GM cleanup of the Bedford Superfund site.

President Barack Obama has nominated a lawyer for the nation’s largest toxic polluters to run the enforcement of the nation’s environmental laws. On Tuesday, Obama “announced his intent to nominate” Ignacia S. Moreno to be Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division in the Department of Justice. Moreno, general counsel for that department during the Clinton administration, is now the corporate environmental counsel for General Electric, “America’s #1 Superfund Polluter“:

Number five in the Fortune 500 with revenues of $89.3 billion and earnings of $8.2 billion in 1997, General Electric has been a leader in the effort to roll back the Superfund law and stave off any requirements for full cleanup and restoration of sites they helped create.

This February, General Electric lost an eight-year battle to “prove that parts of the Superfund law are unconstitutional.” One of the 600-person DOJ environmental division’s “primary responsibilities is to enforce federal civil and criminal environmental laws such as” the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Superfund.

Before General Electric, Moreno worked as a corporate attorney at Spriggs and Hollingsworth. Moreno’s name is found in the Westlaw database as an attorney defending General Motors in another Superfund case, the GM Powertrain facility in Bedford, Indiana:

Historical uses and management of PCB containing hydraulic oils and PCB impacted materials has contaminated on-site areas as well as the sediment and floodplain soil within Bailey’s Branch and the Pleasant Run Creek watershed.

Although General Motors entered into an agreement in 2001 with the EPA to clean up the site, a number of local residents whose land has been contaminated by polychorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have sued for damages in Allgood v. GM (now Barlow v. GM), in a contentious and caustic dispute over cleanup, monitoring, and lost property values.

During the Clinton administration, Moreno was involved in another controversial case, unsuccessfully defending the Secretary of Commerce’s decision to weaken the dolphin-safe tuna standard. In Brower v. Daley, Earth Island Institute, The Humane Society of the United States, and other individuals and organizations brought suit against the United States government for actions that were “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and contrary to law,” winning their case in 2000.

UPDATE:  Full bill is here.

Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Ed Markey (D-MA) have circulated a draft proposal of allowance allocations for their landmark energy and climate legislation (see here and below).  They explain:

Emission allowances will be allocated to accomplish three primary goals: (1) to protect consumers from energy price increases; (2) to assist industry in the transition to a clean energy economy; and (3) to spur energy efficiency and the development and deployment of clean energy technology. A small amount of allowances will be allocated to prevent deforestation and support national and international adaptation efforts and for other purposes.

No doubt many environmentalists and progressives will be unhappy with the amount of money that appear to go to polluters.  But in fact, most of that money goes to regulated entities, and the regulators can and will make sure that the money goes to consumers and businesses, as well as energy efficiency programs, and not windfall profits.  One of the progressive community’s leading experts on utilities has agreed to write a guest blog post on this very subject for me next week.

While giving most of the money directly back to consumers is certainly my preference, that is just not the way the politics plays, at least at first.  I will say that giving the money to the regulated utilities does have the added benefit of regional equity.  One of the greatest sources of opposition to giving most of this money back through the tax system comes from Midwestern and Southern politicians who see that strategy as taking money from their constituents and giving it to those of us who live on the coasts.

If you still think this is a rip-off and/or don’t think the public utility commissioners will get the money into the hands of consumers, I’d urge you to read (or watch) this E&E TV interview of Richard Morgan, a DC commissioner and leader of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ Task Force on Climate.  He explains that regulated utilities “can’t just set prices wherever they want and, in fact, as utility regulators we’re obligated to pass along to consumers any of the benefits of free emissions allowances that these regulated utilities might receive.”

Morgan further explains

We can use these funds to lower their rates or we could direct the funds to be spent on energy efficiency programs, low income assistance, or perhaps research on new clean technologies to help us find better ways to address the climate situation.

The bottom line for me is that I just don’t see the allocations as a reason to oppose this bill or indeed as a reason not to strongly support it.

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Climate science warns that a permanent Dust Bowl is in store for the U.S. southwest — and many other parts of the world — post-2050 on our current emissions path (see USGS stunner: SW faces “permanent drying” by 2050 and NOAA stunner:  SW faces permanent Dust Bowls).  Turns out we’re already starting to see the shape of things to come.

Climate change, water shortages conspire to create 21st century Dust Bowl

Dust storms accelerated by a warming climate have covered the Rocky Mountains with dirt whose heat-trapping properties have caused snowpacks to melt weeks earlier than normal, worrying officials in Colorado about drastic water shortages by late summer.

Snowpacks from the San Juan Mountains to the Front Range have either completely melted or will be gone within the next two weeks, said Tom Painter, director of the Snow Optics Laboratory at the University of Utah and a leading expert on snowmelt.

The rapid melting is linked to a spate of intense dust storms that kick up dirt and sand that in turn are deposited on snow-topped mountains. The dust darkens the snow, allowing the surface to absorb more heat from the sun. This warms the snow — and the air above it — significantly, studies show.

Search for GOP votes starts (and ends?) with Bono Mack

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The American Clean Energy and Security Act (aka Waxman-Markey) would achieve a significant reduction in greenhouse gas pollution by 2020 equivalent to taking 500 million cars off the road.  By 2030, those savings double.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), authored by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-CA) and House Energy and Environment Subcommittee Chair Ed Markey (D-MA) would achieve a significant reduction in the greenhouse gases responsible for global warming. The ACES mandates a 17-percent reduction in greenhouse gases below 2005 levels by 2020. That translates into a cut of 1.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2020 compared to inaction, according to a projection based on an analysis by the World Resources Institute. This is comparable to taking 500 million cars off the road, which is twice the number of U.S. cars today, and half the cars expected in the world in 2020.

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