Energy & Environment: Markey Wants Answers on Rare Earths
• Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., "is pressing the Obama administration for information about alleged Chinese restrictions on the export of rare earth minerals used in defense and energy technologies, warning of threats to U.S. interests," The Hill reports.
• "Three months after BP capped its runaway well in the Gulf of Mexico, the state of Louisiana is still building a chain of sand berms off its coast to block and capture oil even as federal officials and many scientists argue that the effort will prove pointless," the New York Times reports.
• An Idaho couple has "sued the state to stop the shipments by Imperial Oil and ConocoPhillips" to an oil sands site in Canada, "arguing that the" truck loads delivered there "would threaten the integrity of Idaho's historic portion of U.S. 12, as well as the safety of communities that depend on it as the main road in and out of the area," the Times also reports. "National environmental groups and climate change activists are supporting their efforts, seeing a broader opportunity to stall development of Canada's oil sands, which they denounce as a dirty source of energy. "
• "Combating climate change has long taken a back seat to coal production in West Virginia, but in the hard-fought House race in this state's 1st district, global warming hasn't even made it onto the bus," The Hill reports. "In interviews on Thursday, both the Democratic and Republican nominees for Congress voiced skepticism of the science behind global warming, and the Republican, David McKinley, flatly called concerns about climate change 'an attack on coal.'"
Contributor
Mark A. Cohen
Biography provided by participant
Mark A. Cohen is Vice President for Research and Senior Fellow at Resources for the Future, a non-profit, non-partisan think tank focusing on energy, environment, natural resources and public health policy. He also serves as Professor of Management and Law at the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University, where he has been a faculty member since 1986. Previously, he served as a staff economist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
Professor Cohen is an expert on government enforcement of environmental policy, having published over 85 articles and books on such diverse topics as: the effect of Community Right to Know laws on firm behavior; why firms reduce toxic chemical emissions; cost-benefit analysis of oil spill regulation and enforcement; and does it "pay" to go beyond compliance? An expert of corporate sustainability disclosure, he was appointed as an inaugural member of the Stakeholder Council of the Global Reporting Initiative.
At Vanderbilt, he taught MBA and law students courses on environmental management, corporate social responsibility, and the law and business of climate change. He also co-founded and directed the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies (VCEMS). From 2003-2005, he served as Senior Associate Dean of the Owen Graduate School at Vanderbilt.
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