Environmental Law

In The News (October 9)

By Dennis Pfaff and Kevin Livingston, Editors

• An immediate focus by the United States on curbing climate change and making the transition to clean energy could start the economic engine needed to pull the world back from the financial brink, a top climate policy expert tells Reuters.
• At the same time, there might be pushback from some sectors, with leaders of European Union countries planning to use the global financial crisis as an excuse to go back on climate change commitments, according to sources cited by the U.K.'s Guardian.
• But there are also signs that European officials want to see other countries contribute to anti-global warming efforts, by pressing non-European Union nations to cut emissions from aviation, says this dispatch from Reuters.
• That first-ever carbon auction the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states held the other day generated about $2.6 million for Maine, which just announced it will use the first $750,000 of that money for weatherization and energy efficiency programs this winter, reports the Bangor Daily News.
• Northern California utility Pacific Gas and Electric Company says it has completed its 25,000th net metered solar interconnection in its northern and central California service area, representing almost half of the nation’s customer-owned solar, from a company statement.  
• The economics are complicated, but there's a suggestion from a new report that the impending surge in renewable energy in the United States could actually bring down power prices, according to this posting on the Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital.

Full post as published by Climate Law Update on October 09, 2008 (boomark / email).