An excellent article by Charles Duhigg in the NY Times on November 23, 2009, detailed the degree to which cities around the United States have violated water pollution control standards by dumping raw sewage into our waterways. Unlike the situation he described in a similar piece a few months ago, the violators are Read More
As the nations of the world prepare to meet in Denmark in December, there is some well publicized noise being emitted to lower expectations for a climate treaty. The United States and China-the two largest emitters of greenhouse gasses (over 40% of the world's pollutant load)-appear to be at the center of this effort at Read More
About a week before Election Day, with little fanfare, the Bloomberg Administration announced its one hundredth zoning change since the mayor came into office in 2002. In New York City, zoning is one of the most important regulatory tools available to government in its efforts to enhance sustainability and the quality of life available for Read More
Two major pieces of President Obama's agenda are heading toward legislative action of some sort over the next several months. The first is health care reform, recently endorsed by both the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). The second is climate and energy legislation, approved by the Senate Environment Read More
My parents moved to Brooklyn in 1955 when I was almost two years old, and by the time I was four, the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants had played their last home games in the five boroughs. Until Casey Stengel and the Mets arrived in 1962, the only baseball team in town was the Read More
Saturday's New York Times and much of our local media have been calling attention to the amazing amount of money that Mike Bloomberg is spending on his reelection campaign. In the end, he will spend between $100 million and $150 million on his personal stimulus program for New York's political consultant and media industry. He Read More
At the start of my professional career, I worked for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and, like many, I found the federal government to be a source of both inspiration and frustration. It was frustrating because getting it in motion was like turning around a huge cruise ship (no, not the Titanic!). It Read More
Barack Obama’s Presidency is less than a year old, and he has already found himself on the roller coaster ride of American politics, media and celebrity. It must have been a pleasant surprise to wake to the news on October 9th that he had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. While it will be derided Read More
Watching Jon Stewart use Capn’ Crunch as the logo for climate cap and trade regulation the other night started me thinking about the need for our society to get more sophisticated about its understanding of economics, policy, and science. My reaction to the pitiful state of our public policy dialogue is what you might expect Read More
In the last several days, some of the attention in our nation’s capital has shifted back to the issue of climate change. Most concretely, EPA has finally taken the essential step of regulating Carbon Dioxide as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. Meanwhile, over in the U.S. Senate, Senators Kerry and Boxer have introduced Read More
A few days ago, New York City announced its “Cool Roofs” initiative, an effort to save energy by combining volunteerism and green design. According to the Mayor’s press release:
"Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and former Vice President and founder of the Alliance for Climate Protection Al Gore today launched an NYC Service initiative, “NYC Cool Read More
This weekend found President Obama hitting every Sunday TV talk show to talk up health care policy. For some environmental advocates, this focus deepened their concern that the United States would lose this moment and punt on climate policy. However, take heart, this week the U.N.’s climate summit begins in New York and the President Read More
For those of us who worked closely with environmental professionals during the eight years of the Bush Administration, we know that it was a time of declining resources and reduced political support for environmental regulation. It was demoralizing and more than a little scary. Last weekend an excellent piece of environmental reporting by the New Read More
The civility of our political discourse was not helped the other night when South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson called President Obama a liar on the floor of the Congress. Fortunately, his outburst was followed by his rapid apology and the President’s quick acceptance of that apology. I would like to think that the follow-up may Read More
On August 27th, New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced that his office will provide $1.8 million of a $7 million settlement with a number of towns in Westchester that had been illegally dumping raw sewage into the Bronx River.
The idea here is to use existing ecosystems to filter pollutants and Read More
