Environment roundup

  • Price of California eggs soars following animal-rights measure [WSJ via Michael Greve] “An Orangutan Has (Some) Human Rights, Argentine Court Rules” [Brandon Keim, Wired via Althouse, related U.S.]
  • Trees cut down by utility “are priceless — each one I could value at $100K,” Fieger said” [Detroit Free Press via @jamestaranto, more on Geoffrey Fieger; henceforth sums of $100,000 will be known as “one Fieger-tree”]
  • As New Englanders struggle with energy costs, pols kill the gas pipelines that could bring relief [Urbanophile]
  • Power-plant regs from EPA, based on flimsy science, show “federal agency twisting statutory language to aggrandize its own power.” [Andrew Grossman; Cato brief in Michigan v. EPA]
  • California state agency proposes regulations purportedly easing burdens of notorious Prop 65 warning law [Cal Biz Lit]
  • “When I got there, there were people in SWAT attire that evacuated our entire factory.” [Chamber’s Faces of Lawsuit Abuse on Gibson Guitar raid]
  • Would a minimalist state funded by Pigouvian taxes run a budget surplus? [Bryan Caplan]

5 Comments

  • California is again leading the way with the progressive two-step:

    1. Impose draconian regulations that markedly increase prices, disproportionately affecting the poor;

    2. Call for higher taxes and more spending to “aid” the suffering masses.

    I suppose the one wrinkle is that, since 1 out of 7 Americans is already on food stamps, the federal government will be indirectly financing much of California’s “Ritz Carlton for Chickens” law. How nice of them to stick us with the bill.

  • Detriot has a rich history of leaf litigation predating the Fieger-tree suit:

    We thought that we would never see
    A suit to compensate a tree.
    A suit whose claim in tort is prest
    Upon a mangled tree’s behest;
    A tree whose battered trunk was prest
    Against a Chevy’s crumpled crest;
    A tree that faces each new day
    With bark and limb in disarray;
    A tree that may forever bear
    A lasting need for tender care.
    Flora lovers though we three,
    We must uphold the court’s decree.

    Fisher v Lowe, 122 Mich. App. 418, 333 N.W.2d 67 (1983), lv den., 417 Mich. 1100 (1983);

    Connected case, Fischer v. Detroit Free Press, Inc., 158 Mich. App. 409, 404 N.W.2d 765 (1987), app. den., 428 Mich. 914 (1987), recon. den., 429 Mich. 881, 429 Mich. 882 (1987).

  • I just paid $6.09 for a dozen large eggs. Not organic, not “cage free”, just a dozen regular large supermarket eggs.

    The Californians who marched to the polls to vote in this price gauge are pure evil. There’s no other way to describe them. They doubled the cost of one of the best sources of protein and healthy calories.

  • RE: Tree cutting by power company.

    Something similar happened recently happened in Cocoa Beach, FL. Residents were notified on January 6 and January 15 through the City Government newsletter that Florida Power and Light (FPL)would be “trimming” Washingtonia palm trees along a road median in the city.

    FPL came on the 20th and began to cut the trees down – not “trimming” them. Early in the afternoon, a notice went out to residents that the trees would be cut. This notice was given after FPL had cut many of the trees down.

    Residents are furious at the 50 year old trees being cut without proper notice or input. No one from the City Commission (Council) was aware of the cuttings. No one in the City government has taken responsibility for giving FPL the go ahead to cut – not trim – the trees.

    Whether lawyers will get involved or not is speculation at this time, but residents are looking at that option.

    See more here at: http://raisedonhoecakes.com/ROH/2015/01/28/paul-bunyan-visits-cocoa-beach-residents-howl-in-protest/

  • “The Californians who marched to the polls to vote in this price gauge are pure evil. ”

    But it’s just so sad that those poor, poor chickens have such awful lives and we have to do something to help those poor birdies!