By Julia Ciardullo Fellow On April 27, 2012, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) published a proposed final regulation regarding the use of forest biomass for generating energy in Massachusetts. If adopted, the regulation would be the first to set greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for determining the eligibility […]
by Shelley Welton Deputy Director & Earth Institute Climate Law Fellow Earlier this month, citing reliability concerns, PJM, the mid-Atlantic’s regional transmission operator, asked FirstEnergy Corp. of Ohio to keep three coal-fired power plants in operation for the next three years that the company had previously scheduled to be shut […]
By Julia Ciardullo Fellow On April 19, 2012, Mexico’s Senate unanimously passed the Ley General de Cambio Climático, or the General Law on Climate Change. The bill, which previously passed The Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Congress, by a vote of 128-10, includes a requirement that Mexico reduce […]
By Michael Gerrard Director, Center for Climate Change Law Yesterday Edvard Munch’s 1895 painting The Scream sold for a record $119.9 million at auction. The painting is famous — not so its potential link to climate change. Mount Krakatoa in Indonesia erupted in 1883. It was one of the largest […]
By Julia Ciardullo Fellow This is the third and final blog that discusses some of the most notable recent legal developments in the field of intellectual property law and green technology. In two prior posts, we discussed (1) the expiration of the USPTO’s Green Technology Pilot Program and the enactment […]
Four students at Columbia Law School’s Environmental Law Clinic, Julia Christian, Andrew Kirchner, Derek Nelson and Jessica Wentz, have prepared an annotated bibliography compiling recent scholarship on the interaction between global livestock production and climate change. The bibliography identifies resources that provide a general overview of the subject; addresses scholarship relating to the […]
By Danielle Sugarman Fellow On March 15, 2012, the Supreme Court of Mississippi handed down its decision in Sierra Club v. Mississippi Public Service Commission and Mississippi Power Company, Inc. In a 9-0 vote, the Court reversed a 2010 Mississippi Public Service Commission decision permitting Mississippi Power Company to construct […]
After years as a political prisoner, Mohamed Nasheed was elected President of the Republic of the Maldives in 2008 in the first democratic election in that Indian Ocean nation’s history. Trained as a marine scientist, President Nasheed emerged as one of the leading voices of small island nations threatened by […]