Climate Change

A quick review of the basics: human-caused pollution in the form of carbon dioxide and other emissions is collecting in the atmosphere, trapping heat from the sun and gradually warming the planet. The impact is already observable in a variety of ways: warmer average temperatures, more severe weather patterns, changes in migratory patterns of various animals as they seek cooler temperatures, abandoned habitat of many animal and plant species as conditions change, melting glaciers, and more. Down the road – and not that far down the road at current rates of polluting emissions – the effects will grow more severe: rising sea levels will reclaim land, displacing people and forever altering ecosystems; disruption of snowmelt cycles and melting glaciers will likely cause severe water shortages; warmer ocean water will give added punch to hurricanes; changing weather patterns and ocean temperatures will likely devastate existing ecosystems, kill coral reefs, and introduce new insects and other pests to cities and farms alike; and more. Indeed, all of these trends are already beginning.

The two principal U.S. sources of “greenhouse gases” are coal-burning power plants and gas-burning automobiles. Their annual carbon dioxide emissions are measured in the billions of tons, overwhelming the ability of carbon-dioxide-absorbing plants to convert the gas to oxygen.

The good news about climate change is that we have technologies on hand to take an enormous bite out of the current load of greenhouse gas emissions. Hybrid cars and other cleaner vehicles, together with cleaner energy generation hold great promise. And conservation of energy – appliances and vehicles that require less fuel – can make a huge difference, as well.

One focus of CPR Member Scholars' work has been to draw out the issues surrounding industry efforts to make sure that any federal climate change law includes a provision preempting -- that is to say, undercutting -- state and local climate change policies.  The Member Scholars have argued that preemption would undo the only significant progress on climate change made by any level of government in the United States, would run counter to the longstanding approach on environmental laws of establishing federal standards as a "floor" upon which stronger state and local standards might be built, and would hobble overall efforts to address climate change by tying the hands of the governmental entities best equipped to address such critical climate change issues as urban sprawl, zoning matters, renewable energy portfolio requirements for utilities and more.  Read more about climate change preemption, here.

• Proposed Executive Orders for the Obama Administration.  In November 2008, the Center for Progressive Reform transmitted to the Obama Transition Team a slate of seven Executive Orders addressing a series of critical issues, including climate change, transparency in government, environmental justice, children's exposure to toxics, citizens' right to sue corporations whose products cause them harm, and stewardship of public lands.  Read a web article about the proposals, and read the white paper itself, Protecting Public Health and the Environment by the Stroke of a Presidential Pen.  Or read the news release.
• According to CPR Member Scholar Holly Doremus, writing with economist Michael Hanemann, emissions trading alone will not solve the climate change crisis. They call for reliance on cooperative federalism, modeled in part on the Clean Air Act’s approach. Read their Arizona Law Review article on the subject, Of Babies and Bathwater: Why the Clean Air Act’s Cooperative Federalism Framework is Useful for Addressing Global Warming.
• Op-Ed on Allocation of International Carbon Credits.  Read "Adam Smith Meets Climate Change," a proposal for allotting international carbon credits, by CPR Member Scholar Doug Kysar and Ian Ayres, published in Slate Magazine, September 25, 2008.
• Op-Ed on Conservative Opposition to Cap and Trade.  Read "Conservatives Flip-Flopped on Cap and Trade," by CPR Member Scholar Robert L. Glicksman, in the June 28, 2008 Wichita Eagle.
• Federal Preemption of State and Local Climate Change Laws.  One of industry's objectives in the debate over federal climate change legislation is preemption of state and local laws and policies on the topic.  Read more about federal preemption of state and local climate change policies.  Read CPR White Paper #803 by Cooperative Federalism and Climate Change: Why Federal, State, and Local Governments Must Continue to Partner, by William Andreen, Robert Glicksman, Nina Mendelson, and Rena Steinzor and CPR Policy Analyst Shana Jones, published May 2008.  And rRead Rena Steinzor's June 2008 Editorial Memo on Federal Preemption of State and Local Climate Change Laws.
• California Waiver. Read William W. Buzbee's December 28, 2007 op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on the Bush EPA's denial of California's request for a Clean Air Act waiver that would allow it and 16 "piggybacking" states to fight global warming with stricter automobile emissions standards.
• Climate Change Conference. See the media advisory and agenda for "Facts, Ideas, and U.S. Climate Change Policy: A Conference on Climate Change," an October 20, 2007 conference sponsored jointly by CPR, the University of Kansas School of Law, and the Commons at the University of Kansas.  Watch a brief video clip from the conference of Member Scholar David Driesen.
• Responding to Lomborg. Read "Hot Air," Eban Goodstein's review of Bjorn Lomborg's Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming, published on Slate.com, August 29, 2007. For another look at the quality of Lomborg's scholarship, read Joel Mintz's review, published in The Environmental Lawyer, in 2002, of Lomborg's earlier book, The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World. (Reprinted by permission of the American Bar Association.) Or read Frank Ackerman's 2002 review in the March 25, 2002 edition of The Nation.  Or read Doug Kysar's 2002 review.
• On the Radio. Listen to CPR's Frank Ackerman debate global warming with Heritage Foundation scholar Ben Lieberman on "Kresta in the Afternoon," May 23, 2007.
• The Court, Clean Air, and Global Warming. Read CPR Member Scholar Joseph Feller's op-ed on why the Supreme "Court must conclude that global warming gases are a real danger," published in the December 26, 2006 Arizona Daily Star.
• A CPR Perspective.  Read the CPR Perspective, International Justice and Climate Change.