My post on the Portland Climate Action Plan has gotten some reaction, which I take as a good thing. For as reasoned a defense of local climate action as is possible in the space of a blog post, take a look at Holly Doremus’s response in Legal Planet, the Law and Environmental Policy Blog. If the Portland plan really were just about filling in the interstices and addressing local issues, I would be more inclined to agree. However, that’s not how I see the plan. We won’t know the details of how the plan will be implemented for some time, but much of it is simply regulatory. Moreover, it’s very likely that those regulations will be of a traditional command and control sort and will indeed duplicate in some way what a federal program is or should be doing.
In any case, thanks for the reaction. Next time, post a comment. If someone hadn’t let me know about your response, I never would have seen it.