Links, 3-28-12

Here's an overview of what the Supreme Court will hear about health care this week.  The hearings represent a "moment of truth" for health care reform.  Among other things, the court will decide what parts of the health care law, if any, can stand if the mandate is unconstitutional.  The federal government is arguing that they cannot require insurers to accept all applicants or cover pre-existing conditions without the mandate.  Here's an update on what's happened the past two days.


In other health news, hospitals and other medical providers charge different users and insurers vastly different amounts for the same procedures.

Romney may be the consensus Republican candidate now, but that doesn't mean everybody is okay with that.  Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that Romney needs to check his watch from time to time and realize "it is 2012, not the mid-1970s".  And Rick Santorum said that Romney was the "worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama" on the issue of health care.

Newt Gingrich, meanwhile, is scaling back his campaign -- firing one-third of his staff and replacing his campaign manager


The Economist reports that nudges are catching on around the world.

Climatologists report that the Earth is on the brink of crossing a tipping point past which global warming will be irreversible.

The electric car seems to be losing steam.

THE future would appear bright for the electric car. Gasoline prices are high. The government is spending billions on battery technology. Auto companies are preparing to roll out a dozen new electrified models. Concern is growing about the climate impacts of burning oil. And tough new fuel economy standards are looming.
Yet the state of the electric car is dismal, the victim of hyped expectations, technological flops, high costs and a hostile political climate. General Motors has temporarily suspended production of the plug-in electric Chevy Volt because of low sales. Nissan’s all-electric Leaf is struggling in the market. A number of start-up electric vehicle and battery companies have folded. And the federal government has slowed its multibillion-dollar program of support for advanced technology vehicles in the face of market setbacks and heavy political criticism.

Links, 3-23-12

Romney was basking in the glow of his victory in Illinois and endorsement by Jeb Bush when one of his aides said that Romney would be like an "etch-a-sketch" for the general election -- that he could start over in an effort to win over moderate voters.  Conservatives pounced on the comments, with Rick Santorum handing out etch-a-sketches to media at a press conference, to declare the Romney was flip-flopping again.

In a 5-4 decision, with Kennedy siding with the four liberal justices, the Supreme Court declared that the legal system should have more oversight over plea bargains and that lawyers must give competent advice to the clients they defend, opening the door for claims of incompetent representation after plea bargains.  One law scholar called it "the single greatest revolution in the criminal justice system" in the past 50 years.

Economist Christine Romer discusses recently published researching finding that while tax raises and cuts incentive people to work less and more, that the incentive is quite small and nowhere near enough to boost tax revenue through tax cuts or reduce tax revenue through tax increases.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) has called a hearing to investigate bounties in professional sports in the wake of the Saints scandal


Environmental Links

A new report ranks Nashville 50th of 51 large cities in affordability of transportation.  Because of the sprawl and lack of public transit, metro Nashville residents spend about 29% of their income on commuting.

In an editorial, the NY Times points out that though gas prices have risen, the US now produces more oil and imports less than at any time in the past 10 years.

In an online debate over energy efficient products, an economist from the libertarian Cato Institute argues that we should "increase fossil fuel prices enough through taxation to account for [negative externalities]"

In the first three years of Obama's administration, real per-capita government spending has increased at a lower rate than all but one of the last six Presidents (Clinton).

President Obama yesterday declared his support for expedited construction of the Southern portion of the Keystone XL pipeline, but not the Northern portion.

Oil and gas companies are taking advantage of new finds in the Marcellus Shale formation to build plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio that will produce CNG for cars.

Environmental Links, 3-11-12

The Outer Banks faces a large question regarding their highway that keeps getting destroyed as weather eats away at the sand supporting it and sea levels potentially rise . . . locals suffer economically every time another section is destroyed and not immediately repaired, but the state suffers financially every time they temporarily fix the road.

The BBC explores how the Fukushima nuclear disaster affected worldwide views of nuclear power . . . meanwhile, Japan has shut down all but two of their 54 nuclear reactors.  In the US, expansion of nuclear power plants depends, in part, on finding a place to permanently store waste.  TN Senator Lamar Alexander thinks that if we offer high enough incentives, communities will step forward to volunteer to host such storage facilities.

Ohio has stiffened laws on "fracking" after concluding that recent drilling caused earthquakes around Youngstown . . . fracking and related earthquakes were also mentioned in a Dilbert cartoon last week.

Both environmental leaders and deficit hawks are fighting against an increase in natural gas powered vehicles.

Deliverymen in NYC are increasingly using electric bikes, despite the upping of the fine to $1,000 for their use

Here's an op-ed arguing for increased use of methanol to power cars.  And The Economist also has a feature on methanol.


According to a new poll, Californians narrowly support high-speed rail . . . but those planning on voting do not

Environmental Policy Links, 2-28-12

Envia Systems, in the Silicon Valley, has developed an electric vehicle battery that would allow a car to travel 300 miles between chargings

Paul Krugman on solar vs. fracking

The BBC reports that fish stocks are being severely depleted in many places and explores some potential policy solutions

Scientists are being hampered in their study of global warming

The Economist argues climate change will be single most important thing, retrospectively, in 100 years

Due to decreased demand for gasoline and excess refinery capacity, the US is actually now a net exporter of gasoline

Here's the West End Bus Rapid Transit Plan and and an update on its implementation 

They're installing the "green roof" on Nashville's new convention center 

The Economist writes about the dangers of being tangled up in green-tape

Here's the lowdown on some leaked documents from the Heartland Institute, which funds scientists who seek to discredit global warming

Environmental Links 2-8-11

In addition to the class reading on cap & trade, here's how the picture looked last year:
America and climate change: Cap and trade, with handouts and loopholes | The Economist

Since cap-and-trade appears to be dead for the moment, a new policy of "renewable energy standards" may be put in place (requiring a certain percentage of energy generated to be from renewable resources).  Here's one piece arguing that cap-and-trade would be more efficient and a follow-up piece from the Economist on the creation of green jobs.

Another method of controlling carbon that just began is granting the EPA the power to regulate climate-altering gases from factories and power plants: here's the lowdown from the NY Times and from the Washington Post.

Here's an interesting piece on the economics tree planting and harvesting -- deemed "tree-conomics" -- that contains a good summary of the difference between public and private goods, externalities, and collective action (which it argues is necessary to reduce global warming).

And here's an interesting story about a Swedish town that powers itself with only "a motley assortment of ingredients like potato peels, manure, used cooking oil, stale cookies and pig intestines."

At the intersection of pop culture and environmental policy, a liberal blogs were abuzz about a Fox News request for stories refuting global warming las week

On a different note, here's one piece about current politics that's well worth reading. The piece itself is a somewhat interesting discussion of the electoral successes and failures over the past 20 years, but he includes a number of utterly fascinating links and graphs: Are Democrats Better Off Than They Were 25 Years Ago?

Climate Change Links, 2-5-11

The percentage of Americans who believe global warming is already occurring dropped from 61% to 50% between 2008 and 2010.  The partisan divide also widened with conservatives who state this believe dropping from 50% to 30% while 72% of liberals in 2008 and 74% in 2010 agree.

The new chair of the House subcommittee on Environment and Economy, John Shimkus, is one conservative who is skeptical of global warming. Back in November, he told Politicothat God would protect the Earth from global warming:"I do believe in the Bible as the final word of God, And I do believe that God said the Earth would not be destroyed by a flood," he said. What does this mean for policy in the next two years?

"Really, the focus is not going to be climate," said Shimkus.  "The climate debate has, at least for two years, has ended with this election. The real focus is on energy security."

Meanwhile, the climate data for 2010 is out, and it has tied 2005 as the warmest year on record. This could be one reason that only 6% of scientists self-identify as Republicans(versus 55% who self-identify as Democrats)according to a recent poll.

A post at The Economists floats three hypotheses that would explain these numbers:

1.) Scientists hate Republicans and discourage them from becoming scientists
2.) Republicans hate science and don't want to become scientists
3.) Training to become a scientist makes one more liberal

Also of note: The director of "Who Killed the Electric Car?" is releasing a new movie soon: Revenge of the Electric Car (click the link to watch the trailer).

Transportation Options Links

-Detroit built a 13 stop "people mover" train downtown about 20 years ago and never expanded the line.  Since the city is strapped for cash, a number of wealthy individuals have stepped up and provided seed money to begin construction of a rail line into the suburbs

-San Francisco anticipates a large number of people buying Chevy Volts, Nissan Leafs, and other electric cars in the near future.  They're gearing up for the influx by, among other things, requiring that new buildings provide places to charge electric cars.  This incredibly informative article is a highly recommended read.

-CNN points out that high-speed rail is likely skipping your town -- at least for now.  The recent $8 billion in grants are only directed toward two truly high-speed rail projects (in CA and FL).  Experts estimate that building a nationwide network could cost as much as $500 billion.

Links to Explore

-This week's Economist/YouGov poll finds that 59% of Americans don't know how many votes it takes to end a filibuster in the Senate.  A number of other interesting findings are discussed as well.

-The Tennessean examines whether adding ethanol to gasoline also has some negative effects.  Evidence is mostly anecdotal right now, but a more definitive study should be out within the next year.

-Kentucky became the first state to adopt math and reading standards developed by a national group.

-A number of people assume (or want to assume) that the recent snowstorms disprove global warming.  Climate scientists point out both that weather always varies and that their models predict wider variations in weather as a result of climate change -- including more snowstorms.

Even More Environmental Links

-Here's a fascinating presentation on one man's plan for society to adopt the electric car.  Perhaps most notably, he calls for a network of locations where depleted batteries can be exchanged for fully charged ones (as opposed to finding somewhere to charge them).

-The latest consensus was that sea ice cover in the Arctic Ocean would disappear in about the year 2100.  After a two-year study involving 370 scientists from 27 countries, the new estimate is that it will be gone by 2030 (see graph below).

-Here's a textbook example of NIMBYism in action: Obama and many others are supporting a wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts, but local residents don't want the windmills to spoil their view.





-Here's a blurb about the graph we discussed in class (not the hockey stick graph, the one displaying cost-effectiveness of various changes).  The author is not happy that Obama is pushing for "clean coal" and biofuels -- two of the less cost-efficient reforms.

More Environment Links 2-5-10

-The US govt is planning to reduce its own energy use

-A trio of Congresspeople (including two Democrats) have introduced legislation to block the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases; it advances a number of other policies that will help their agricultural districts as well.

-Here's a cool way to cut your energy usage: new "melting drywall" with small beads of wax in it has cut cooling costs by 20% in a trial.

-Expanded plans for nuclear energy is good news for some US companies, but they're increasingly losing out on bids to build plants in foreign countries

Required Reading:

-Ill Omens for Senate Climate Change Legislation
-San Fran's Ambitious Downtown Transit Plans
-Obama's Budget Axes Oil and Gas Subsidies
-U.S. Makes Play to Catch Up on High-Speed Rail
-High Hopes for Clean-Energy Jobs

Environment Links 2-1-10

-Obama's budget scraps subsidies of fossil fuels

-55 countries have set new 2020 carbon goals since the Copenhagen Summit

-The fastest growing form of transportation?  The electric bike

-In the past, the Tennessee Valley Authority has had a spotty environmental record (take, for example, their construction project that threatened to send the Snail Darter to extinction (p. 73-74)).  But they recently partnered with the state to attract a solar energy company to Knoxville