Overlawyered » environment

The trouble with Nicholas Kristof, cont’d

Walter Olson — Tue, 22 May 2012 19:49:00 +0000

The other day the Chicago Tribune documented a longstanding campaign (see Friday link) to get government bodies to adopt standards requiring flameproofing of furniture upholstery, carpets and other household materials. Turns out key actors in that campaign were companies that make the chemicals used in flameproofing, which thereby guaranteed themselves a giant market for their products, as well as cigarette companies that worried that they would face regulatory and legal pressure over fires caused by careless smoking and decided to pursue a strategy of turning the issue into someone else’s problem.

Unfortunately, according to the Tribune series, the supposedly flameproof furnishings 1) aren’t necessarily very good at reducing fire risk and 2) are doused with chemicals that one might not want rubbing off on one’s family and pets. That’s aside from the regulations’ obvious cost in making furnishings more expensive and narrowing consumer choice by excluding producers unable or unwilling to use the chemical treatments. Whether or not you accept the series’ interpretation in all respects — the authors tend to taken an alarmist line, for example, on the chemicals’ environmental dangers — it’s useful as reminder #83,951 that government regulation often is driven by motives quite different from those advertised, and in particular by business lobbies whose interest is frequently squarely opposed to laissez-faire.

On Sunday, Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, criticized lately in this space for his views on supposed Big Beer responsibility for Indian reservation alcoholism, addressed the flameproofing story in his column. After reciting the controversy — laying a particular emphasis on chemical alarmism, long a specialty of his — Kristof concludes as follows:

This campaign season, you’ll hear fervent denunciations of “burdensome government regulation.” When you do, think of the other side of the story: your home is filled with toxic flame retardants that serve no higher purpose than enriching three companies. The lesson is that we need not only safer couches but also a political system less distorted by toxic money.

Which affords James Taranto of the WSJ’s “Best of the Web” this response:

The guy is so blinded by ideology that he fails to notice he has just given an example of burdensome government regulation.

Tags: environment, expert witnesses, fires, lobbyists, New York Times, safety

The trouble with Nicholas Kristof, cont’d is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

At the sound of English bell-ringing…

Walter Olson — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 12:50:43 +0000

“…your heart will lift up, unless you are the noise nuisance officer of North Somerset….For the time being, the chimes of Wrington have been silenced,” owing to a noise complaint lodged by a weekending Londoner. [A.N. Wilson, The Independent]

Tags: churches, environment, music and musicians, United Kingdom

At the sound of English bell-ringing… is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 6 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 05:11:54 +0000

D.C. Circuit’s Janice Rogers Brown: three-decade-long case over Iran dairy expropriation raises “harshest caricature of the American litigation system” [BLT]
Legal blogger Mark Bennett runs for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals as Libertarian [Defending People, Scott Greenfield] And Prof. Bill Childs, often linked in this space, is departing TortsProf (and legal academia) to join a private law practice in Texas;
Ambitious damage claims, more modest settlements abound in Louisiana oil-rig cleanup suits [ATLA's Judicial Hellholes, more, more, earlier]
Better no family at all: Lawprof Banzhaf jubilant over courts’ denial of adoption to smokers [his press release]
“The worst discovery request I’ve ever gotten” [Patrick at Popehat] And yours?
Concession to reality? Class action against theater over high cost of movie snacks seen as dud [Detroit Free Press]
FCPA is for pikers, K Street shows how real corruption gets done [Bill Frezza, Forbes] Dems threatening tax-bill retribution against clients whose lobbyists who back GOP candidates [Politico]

Tags: adoption, D.C. Circuit, discovery, environment, legal blogs, lobbyists, Louisiana, movies film and videos, oil industry, smoking bans, Texas

March 6 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Connecticut: officials behaving badly

Walter Olson — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:09:30 +0000

“Deputy Commissioner Jonathan Schrag of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection was forced to resign his position in the Malloy administration over his involvement in a menacing phone message left at the home of a conservative activist.” After a group calling itself Conservative Women’s Forum alerted its supporters to the threat to property rights posed by a pending coastal management bill, a late-night phone message from Schrag’s phone to the home of the forum’s leader, Cynthia David, warned that the group’s emails were being “observed.” You can listen to the phone message here. Schrag is a Harvard graduate and Fulbright scholar. [Kevin Rennie, Hartford Courant; editorial]

Tags: Connecticut, environment

Connecticut: officials behaving badly is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

U.N. power grabs

Walter Olson — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 05:24:32 +0000

“On Feb. 27, a diplomatic process will begin in Geneva that could result in a new treaty giving the United Nations unprecedented powers over the Internet.” [Robert McDowell, WSJ] And: The United States and Canada are resisting French-backed plans to turn the low-profile U.N. Environmental Program into a “planetary super-agency,” in a conflict that could come to a head at a Rio conference this June. [AFP]

Tags: environment, France, international law, United Nations

U.N. power grabs is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 24 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 05:07:47 +0000

Melissa Kite, columnist with Britain’s Spectator, writes about her low-speed car crash and its aftermath [first, second, third, fourth]
NYT’s Nocera lauds Keystone pipeline, gets called “global warming denier” [NYTimes] More about foundations’ campaign to throttle Alberta tar sands [Coyote] Regulations mandating insurance “disclosures” provide another way for climate change activists to stir the pot [Insurance and Technology]
“Cop spends weeks to trick an 18-year-old into possession and sale of a gram of pot” [Frauenfelder, BB]
Federal Circuit model order, pilot program could show way to rein in patent e-discovery [Inside Counsel, Corporate Counsel] December Congressional hearing on discovery costs [Lawyers for Civil Justice]
Trial lawyer group working with Senate campaigns in North Dakota, Nevada, Wisconsin, Hawaii [Rob Port via LNL] President of Houston Trial Lawyers Association makes U.S. Senate bid [Chron]
Panel selection: “Jury strikes matter” [Ron Miller, Maryland Injury]
Law-world summaries/Seventeen syllables long/@legal_haiku (& for a similar treatment of high court cases, check out @SupremeHaiku)

Tags: Canada, climate change, discovery, environment, global warming, Hawaii, humor, illegal drugs, jury selection, low-speed auto collisions, Nevada, North Dakota, oil industry, patent litigation, politics, Senate, United Kingdom, Wisconsin

February 24 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

N.J.: town “official bemoans $12K in paperwork to remove tree from creek”

Walter Olson — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:12:46 +0000

New Jersey: “The state Department of Environmental Protection requires permits and engineering work totaling $12,000 before the township can pull a tree out of a creek near Pittstown, Committeeman Scott Bauman told the Township Committee on Feb. 9.” The tree fell on private property and is causing a drainage problem by obstructing the creek. [Hunterdon County Democrat]

Tags: environment, New Jersey, trees

N.J.: town “official bemoans $12K in paperwork to remove tree from creek” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

When federal defendants settle lawsuits

Walter Olson — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:11:47 +0000

Jenna Greene reports in the National Law Journal (reg) on the Judgment Fund, an obscure entity within the federal government that last year paid to settle more than 5,000 lawsuits against federal agencies. For the most part, its payouts are not subtracted from agency budgets, and overall dollar figures tend to be dominated by a few special situations such as (most recently) lawsuits by utilities over alleged Energy Department breach of contract for nuclear fuel storage, and by Indian tribes against the Department of the Interior and Department of Agriculture over financial mismanagement and alleged discrimination. A smaller, but controversial, category of payouts that has attracted Congressional attention consists of settlements with “cause” organizations such as environmentalists that sue to force policy change.

“The strange thing is the lack of transparency,” said Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies. “Settlements deserve scrutiny.…There’s no reason why as a public process there shouldn’t be fine-grained disclosure.”

In April, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) introduced the Judgment Fund Transparency Act of 2011, which would require Treasury (unless barred by a court order or law) to make public the names of plaintiffs and counsel, plus a brief description of the facts that gave rise to the payments and a breakdown of principal and attorney fees.

However, Greene reports, the Issa measure has attracted no co-sponsors and is stuck in House Judiciary with no apparent plans for action.

Tags: attorneys' fees, environment

When federal defendants settle lawsuits is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 28 roundup

Walter Olson — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:07:17 +0000

Voters unseat prosecutor in office during Luzerne County cash-for-kids scandal [Wendy N. Davis, ABA Journal]
Obama plan for mass refinance overriding terms of mortgages “could permanently drive housing finance costs higher” [James Pethokoukis]
In Sackett v. EPA case, SCOTUS will decide which EPA enforcement actions if any should escape judicial review [Ilya Shapiro/Cato, Adler, Root] Keystone XL episode gives reason to revisit NEPA [Conn Carroll] Ninth Circuit ruling on forest road runoff will test Obama position [David Freddoso]
Debate at Point of Law on President’s recess appointment power between Jason Mazzone and Andrew M. Grossman;
Lobbyists help get traffic-cams back on Connecticut legislative agenda [Chris Fountain]
Read it here first: “Courts push back on bribery prosecutions” [Reuters]
“In my little corner of the Blawgosphere, few things drive traffic like an Overlawyered link. Thank you, @walterolson.” [George Wallace]

Tags: accolades, Connecticut, environment, Environmental Protection Agency, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Luzerne County judicial scandal, mortgages, red light cameras, Supreme Court

January 28 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Perfume restrictions in the news

Walter Olson — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:27:42 +0000

Under a bill introduced by a New Hampshire legislator, “state employees who interact with the public would not be allowed to wear perfume. Rep. Michele Peckham, R-North Hampton, is the prime sponsor of the perfume bill, which she said she put forward after a constituent asked her to do so. She said there are people allergic to fragrances. ‘It may seem silly, but it’s a health issue,’ Peckham said. ‘Many people have violent reactions to strong scents.’” [Union-Leader via Radley Balko, who calls it reductio creep] Similar proposals have surfaced in places like Portland, Ore., and “perfume sensitivity” lawsuits have been reported from Detroit and New Jersey (& welcome WSJ Law Blog readers; day’s “Five Must-Read Stories”).

Tags: environment, New Hampshire

Perfume restrictions in the news is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system