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Regulatory takings initiatives tie communities’ hands

I love sewers. I love them because the alternative is so much worse. Ponder that for a moment.

What the heck do sewers have to do with property rights and regulatory takings? Patience, grasshopper.

As I wrote yesterday, a rash of so-called "property rights" ballot measures in the West are threatening the very basics of community planning and environmental protection. Arizonans are facing Prop 207; Californians are battling Prop 90; Idahoans are up against Prop 2; and Washingtonians are facing Initiative 933. (Montanans and Nevadans recently dodged a bullet when their initiatives were invalidated because of little things like fraud and constitutional violations. More on that in a later installment.)

By design, all the 2006 property ballot measures deploy the same scheme: "pay or waive." That is, you can pay a property owner to obey the law, or you can waive the law.

A small price to pay

Seems like more and more people -- even conservative economists -- are going on record in support of higher gas taxes.

From an economist's point of view, it's a bit of a no brainer. Like just about any addiction, our gasoline habit carries lots of "externalities" -- costs that fall on everyone rather than just the person who uses the gas. (Think climate change, oil spills, air pollution, security vulnerabilities, international military entanglements, economic risk from oil price shocks, etc.)

If we consumers had to pay those costs every time we filled our tanks, we'd use gas a little more sparingly -- and we'd create fewer externalities as a result. Plus, the taxes could provide a source of revenue to deal with the problems created by energy consumption -- say, a dedicated funding source for ramping up efficiency.

But that begs the question -- just how high should the taxes be?

David Quammen chats about evolution, science, religion, and his new book

Though we do not, alas, live in the kind of world where science writers become celebrities, David Quammen has developed an unusually devoted fan base. As a young man he aspired to write fiction, and that sensibility remains evident in science writing that reads like literature — humane, absorbing, occasionally thrilling. His “Natural Acts” column […]

Lots more

The folks at the League of Conservation Voters -- who are not at all milquetoast, but rather courageous and heroic! -- found a bunch more green campaign ads in addition to the ones I talked about here. A whopping 122 of them, in fact. They've put together a playlist on YouTube, which you can browse in the player below.

CPI’s report reveals the rich Rich in sheep’s clothing

Fired up about the ballot initiatives to restrict "regulatory takings" appearing in voting booths all over the West next week? Even more fired up about the thick, non-Western wallets pumping cash into these campaigns?

For insight into the ideological and economic interests behind this election season's hungriest wolf in sheep's clothing, the Center for Public Integrity has a great Takings Initiatives Accountability Project underway.

Great cover story on global warming

I commend you all to this month's cover story in Mother Jones: "The Thirteenth Tipping Point," by Julia Whitty. It's written in that Malcolm-Gladwell-lite style that's so popular these days, filled with fascinating tidbits drawn from academic research you wouldn't normally hear about. It doesn't quite make its central point, but that's all right -- it's more evocative than argumentative anyway, and it's a smashing read.

Most interesting to me was something I hadn't heard of -- an effort by John Schellnhuber, research director at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, to identify the earth's 12 most vulnerable places, those most likely to flip over a tipping point into cascading and devastating changes. They are:

Huanhe or Another

China adds two more industrial accidents to the ledger If it’s Thursday, it must be time for a story about an industrial accident in China. And while we’re at it, why not go for two? An ammonia leak at a fertilizer factory south of Beijing yesterday killed one worker, sickened six residents, and caused the […]

The Stern report on climate change

While I hold firmly to my conviction that economic concerns are not the only or even the paramount considerations when charting a course through a changing climate, nevertheless: economics can't be ignored.

Thus, it is very good news that a reputable mainstream economist, Sir Nicholas Stern, has presented a detailed cost-benefit analysis of climate change mitigation and adaptation to the British government.

A nice little TV clip

Hey, this is cool. Check out a segment from Global TV news hour featuring Jim Hoggan, founder of DeSmogBlog, wherein he talks about the fossil-fuel-funded climate skeptic crowd.

Western ballot measures would gut environmental protections

A couple of weeks ago, while hurrying to a favorite trout stream, I was pulled over for speeding in a small town. I must have been fried from months of research and writing on the so-called "property rights" movement, because it suddenly occurred to me that the current system is backward.

So I said* to the officer: "Listen, if The Man wants me to obey his laws to keep this town safe, then he should pay me for my time."

Now if my reasoning with the cop sounds ridiculous to you,then you may have difficulty grasping the thinking behind the rash of ballot measures spreading across the West like ... well, like a rash.

But there you have it: there's a well-funded and highly ideological campaign with national marching orders. In 2006, they've landed initiatives on the ballot in Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Washington. All the initiatives have the same aim: to force communities to pay property owners to obey land-use laws. And if communities can't pay, they must grant waivers from the law.

(Don't live in one of these states? There's one headed your way soon. Live in Europe? You're next.)