Month: March 2018
Will Pruitt join Sessions In Expanding the Federal Government’s Attack on California?
California Vehicle Emissions Standards At Stake
It’s no secret that the Trump Administration has it out for California. Attorney General Jeff Sessions just sued the state for its refusal to aid Immigration and Customs Enforcement in detaining undocumented immigrants. Donald Trump just claimed that highly popular Governor Jerry Brown is doing a terrible job, despite Brown leading California out of a …
CONTINUE READINGThe Disagreeable Mr. Pruitt
The list of his six worst traits starts with paranoia and ends with unbounded ambition.
I’m sure that Scott Pruitt has his good side. Probably he loves dogs. But his bad traits are, well, pretty hard to overlook. Here are some of the main characteristics of the man who is now charged by statute with protecting our environment: Paranoia. As Grist says, “in just his first year, he has reportedly …
Continue reading “The Disagreeable Mr. Pruitt”
CONTINUE READINGCLEE Launches California Climate Policy Dashboard
New resource offers snapshot of state’s climate laws, programs, and regulators
The Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) at UC Berkeley School of Law has launched the California Climate Policy Dashboard, a new web resource offering an overview of the key laws, programs and agencies driving California’s pioneering effort to tackle climate change, including: The landmark greenhouse gas emission reduction laws, AB 32 and …
Continue reading “CLEE Launches California Climate Policy Dashboard”
CONTINUE READINGContentious California Beach Access Case Heads to U.S. Supreme Court
Longstanding Martins Beach Controversy May Well Capture Justices’ Attention
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018-19 Term is already shaping up as a big one for environmental law in general and the longstanding tension between private property rights and environmental regulation in particular. The Court has already agreed to hear and decide two cases next Term raising the latter set of issues: one involves the question …
Continue reading “Contentious California Beach Access Case Heads to U.S. Supreme Court”
CONTINUE READINGGlobal market for ecosystem services surges to $36 billion in annual transactions
New article in Nature Sustainability tracks global payments for ecosystems services
In the early 1990s, New York City began paying for land management in the Catskills watershed to ensure safe drinking water for the city, avoiding the cost of building an expensive water treatment plant. New York City provides just one example of a growing number of programs – called payments for ecosystem services (PES) – …
Continue reading “Global market for ecosystem services surges to $36 billion in annual transactions”
CONTINUE READINGGoing Private
A new book argues that businesses and individuals can take the lead in reducing emissions.
Beyond Politics: The Private Governance Response to Climate Change, by Michael Vandenbergh and Jonathan Gilligan, is an ambitious effort to demonstrate the promise of non-governmental efforts to reduce emissions. They argue it is a mistake to pin all our hopes to one climate strategy like a national cap-and-trade system. For this reason, they argue that …
Continue reading “Going Private”
CONTINUE READINGGuest Blogger Ken Alex: Political Will to Address Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Post #9 in a Series on California Climate Policy by Ken Alex, Senior Policy Advisor to Gov. Jerry Brown
[This is the ninth post in a series expressing my view of why California’s actions on climate change are so important and how they will change the world. The introductory post provides an overview and some general context.] I said at the outset of these blog posts that political will and the issue of scale are bigger …
Continue reading “Guest Blogger Ken Alex: Political Will to Address Greenhouse Gas Emissions”
CONTINUE READINGRed-State Utilities Go Green
Utilities are moving away from coal & toward renewables, even in GOP states.
Even in Republican states, there has been a regulatory movement to expand the use of renewables. (see this report for more.) Perhaps even more surprisingly, some utilities and generating companies that now use a lot of coal are voluntarily turning to renewables. Here are some recent examples: Ohio. In February, AEP explained that “Our customers …
Continue reading “Red-State Utilities Go Green”
CONTINUE READINGSupreme Court to Decide Another Major Property Rights Case
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018-19 Term is shaping up as a most consequential one when it comes to the intersection of environmental regulation and constitutionally-protected property rights. Today the Court agreed to hear and decide an important “regulatory takings” case: Knick v. Township of Scott, Pennsylvania, No. 17-647. (Recently, Legal Planet colleague Holly Doremus wrote …
Continue reading “Supreme Court to Decide Another Major Property Rights Case”
CONTINUE READINGGuest Blogger Ken Alex: Reducing Emissions is Not Enough
Post #8 in a Series on California Climate Policy by Ken Alex, Senior Policy Advisor to Gov. Jerry Brown
[This is the eighth post in a series expressing my view of why California’s actions on climate change are so important and how they will change the world. The introductory post provides an overview and some general context.] Under the Paris Agreement, countries agreed to hold the increase in the global average temperature to “well below 2°C …
Continue reading “Guest Blogger Ken Alex: Reducing Emissions is Not Enough”
CONTINUE READING