] “Lawsuit Blaming Oil Companies For Wetland Loss Might As Well Blame The Plaintiffs” [Daniel Fisher, Forbes]
- US ties for worst of 25 countries when it comes to delay in mining permits [Sharon Koss, NTU] “Number One in DataMining” [@sonodoc99]
- “BP Is Rapidly Becoming One Giant Law Firm” [Paul Barrett, Bloomberg Business Week]
- “Mann v. Steyn — Mann wins round one” [Adler]
- An insider’s view of EPA and how it uses power [Brent Fewell]
Louisiana flood-protection board to sue oil companies
Saltwater incursion and wetlands loss associated with industrial use of coastal Louisiana have worsened the exposure of populated areas to flooding, according to official reports and scientific studies. Now a flood protection board representing much of the New Orleans area is suing energy companies demanding a contribution of “billions” of dollars, though its spokesman acknowledges that government actions were also responsible for weakening the natural environmental buffer. John Schwartz quotes me in his New York Times report today, though without the chance to study the suit’s contentions it was hard for me to make any more than the most preliminary observations.
P.S. More details emerge in an expanded version of the story as well as in a Thursday Washington Post report. The agency is suing “about 100” energy companies. Canal construction and other actions taken by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were important contributors to the environmental losses, but principles of sovereign immunity restrict suits against the Corps. Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said “that the levee agency had usurped his authority and that the suit would enrich trial lawyers” and demanded that the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority “cancel contracts with the four law firms that had agreed to handle the case on a contingency basis.”
Environmental roundup
- When government taking of land deprives a community association of a stream of income, is that a taking? [Ilya Shapiro and Trevor Burrus on Mariner’s Cove Townhomes Association v. U.S.; Tabarrok, Somin] “The Takings Clause Has No Expiration Date” [Burrus on Mehaffy v. U.S.] Plot of beloved Australian film The Castle hinges on eminent domain [Wikipedia via Jon Marco, WhatCulture]
- Once-hot Oil Drum blog signs off: “Peak oil arguments seem to have peaked well before oil and gas supplies.” [Jonathan Adler, Mark Perry, Mark Mills]
- Sorting out myths about fracking [Ronald Bailey] “DOE study: Fracking chemicals didn’t taint water” [Pennsylvania; AP]
- More about consent decrees between regulatory agencies and the environmental groups that sue them [Chris Prandoni/Capital Research Center, earlier]
- Debunking a study on genetically modified pig feed [Mark Lynas]
- Is the EPA even-handed as between FOIA requests from left and right? (part II) [Jillian Kay Melchior, earlier]
- D.C. scales back, but doesn’t abolish, minimum parking requirements for new in-town development, criticized by New Urbanists and some libertarians alike [Greater Greater Washington]
Autos roundup
- Abuse of out-of-state motorists an issue: “The Perils of Policing for Profit: Why Tennessee should reform its civil asset forfeiture laws” [Beacon Center, earlier]
- Manhattan: “Lawyer takes plea in $279M no-fault auto insurance fraud case” [ABA Journal]
- “AAA Warns of ‘Dangerous’ Free Market in Parking Spaces” [Matt Yglesias, Slate via Tim Carney]
- Negotiated rates on auto loans at dealerships might violate Obama administration’s disparate-impact guidelines [Roger Clegg]
- Not great for Law dot com’s credibility: Corp Counsel mag throws in with “sudden acceleration” goofery; and here’s an effort to gear up acceleration claims against Ford too.
- Ethanol group menaces Phillips with antitrust charge unless it alters franchiser rule [Alexander Cohen, Atlas]
- “Two researchers call for installing technology to disable cellphones in moving cars” [L.A.Times via Fair Warning]
Environment roundup
- Doughnut oil and the environment: NYT misses a story of unintended consequences [Ira Stoll, SmarterTimes]
- N.C.: “Guy Who Runs Wilderness Camp Told to Install Sprinklers, Use County Approved Lumber” [Katherine Mangu-Ward]
- “With Proposed Policy Change, EPA Fully Embraces Role of ‘Environmental Justice’ Advocate” [Cory Andrews, WLF]
- “While the taxes… are irritating, what has really killed my interest in expanding in California is the regulatory burden.” [Coyote on SLOLeaks blog; another California Coastal Commission horror story]
- Natural crop breeding = safe, biotech-assisted breeding = unsafe? Tale of the toxic potato teaches otherwise [Maggie Koerth-Baker, BoingBoing] (broken link fixed now)
- Peak Oil? Welcome instead to Trough Oil, as titanic new fossil fuel supplies begin coming online [Andrew Sullivan]
- Deregulation of accessory dwellings is a reform both free-marketeers and New Urbanists in search of density can get behind [David Alpert, Greater Greater Washington]
Next, Col. Sanders’ grandkids bankroll PETA
Report: Rockefeller family foundations have given millions to anti-fossil-fuel activist Bill McKibben [Vivian Krause, Financial Post (Canada)]
Environment roundup
- Bill McKibben et al press Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against energy producers, hint at direct action [Andrew Sullivan]
- Billion-dollar compensation program may be unstoppable, though: “Cancer Not Increased by Exposure to World Trade Center 9/11 Attack Debris” [Ronald Bailey, Ted Frank/PoL, earlier here, here, here, here, etc.]
- “EPA cries ‘uncle’ in face of lawsuit, withdraws threat against W.Va. chicken farmer” [David Martosko, Daily Caller]
- Jim Manzi finds lead-and-crime thesis less “blindingly obvious” than does Kevin Drum [NRO, and Drum’s response]
- In state’s dispute with EPA, plenty of Virginia moderates think federal agency has overreached [A. Barton Hinkle, Richmond Times-Dispatch]
- “Lawsuits seek to generate “awareness” of global warming, costs states a bundle” [@andrewmgrossman on Laurence Hurley/EENews story; Michael Greve/Liberty and Law]
- EPA’s departing Jackson has been poster child for “we can’t wait” governance approach [Jim Huffman]
Environment roundup
- Climate prof Michael Mann sues critics including National Review, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Mark Steyn, and Rand Simberg [Ken at Popehat, Scientific American, Ted Frank (noting Ars Technica’s fair-weather disapproval of SLAPP suits), Adler and more]
- California polls show once-massive support for Prop 37 ebbing away; is there any major newspaper in the state that likes the measure? [L.A. Times, San Jose Mercury News, San Diego U-T; earlier here, here, etc.] Views of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on the general question of genetic modification labeling [statement, PDF] Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution refutes predictably lame views of Mark Bittman and Michael Pollan (stance tactfully assessed as “mood affiliation”) and discusses the impact on pesticide use with Greg Conko; more from WLF. At least Prop 37 has Michelle Lerach, hmmm [No on 37]
- “So the two technologies most reliably and stridently opposed by the environmental movement—genetic modification and fracking—have been the two technologies that most reliably cut carbon emissions.” [Matt Ridley, WSJ]
- “Texas v. EPA Litigation Scorecard” [Josiah Neeley, Texas Public Policy Foundation, PDF]
- High-visibility public chemophobe Nicholas Kristof turns his garish and buzzing searchlight on formaldehyde [Angela Logomasini, CEI]
- Per its terms, new ordinance in Yellow Springs, Ohio, “recognizes the legally enforceable Rights of Nature to exist and flourish. Residents of the village shall possess legal standing to enforce those rights on behalf of natural communities and ecosystems.” [Wesley Smith, NRO]
- How EPA regulates without rulemaking: sue-and-settle, guidance documents, emergency powers [Ryan Young and Wayne Crews, CEI]
Environment roundup
- Behind a YouTube anti-fracking video labeled “Hydraulic Fracturing turns gardenhose to flamethrower,” there’s quite a story [Star-Telegram]
- BPA-endocrine alarms: “Why Nick Kristof’s Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Us All” [Trevor Butterworth, Forbes]
- Incy wincy spider shuts down $15 million construction project [Fox]
- Regulatory Balkanization of gasoline market worsens price volatility [Morriss/Boudreaux via David Henderson; more, WSJ] Will CAFE sink GM? [Holman Jenkins via same]
- “After a fire at a massive oil plant in California, residents want compensation. But it’s not that easy” [Above the Law]
- “Dispatches from the Duke Conference on ‘Conservative Visions of Our Environmental Future'” [Jonathan Adler]
- Broadway, dark? “The high cost of closing Indian Point” [Lesser & Bryce, NYP]