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April 02, 2008
18 states file suit to compel EPA to act on climate change.
A year ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court in Massachusetts et al. v. Environmental Protection Agency et al. ruled that carbon dioxide from fossil fuels is a pollutant subject to the Clean Air Act, and directed the EPA to determine whether such emissions, associated with climate change, endangered public health. Today, according to mainstream news sources, 18 states have sued the EPA to act within 60 days. It's a mandamus-like pattern states, cities and public interest groups have used for two decades under the CAA to prompt the EPA to move on other issues within its expertise, such as interstate acid rain transport. See NBC news. WAC? is trying to obtain a copy of the petition-complaint, which was set for filing today.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Trains and boats: New Clean Air Act regulations.
Published on March 14, a new final U.S. EPA rule on air emissions from locomotive and marine diesel engines is designed to reduce from these sources particulate matter (PM) by 90 percent and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by 80 percent. See Environmental Protection and EPA rule and guidance.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
More on punitives: Europe v. America
See NYC trial lawyer-thinker (you don't always see both in one human) Eric Turkewitz's piece Punitive Damages: Why America is Different than Europe. Here's an excerpt, but read the whole piece:
European governments...are significantly more interventionist in the private lives of the people than here. You see that in nations that restrict free speech or grant universal health care, as two examples. Our notions of freedom are not always the same as elsewhere... Intervention [in the non-U.S.] means not only larger government with larger powers. It also means higher taxes to pay for it. So wrongdoing is handled by the government, which the people pay for.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:30 PM | Comments (1)
The Environment: Got mercury?
From both regulatory and remedial standpoints, it's hard to make mercury go away. See at Environmental Protection magazine "Mercury Spill Control 101" by Mark Ceasar at OMNI/ajax in Gouldsboro, Pennsylvania, USA.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:23 PM | Comments (0)
Rule 4: Deliver Legal Work That Changes the Way Clients Think About Lawyers.
Why "try to exceed expectations" when the overall lawyer standard is rightly perceived as laughably low to mediocre?
Posted by JD Hull at 11:13 AM | Comments (0)