Literary Warrant [7]

• Frank Barnaby & James Kemp, eds., Oxford Research Group, Secure Energy? Civil Nuclear Power, Security and Global Warming (March 2007)
  
  "All over the world the fortunes of civil nuclear power are rising—why? Many in government hope that nuclear power would increase energy security during a time of unstable competition and surging demand. Some claim nuclear power is key to reducing global CO2 emissions. For others, it is because nuclear power opens the door to nuclear weapons.
  
  "This report asks two questions: how dangerous is nuclear power? And can it help reduce CO2 emissions? The short answer to the first questions is ‘very’: nuclear power is uniquely dangerous when compared to other energy sources. For the second question the answer is ‘not enough and not in time’."
  


• Karlyn Bowman, Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Polls on the Environment and Global Warming (AEI Studies in Public Opinion) (April 20, 2007)
  
  "This study is a compilation of public opinion data on the quality of the environment, which political party is better on the issue, the handling of the environment by the Clinton and Bush administrations, Bush versus Kerry on the issue, the political importance of the environment, environmental activism, and the impact of gas prices. The study includes all of the latest polling data as well as important historical trends for comparative purposes."
  


• Ceres, U.S. Mutual Funds Critical Missing Link in Supporting Climate Change Shareholder Resolutions (April 23, 2007)
  
  "None of the nation's 100 largest mutual funds voted in 2006 to support shareholder resolutions calling for more corporate disclosure on the financial impacts from global climate change, according to proxy voting data compiled by Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) for Ceres and posted today on http://www.ceres.org."—Press release.
  


• Debra K. Decker & Erwann O. Michel-Kerjan, Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, A New Energy Paradigm Ensuring Nuclear Fuel Supply and Nonproliferation through International Collaboration with Insurance and Financial Markets (Wharton Risk Center Working Paper #07-06) (March 2007)
  
  "Building on the experience of the nuclear safety/security and catastrophic risk financing fields, we discuss ways the international community could facilitate the development of an insurance market to provide added security. Specifically, we recommend the financial indemnification for economic losses suffered by nuclear utilities (public and private) due to a disruption of supply over the full fuel cycle (enrichment, fabrication, and transportation). One way to achieve that is to establish an international insurance mechanism (e.g., a mutual company) that would both limit the fuel risk of the nuclear facilities and benefit from coverage from a consortium of private insurers and reinsurers. The mechanism could benefit from an additional layer of protection by being backstopped by IAEA member countries.
  
  "The eligibility for such insurance coverage and the terms and condition of the indemnification would be analyzed and prespecified. Because this approach would rely on international insurance markets, it could be seen not only as complementary to other proposed solutions but also more neutral.
  
  "The mutual company could also use supply options to facilitate fuel deliveries in the event of market interruptions. Support for the commoditization of the uranium market should also be considered."—Abstract.
  


• Mary L. Dudziak, Bancroft Prizes for 2007 announced by Columbia University (Legal History Blog) (April 23, 2007)
  
  There's less of a legal angle to this entry than even the least legal offerings of some Literary Warrant posts, but this one emphatically features the literary aspect. Among the winners identified by Prof. Dudziak is Jack Temple Kirby, whose Mockingbird Song: Ecological Landscapes of the South (University of North Carolina), according to the Bancroft jurors, 'is an ecological history of the American South, told through a series of chapters about different types of landscapes and the way human beings have lived and worked in them.... Kirby reflects profoundly on the relationships of Americans—and of humankind—to the natural world...an original in the growing field of environmental history, elegantly conceived and beautifully written."
  


• Patty Glick, Senior Global Warming Specialist, National Wildlife Federation, The Gardener's Guide to Global Warming: Challenges and Solutions (April 2007)
  
  "Trade-in the SUV, use florescent light bulbs, turn down your thermostat. These are just some of the things we’re being told we can do to reduce our impact on global warming. But according to a new report from the National Wildlife Federation, A Gardeners Guide to Global Warmin, there are also many things you can do in the garden that will help combat this serious and potentially devastating environmental problem caused by our voracious appetite for fossil fuels. And the spring gardening season is the perfect time to get started."—Press release (April 18, 2007)
  


• National Commission on Energy Policy, Energy Commission Proposes Plan to Cut Total U.S. Climate Emissions in First Year of Program (April 19, 2007)
  
  "The National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan group of top energy experts from industry, government, labor, academia, and environmental and consumer groups, today released a series of new, sweeping recommendations to address the nation's leading energy challenges. In its new report, Energy Policy Recommendations to the President and the 110th Congress, the Commission proposed revised policies regarding a cap and trade proposal for addressing global climate change, increases in fuel economy standards, approaches for the storage of nuclear waste, development and deployment of advanced coal technologies, adoption of a national renewable energy standard, and other major energy policy issues."—Press release.
  


• Property Casualty Insurance Association of America et al., Sharp Decline in Catastrophe Losses Drive Improvement in P/C Insurers’ Full-Year 2006 Results (Press release) (April 18, 2007)
  
  "Driven by a sharp decline in catastrophe losses from hurricanes and other natural disasters in 2006, the U.S. property/casualty industry posted a $31.2 billion net gain on underwriting for the year. The net gain on underwriting in 2006 stands in stark contrast to the $5.6 billion net loss on underwriting in 2005."
  


• Nicholas Schneider, Policy Analyst, Fraser Institute, Centre for Risk, Regulation, and Environment, Welcome Back, Kyoto (Fraser Forum) (April 2007)
  
  "Reducing Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions to meet Kyoto Protocol targets by 2012 could cost each Canadian upwards of $3,500 a year for the next several years, according to research done by The Fraser Institute, an independent research organization with offices across Canada.
  
  "The alternative is to purchase foreign emission credits, a move that would transfer $30 billion from Canada to other countries."—Press release (April 20, 2007)
  


• Brian T. Turner, Richard J. Plevin, Michael O'Hare & Alexander E. Farrell, Creating Markets for Green Biofuels: Measuring and Improving Environmental Performance (University of California, Berkeley, Transportation Sustainability Research Center Research Report, UCB-ITS-TSRC-RR-2007-1) (April 2007)
  
  "While 'green' and 'environmentally friendly' may seem synonymous with 'biofuels,' this is not necessarily true in practice; all biofuels entail tradeoffs among positive and negative environmental effects. Because the environmental performance of biofuels is not measured today, consumers have no information about how to buy greener biofuels and producers have no incentive to manufacture and market them. The right set of market signals and regulatory requirements can change this situation, so that American consumers could buy biofuels certified as environmentally friendly, and so that the American agriculture and energy industries would have incentives to improve. Markets for green biofuels would stimulate a new wave of innovation, creating high-value and truly green biofuels, and enhancing energy security by diversifying our energy sources. However, without appropriate information, incentives, and rules, the biofuels industry is likely to expand production in environmentally harmful ways."—Executive Summary.
  


• UN Pulse, UN Security Council Discusses Impact of Climate Change on Security (April 17, 2007)
  
  Reports on a debate "exploring the relationship between energy, security and climate, the first time this issue has been taken up at an international forum. A concept paper prepared by the United Kingdom (S/2007/186) noted that the focus of the debate will be on the security implications of a changing climate, including through its impact on potential drivers of conflict such as access to energy, water, food and other scarce resources, population movements and border disputes."
  


• United States Department of the Interior, Office of Inspector General, Private Use of Public Lands: National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management (Audit Report, Report No. W-IN-MOA-0008-2005) (April 2007)
  
  "We found that NPS has allowed private individuals or exclusive clubs to monopolize desirable locations near major metropolitan areas for decades to the exclusion of the general public, although we could not identify the extent of this permitting. Some of the clubs charge high membership fees or limit the number of people who can become members. NPS continues to renew the permits for these exclusive clubs and has kept the $2.6 million in permit fees received over the 4-year period of our review instead of remitting the funds to the U.S. Treasury. Moreover, both NPS and BLM have allowed permits to be renewed without ensuring their compliance with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). We made four recommendations related to NPS to identify the extent of exclusive use, ensure full public access, and remit permit fees to the U.S. Treasury, and one recommendation to both NPS and BLM to comply with NEPA."—Memorandum (April 10, 2007)
  


• United States Geological Survey (USGS), Ground-Water Climate Response Network (USGS Fact Sheet 2007-3003) (April 2007)
  
  "The primary purpose of the Climate Response Network is to portray the effect of climate on ground-water levels in unconfined aquifers or near-surface confined aquifers that are minimally affected by pumping or other anthropogenic stresses. The Climate Response Network Web site (http://groundwaterwatch.usgs.gov/) is the official USGS Web site for illustrating current ground-water conditions in the United States and Puerto Rico."
  


• United States Government Accountability Office (GAO), Climate Change: Financial Risks to Federal and Private Insurers in Coming Decades are Potentially Significant (Report to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate, GAO-07-285) (March 2007)
  
  "Major private and federal insurers are both exposed to the effects of climate change over coming decades, but are responding differently. Many large private insurers are incorporating climate change into their annual risk management practices, and some are addressing it strategically by assessing its potential long-term industry-wide impacts. The two major federal insurance programs, however, have done little to develop comparable information. GAO acknowledges that the federal insurance programs are not profit-oriented, like private insurers. Nonetheless, a strategic analysis of the potential implications of climate change for the major federal insurance programs would help the Congress manage an emerging high-risk area with significant implications for the nation’s growing fiscal imbalance."—What GAO Found. See also the related statement by John B. Stephenson, Director, Natural Resources and Environment, GAO, Testimony Before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate (GAO-07-760T) (April 19, 2007).
  


• Fred Wellington et al., World Resources Institute (WRI), Scaling Up: Global Technology Deployment to Stabilize Emissions (2007)
  
  "Climate change is a defining challenge for economic development in the 21st century, and understanding this issue will make the difference between success and failure for investors in the world’s vast energy markets, according to a report released today by the World Resources Institute (WRI)...."—Press release (April 17, 2007)
  


• World Economic Forum, Latin America@Risk: A Global Risk Network Briefing (2007)
  
  "The World Economic Forum today released its Latin America@Risk report. Produced by the Forum's Global Risk Network, the report emphasizes the uncertainty surrounding external economic shocks, global climate change, political instability and social inequality, and its effect on regional growth and welfare.
  
  "The report notes the increasing strength and robustness of Latin America's economies, while exploring the key economic, environmental, geopolitical and societal issues that put that progress at risk. While all four of these issues emerge from the broader global risk environment, the regional manifestations present particular challenges for governments, industry and civil society throughout Latin America."—Press release (April 18, 2007)

Literary Warrant [5]

• Stephen Blake et al., Forest Elephant Crisis in the Congo Basin (PLoS Biology) (April 3, 2007)
  
  "Forest elephants, perhaps a distinct species of African elephant, occur in the forests of West and Central Africa. Compared to the more familiar savannah elephant of Eastern and Southern Africa, forest elephant biology and their conservation status are poorly known. To provide robust scientific data on the status and distribution of forest elephants to inform and guide conservation efforts, we conducted surveys on foot of forest elephant abundance and of illegal killing of elephants in important conservation sites throughout Central Africa. We covered a combined distance of over 8,000 km on reconnaissance walks, and we systematically surveyed a total area of some 60,000 km2 under the auspices of the Monitoring of the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) programme. Our results indicate that forest elephant numbers and range are severely threatened by hunting for ivory. Elephant abundance increased with increasing distance from the nearest road, and poaching pressure was most concentrated near roads. We found that protected areas have a positive impact on elephant abundance, probably because management interventions reduced poaching rates inside protected areas compared to non-protected forest. Law enforcement to bring the illegal ivory trade under control, and effective management and protection of large and remote national parks will be critical if forest elephants are to be successfully conserved."—Author summary.


• Tini Garske, Paul Clarke & Azra C. Ghani, The Transmissibility of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Commercial Poultry in Industrialised Countries (PLoS ONE) (April 4, 2007)
  
  "With the increased occurrence of outbreaks of H5N1 worldwide there is concern that the virus could enter commercial poultry farms with severe economic consequences."—Background.
  
  "Our results show that depending on the particular situation in which an outbreak of avian influenza occurs, current controls might not be enough to eradicate the disease, and therefore a close monitoring of the outbreak is required. The method we used for estimating the reproductive number is straightforward to implement and can be used in real-time. It therefore can be a useful tool to inform policy decisions."—Conclusions/Significance.


• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2007: Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
  (Summary for Policymakers) (April 6, 2007)
  
  "The report of the Working Group II assesses the latest scientific, environmental and socio-economic literature on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. It provides a comprehensive analysis of how climate change is affecting natural and human systems, what the impacts will be in the future and how far adaptation and mitigation can reduce these impacts. The report also contains chapters on specific systems, sectors and regions."
  
  See this beSpacific post for a link to the Working Group I report on the "physical science basis" of knowledge of climate change.


• Brad Knickerbocker, White House expected to feel the heat from Supreme Court's ruling on global warming (Christian Science Monitor) (April 5, 2007)
  
  A brief survey of the initial media response to Massachusetts v. EPA.


• Nicholas Li, Does climate change constitute a threat to international peace and security? (1948 [blog]) (April 5, 2007)
  
  "The United Nations Security Council has the primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security (Article 24/25 of the UN Charter). It can decide for itself what constitutes a threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression (Article 39). Is climate change such a threat?"
  
  Update: A response on 1948 to Li's post by Maarten den Heijer.


• Sandra George O’Neil, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Superfund: Evaluating the Impact of Executive Order 12898 (Environmental Health Perspectives, doi:10.1289/ehp.9903) (April 5, 2007)
  
  "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) addresses uncontrolled and abandoned hazardous waste sites throughout the country. Sites that are perceived to be a significant threat to both surrounding populations and the environment can be placed on the U.S. EPA's Superfund list and qualify for federal cleanup funds."—Background.
  
  "The equitability of this program has been questioned; the representation of minority and low-income populations in this cleanup program is lower than would be expected. Thus, minorities and low-income populations may not be benefiting proportionately from this environmental cleanup program. In 1994, President Clinton signed Executive Order 12898 requiring that the U.S. EPA, and other federal agencies, implement environmental justice policies. These policies were to specifically address the disproportionate environmental effects of federal programs and policies on minority and low-income populations."—Objective.
  
  Of related interest: This is now the second entry in these Literary Warrant postings based on studies published in NIEHS’s Environmental Health Perspectives. For House Oversight Committee investigation of efforts by the director of NIEHS to privatize the publication, see this beSpacific post.


• Deborah Paulus-Jagrič, Global Warming: A Comparative Guide to the E.U. and the U.S. and Their Approaches to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol (GlobaLex) (March 2007)
  
  "In this guide I briefly synopsize the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, and discuss the sources one would use to research them, but I make no claim to originality there. As a comparative guide, it has relatively little to offer, at least so far. To state the major difference between the E.U. and the U.S. in the simplest way, in the E.U. there are climate change laws to apply (the E.U. has ratified the Kyoto Protocol and takes its commitments very seriously), and in the U.S. there are none, at least at the federal level. When and if the U.S. government chooses to act on climate change, this guide will include its actions; thus it will evolve and become a truly comparative guide. Its current value lies in its compilation of recent information on the important work that U.S. states and cities have initiated to address climate change and, hopefully, to compel the federal government into action."


• Barry Rabe, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Governance Studies, Brookings Institution, Can Congress Govern the Climate? (March 30, 2007)
  
  "Climate change poses daunting challenges for any governing body, but these are only compounded in the American case where greenhouse gas emissions are so high and the capacity of federal institutions such as Congress to begin to address this issue is so limited. Congress has struggled mightily in recent decades to reach any semblance of consensus on a host of environmental and energy concerns, including those with relevance to climate change. This paper will attempt to examine some of the stumbling blocks to prior Congressional engagement as well as highlight particular policy and governance challenges for any future Congressional attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In turn, it will conclude by highlighting some starting points whereby the 110th Congress might begin to reverse this trend and begin constructive deliberation, drawing from previous models and unique opportunities presented by the current context."—Abstract.


• Jeffrey Shaman & Jonathan F. Day, Reproductive Phase Locking of Mosquito Populations in Response to Rainfall Frequency (PLoS ONE) (March 28, 2007)
  
  "The frequency of moderate to heavy rainfall events is projected to change in response to global warming. Here we show that these hydrologic changes may have a profound effect on mosquito population dynamics and rates of mosquito-borne disease transmission. We develop a simple model, which treats the mosquito reproductive cycle as a phase oscillator that responds to rainfall frequency forcing. This model reproduces observed mosquito population dynamics and indicates that mosquito-borne disease transmission can be sensitive to rainfall frequency. These findings indicate that changes to the hydrologic cycle, in particular the frequency of moderate to heavy rainfall events, could have a profound effect on the transmission rates of some mosquito-borne diseases."—Abstract.


• Slashdot (blog), Biofuels Coming With a High Environmental Price? (April 2, 2007)
  
  "With the spectre of global warming on the horizon, biofuels have been touted as the solution to motor vehicles' greenhouse gas emissions. But with biodiesel use on the increase, it appears a distinctively environmentally unfriendly footprint is being left behind by some of its prime sources; affected food prices are surging out of reach of the poor and rainforests are being destroyed to create larger plantations."


• United States Department of Homeland Security, DHS Releases Comprehensive Regulations for Securing High Risk Chemical Facilities (Press release) (April 2, 2007)
  
  "The U.S. Department of Homeland Security today released an interim final rule that imposes for the first time comprehensive federal security regulations for high risk chemical facilities. The department sought and reviewed comments from state and local partners, Congress, private industry, and the public to develop consistent guidelines using a risk-based approach. The new rule gives the department authority to seek compliance through the imposition of civil penalties, of up to $25,000 per day, and the ability to shut non-compliant facilities down."


• World Wildlife Fund, Saving the World's Natural Wonders from Climate Change: How WWF Field Work Defends Nature and People from Climate Change Impacts (WWF Briefing Paper) (April 5, 2007)
  
  "From the Amazon to the Himalayas, ten of the world's greatest natural wonders face destruction if the climate continues to warm at the current rate, warns WWF.
  
  "Released ahead of the International Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) Second Working Group Report, a WWF briefing—Saving the world’s natural wonders from climate change—reports on how the devastating impacts of global warming are damaging some of the world's greatest natural wonders.
  
  "They include the: Amazon; Great Barrier Reef and other coral reefs; Chihuahua Desert in Mexico and the US; hawksbill turtles in the Caribbean; Valdivian temperate rainforests in Chile; tigers and people in the Indian Sundarbans; Upper Yangtze River in China; wild salmon in the Bering Sea; melting glaciers in the Himalayas; and East African coastal forests."—Press release.

Literary Warrant [3]

Update: As illustrated by the first post below, a good deal of valuable information may be found in reports to Congress by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), although these reports have been notoriously elusive. Now it appears they will be all the more difficult to obtain.

A third installment of recent—that is, all but the January 2006 UW webcast on disaster planning—news, reports, and commentary.

• Congressional Research Service (via National Council for Science and the Environment), Roundup of Recent/Updated CRS Reports: Environment (March 14, 2007)
  
  Docuticker's occasional enumeration of links to PDFs of CRS reports, including works on the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and "sound science," stratospheric ozone depletion, and others.


• Viren Doshi, Gary Schulman & Daniel Gabaldon, Lights! Water! Motion!, strategy+business
  
  "The world's urban infrastructure needs a $40 trillion makeover. Here’s how to reinvigorate our electricity, water, and transportation systems by integrating finance, governance, technology, and design."


• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, State of the World's Forests 2007
  
  "Most countries in Europe and North America have succeeded in reversing centuries of deforestation and are now showing a net increase in forest area. Most developing countries, especially those in tropical areas, continue to experience high rates of deforestation and forest degradation. The countries that face the most serious challenges in achieving sustainable forest management are, by and large, the countries with the highest rates of poverty and civil conflict."—Foreword.


• Frédéric Forge, Library of Parliament (Canada), Science and Technology Division, Biofuels—An Energy, Environmental or Agricultural Policy? (February 8, 2007)
  
  "Global production of biofuels is booming, as higher oil prices and technological breakthroughs have made it a more profitable business. Other key factors are the political will in most industrialized countries to find a reliable source of energy, and the implementation of new incentive programs; these have stimulated the industry’s growth and helped develop a level of infrastructure that can take advantage of favourable economic conditions."—Introduction.
  
  "The expansion of biofuel production will depend largely on government policies with ambitious goals, such as decreasing dependence on fossil fuels and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. According to the current data, biofuels alone will not enable these goals to be met. Their advantages, however, are expected to increase if technologies that allow for the use of feedstocks that are less demanding to produce become more attractive economically.
  
  "The effect of future biofuel market expansions on agriculture should also be monitored. Despite strong hopes for higher grain prices, there is still much uncertainty about the effect of an increased demand for grains for biofuel production. Food and feed markets could well be affected, and production adjustments may offset higher prices to the farmer."—Conclusion.
  


• The Future of Coal: Options for a Carbon-Constrained World (MIT 2007)
  
  "An interdisciplinary MIT faculty group "examines the role of coal in a world where constraints on carbon dioxide emissions are adopted to mitigate global climate change."—Exectuive Summary.
  


• Law Librarian Blog, New CFR Book Warning America Remains Vulnerable (March 15, 2007)
  
  A publisher's description (including an excerpt) of Stephen E. Flynn, The Edge of Disaster: Rebuilding a Resilient Nation (2007). "We have learned little from the cataclysms of September 11 and Hurricane Katrina. When it comes to catastrophe, America is living on borrowed time—and squandering it."—Book Description.
  


• Robert Meltz, Legislative Attorney, American Law Division, Congressional Research Service (CRS), The Supreme Court Takes Five Environmental Cases for Its 2006-2007 Term
  
  "The Supreme Court has accepted five environmental cases for argument during its 2006-2007 term, a significant proportion of the 72 cases it will hear during the term. Two cases involve the Clean Air Act: one asking whether the act allows EPA to regulate vehicle emissions based on their global warming impacts; the other, whether an hourly or annual test must be used in determining whether a modification of a stationary source makes it a 'new source' requiring a permit. A third case asks whether an EPA decision to delegate the Clean Water Act discharge permitting program to a state is subject to Fish and Wildlife Service consultation under the Endangered Species Act. The fourth case deals with whether a liable party under the Superfund Act may seek contribution under one section of the act even though barred from doing so under another section because no EPA civil actions have been filed at the site. And the fifth case addresses whether county 'flow control' ordinances evade the strict scrutiny test for compliance with the dormant commerce clause or indeed evade the clause entirely, owing to the fact that the designated collection facility is publicly rather than privately owned."—Summary.
  


• Slashdot: News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters, Global Warming Endangered by Hot Air? (March 17, 2007)
  
  "The BBC reports that leading climate researchers are concerned that the tone of speculation surrounding many reports (scientific as well as in the media) could be making it more difficult for legitimate science to make a case for the future." This Slashdot post, replete with the usual assortment of comments—fair, facile, and funny—links to the BBC story, which identifies the recent report, Sense About Science: Making Sense of the Weather and Climate ("An introduction to forecasts and predictions of weather events and climate change"), prepared by scientists identified in the story.
  


• Robert Stavins, Judson Jaffe & Todd Schatzki, Too Good to Be True? An Examination of Three Economic Assessments of California Climate Change Policy (Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Faculty Research Working Papers Series, no. RWP07-016) (March 2007)
  
  "We find that although opportunities may exist for some no-cost emission reductions, these California studies substantially underestimate the cost of meeting California’s 2020 target. The studies underestimate costs by omitting important components of the costs of emission reduction efforts, and by overestimating offsetting savings that some of those efforts yield through improved energy efficiency. In some cases, the studies focus on the costs of particular actions to reduce emissions, but fail to consider the effectiveness and costs of policies that would be necessary to bring about such actions. While quantifying the full extent of the resulting cost underestimation is beyond the scope of our study, the underestimation is clearly economically significant. A few of the identified flaws individually lead to underestimation of annual costs on the order of billions of dollars. Hence, these studies do not offer reliable estimates of the cost of meeting California’s 2020 target. Better analyses are needed to inform policymakers."—Executive Summary.
  


• United States House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Committee Examines Political Interference with Climate Science (March 19, 2007)
  
  "This hearing examined evidence and allegations of political interference with the work of government climate change scientists under the current Administration." Links to testimony, exhibits, a supplemental memorandum, and a video of the proceedings are included, courtesy of this beSpacific post, which also links to earlier hearings in January. According to the supplemental memorandum prepared for the March 19 hearing, "The CEQ documents appear to portray a systematic White House effort to minimize the significance of climate change. The documents show that Mr. Cooney and other CEQ officials made at least 181 edits to the Administration's Strategic Plan of the Climate Change Science Program to exaggerate or emphasize scientific uncertainties. They also made at least 113 edits to the plan to deemphasize or diminish the importance of the human role in global warming. Other Administration documents that were heavily edited by Mr. Cooney and CEQ include EPA's Report on the Environment andthe annual report to Congress entitled Our Changing Planet."


• University of Washington, Webcast: Regional Disaster Planning Efforts & The Biology of Pandemic Influenza (January 30, 2006)
  
  "This three-part talk addresses how Harborview Medical Center is working together with the hospitals in Seattle, King County, and King County Public Health to create an emergency health care coalition—of hospitals, pandemic flu planning and emergency preparedness, and the biology of pandemic influenza—and what we have learned from it in the past."—Description. Speakers include the CEO, an administrative director, and a professor of medicine at the Medical Center.


• Waxman Introduces the Safe Climate Act of 2007 (March 20, 2007)
  
  "The Safe Climate Act freezes U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2010, at the 2009 levels. Beginning in 2011, it cuts emissions by roughly 2% per year, reaching 1990 emissions levels by 2020. After 2020, it cuts emissions by roughly 5% per year. By 2050, emissions will be 80% lower than in 1990. These goals are comparable to emissions reduction goals adopted by many states and called for by leading American companies, small businesses, religious organizations, environmental advocates, and others."—Summary of the Bill. Includes links to the full text of the bill and a section-by-section summary.

Literary Warrant [2]

A second installment of notable new publications, reports, and announcements.

• Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, CREW Sues Council on Environmental Quality Sued over Global Warming Documents
  
  "Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has sued the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) today for its failure to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records related to global warming science and policy. CREW filed its FOIA request after media reports—including a 60 Minutes piece—and documents gathered by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform revealed that political appointees at CEQ, including former Chief of Staff Philip Cooney, edited various government reports to downplay and obscure scientific findings about global warming."—Press Release (February 20, 2007)


• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, The State of Fisheries and Aquaculture 2006
  
  "Although the proportion of the world’s marine fish stocks rated by FAO as overexploited or depleted has remained stable over the past 15 years, the status of certain highly migratory and high-seas species is cause for serious concern, a new report from the UN agency warned today."—Press release (March 5, 2007)


• V.L. McGuire, Water-Level Changes in the High Plains Aquifer, Predevelopment to 2005 and 2003 to 2005 (U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2006-5324, 2007)
  
  "The High Plains aquifer underlies 111.4 million acres (174,000 square miles) in parts of eight States—Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. Water-level declines began in parts of the High Plains aquifer soon after the beginning of extensive ground-water irrigation. This report presents water-level changes in the High Plains aquifer from the time prior to substantial ground-water irrigation development (about 1950) to 2005 and from 2003 to 2005."—Abstract.
  


• Slashdot, Scientists Threatened for “Climate Denial” (March 12, 2007)
  
  "A former professor of climatology at the University of Winnipeg has received multiple death threats for questioning the extent to which human activities are driving global warming." A caveat: Slashdot is deservedly one of the earliest and most widely read technology blogs, but it also fairly dubs itself, "News for Nerds." The vast number of comments—over 1150 for this post—are frequently sarcastic, haughty, erroneous...and funny.
  


• United States Department of State, Memorandum of Understanding Between the United States and Brazil to Advance Cooperation on Biofuels
  
  "The agreement highlights the importance of biofuels as a transformative force in the region to diversify energy supplies, bolster economic prosperity, advance sustainable development, and protect the environment."—Press release (March 9, 2007)
  


• United States Government Accountability Office, Leaking Underground Storage Tanks: EPA Should Take Steps to Better Ensure the Effective Use of Public Funding for Cleanups (Report to Congressional Requesters, GAO-07-152, February 2007)
  
  "The cleanup of known releases from leaking underground storage tanks could take years to complete, and states reported that it would cost around $12 billion in public funds from state and federal sources. This amount reflects states’ estimates of public cleanup costs for about 54,000 of the approximately 117,000 known releases that states reported had not yet been fully cleaned up as of September 30, 2005. Tank owners or operators will pay to clean up the majority of the remaining 63,000 known releases, according to state officials. However, an unknown number of releases lack a viable owner to pay cleanup costs. Some of these releases may lack a viable owner because the tank owner or operator failed to maintain adequate financial responsibility coverage. While 16 states require annual proof that tank owners or operators are maintaining the required coverage, the remaining states generally reported that they check this coverage less often or not at all, even though coverage may change on an annual basis. Without regular monitoring that tank owners or operators are maintaining their required coverage, this coverage may lapse, potentially making the owner or operator nonviable and, in the event of a release, may result in the need to use public funds to ensure timely cleanup."—Results in Brief.
  


• David A. Wirth, Globalization and the Environment: Why All the Fuss? (Boston College Law School Faculty Papers, no. 189, February 12, 2007)
  
  "The relationship between globalization and environmental policies presents more nuances than the popular paradigm of free trader versus self-serving protectionists, the familiar model of environmentalist battling greedy polluters, or the outmoded view of a progressive multilateral agenda juxtaposed against a parochial, inward-looking domestic one. This piece sets out a structural and analytical framework for addressing the major issues in the field – including (1) unilateral trade-based measures to protect the environment; (2) science-based tests applied through trade agreements; (3) disciplines on foreign investment that may have a 'chilling effect' on environmental regulation; and (4) the relationship between free trade agreements and multilateral environmental agreements. The implications for domestic law in the United States, including federal administrative law and federal-state relations, are also examined."
  


• David A. Wirth, Hazardous Substances and Activities (Boston College Law School Faculty Papers, no 188, February 12, 2007)
  
  "This piece analyzes and critically evaluates the enormous number and variety of international instruments addressing the regulation of hazardous substances and activities, from consumer products to nuclear power plants. International authorities are categorized according to regulatory theory, ranging from hazard identification and testing to disposal. Other regulatory approaches include limitations on pollutant releases, prevention of and response to industrial accidents, and international trade in toxic chemicals and waste. Multilateral norms originating from global and regional institutions, UN specialized agencies, and non-UN organizations are analyzed. The piece addresses both 'hard' (binding or conventional) and 'soft' (nonbinding) instruments, correlating legal form with policy purpose. The relationship between each international policy analogous domestic regulatory approaches is explored."