EPA’s New Carbon Rules: How to Form a Future Compromise

kernenergieThe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced it will unveil carbon emissions standards for all newly built power plants in the United States.  The New York Times reported the new standards will allow natural gas power plants to emit up to 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour, and new coal powered plants may admit up to 1,400 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour.  As the article notes, natural gas power generators will easily meet the new standard.  However, many coal producers fear the 1,400 pound standard will all but kill the construction of future coal power plants, as the technology necessary to “scrub” the emissions to this lower level require new technologies and equipment which renders coal powered plants economically unviable.

While this EPA standard continues the fight between the Obama administration and environmentalists on one side, and conservatives (generally, although in many coal producing states the democratic representatives also disfavor the new EPA regulations for local economic reasons) and the power industry on the other, what is lost in this fight is any real attempt to find common ground on other power sources that work, without massive cost to the environment or the economy: nuclear power.  Quite simply, the Obama administration and the conservatives could both score economic and political points if they adopt an albeit radical idea domestically: trading nuclear bombs for nuclear energy.

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Law and Law School in Six Words

One of the things we try to teach our law students is how to write concisely. And nothing is more concise than a story in six words. If you aren’t familiar with six-word stories, let me briefly (in six words) explain.  Ernest Hemingway wrote one; won bet.  Okay, more fully, it’s said that in the 1920s, Hemingway’s colleagues bet him he couldn’t write a story in six words.  He wrote:  For sale: baby shoes, never used. Some say that Hemingway considered it his best work. (But see here for evidence that Hemingway never wrote those six words.)

Writing a six-word story is creative and fun—and great practice at being concise. Here are several six-word stories about law school or other law-related themes, contributed by faculty and students. My goal is to continue to collect such stories and post them as they come in. Please consider writing your own six-word story and posting it as a comment. Or email it to me at lisa.mazzie@marquette.edu.

Answer:  “It depends”

worked

most days

Professor Rebecca Blemberg

 

Old dog, new liberalism; Antonin Scalia.

Gil Simpson, 2L

 

I loved fearlessly, despite the law.

Professor Ed Fallone

 

Fourteenth circuit moot court is real.

Brittany Kachingwe, 3L

 

Cost-benefit analysis rules the case.

Professor Melissa Greipp

 

Personal jurisdiction in six words? Ha!

Professor Irene Ten Cate

 

UPDATE (9/21/13):  The six-word stories keep rolling in.  Here are some more.  Please keep them coming!

Don’t outsource, let our lawyers work.

Angelina Joseph

 

“Habeas Corpus,” the third-year student cried.

Professor David Austin, California Western School of Law

 

Hanging shingles, he fell into debt.

Professor David Austin, California Western School of Law

 

Legal writer, for sale, bores family.

Submitted by the children of Professor Ruth Anne Robbins, Rutgers School of Law – Camden

 

Friday night, legal writing: the usual.

Submitted by the children of Professor Ruth Anne Robbins, Rutgers School of Law – Camden

 

I worked hard. It paid off.

Professor Candace Centeno, Villanova

 

Perseverance in law: Constance, Thurgood, and Desegregation.

Professor Bernadette Gargano, SUNY Buffalo Law School

 

No better preparation for serving humanity.

Professor Kirsten K. Davis, Stetson University College of Law

 

“Heads full of mush” learn clarity.
Professor Sue Liemer, School of Law, Southern Illinois University

 

Students never saw Paper Chase, alas.

Professor Bruce Ching, Michigan State University College of Law

 

Ruth Anne Robbins submits the following, written by her 2L and 3L students:

1L: scared; 2L: burnt; 3L: done.

2L. One month deep, doggy-paddling. Quicksand?

Sanity sustained by pounds of coffee.

Work Harder Than Ever, No Guarantees.

1L, 2L, 3L, Bar Exam, Floor.

Should have read the “Slacker’s Guide.”

 

 

 

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In Case You Missed It: We’re Still Heading Towards a Debt Crisis

These past few weeks have seen their share of crisis and controversy in the nation’s capital. But, yesterday’s news from the CBO is significant and should not be missed. It will play a major role in the debt ceiling and budget debates that will highlight the next two months.

Yesterday, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its annual report on the long-term budget projections for the federal government. Their conclusion: despite the sequestration cuts and tax hikes on the rich from last year, the United States is still on a path towards a debt crisis because we have not reigned in our spending on entitlements.

According to the CBO, “[t]he $2.1 trillion in spending cuts passed by Congress in 2011 won’t curb the growth of entitlements that poses a fiscal-crisis risk in the next 25 years.” (Bloomberg). Consequently, by 2038, the public debt will be equal to the total output of the U.S. economy. And as The New York Times described it, “lawmakers have been cutting the wrong kind of federal spending as they try to avoid the unsustainable buildup of debt that is projected in the coming decades.”

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