Everything is Awesome!
Well, not really, but China's astonishing progress in curbing emissions points to a technological way forward — and how the United States is being left behind.
There is so much that is awful, so let’s see some good news for once: China’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions were unchanged from a year earlier in the third quarter of 2025, extending a flat or falling trend that started in March 2024. The rapid adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) saw CO2 emissions from transport fuel drop by 5% year-on-year, while there were also declines from cement and steel production. The new analysis for Carbon Brief shows that while...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Inaction is an Affordability Problem
The costs of climate change, especially those from climate-related natural disasters, are already substantial for US households.
This post is authored by UCLA Law's Kimberly A. Clausing along with guest contributors Christopher R. Knittel and Catherine Wolfram. Many of us have seen large increases in our homeowner’s insurance premia in recent years – yet another cost increase that is putting strain on homeowners and driving up rents. In forthcoming work for the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (working paper here), we detail the affordability impacts of climate change and show that...
CONTINUE READINGYes, Secretary Noem, We Really Do Need FEMA
An advisory committee suggests upgrading FEMA, but Noem still hopes to gut it.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that a special advisory council has recommended that FEMA be strengthened and taken out of DHS. Secretary Noem is unconvinced and seems to be trying to bury the recommendations. She’s wrong. FEMA really is needed, and the reasons tell us a lot about what kinds of reforms make sense. First responders are usually state and local – they’re already nearby – and much of the work of reconstruction is also overseen locally. ...
CONTINUE READINGA Full-Court Press on Methane, Climate in the Governor’s Race
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
Replacing high-carbon fossil fuels with clean energy while also adapting to climate change — that’s the ballgame. But we may not get to the ninth inning in one piece if we don’t deal with methane first. That’s one takeaway from the COP30 UN climate summit. Pick your metaphor — and there are many — but methane is Enemy No. 1 right now, because the extremely potent greenhouse gas is responsible for nearly a third of global warming but has a shorter life ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Promise and Growing Pains of Managed Aquifer Recharge
By Dave Owen, Helen E. Dahlke, Andrew T. Fisher, Ellen Bruno, and Michael Kiparsky
Around the world, groundwater mismanagement is a major driver of water crises. An emerging method for addressing such mismanagement, called managed aquifer recharge, has generated excitement among scholars and water managers. In a newly published article (Owen et al. 2025), we argue that this excitement, while often justified, should also be tempered by acknowledgment of MAR’s limitations. We also identify policy changes that can help MAR succeed. MAR’s pote...
CONTINUE READINGThe CPUC Makes Good on Neighborhood Electrification
The state’s gas utilities tried to delay priority zones for decarbonization. The CPUC rejected that approach and has selected priority neighborhoods.
Here's something to celebrate: the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) released its proposed decision designating initial priority neighborhood decarbonization zones. Loyal readers of Legal Planet will have followed our coverage on SB 1221, a law passed last fall that allows the CPUC to support “neighborhood decarbonization zones” to transition away from natural gas toward zero-emissions alternatives. Phasing out natural gas in favor of electrified...
CONTINUE READINGRed States and the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce are Climate Champions?
The hypocrisy in Iowa v. Wright is nauseating.
Guess which parties made the following arguments about climate change in a recently decided Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals case, Iowa v. Wright? A group of red states and the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce (AMFREE). The case involves an obscure but important formula, known as the Petroleum Efficiency Factor (PEF), applied when automakers use electric vehicles to comply with fuel economy standards (the "CAFE" standards) by assigning eac...
CONTINUE READINGPointing a Finger at Methane
UCLA launches the STOP Methane Project with Top 25 in '25 lists of methane super-polluters.
Almost exactly 10 years ago, I got a call from a Los Angeles city leader asking if I'd be willing to attend a town hall in Porter Ranch, California, to help field questions about the unfolding disaster that was the Aliso Canyon natural gas leak, to provide background on environmental law for the discussion. As many of you know and may even remember, the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility leaked an enormous amount of gas into nearby neighborhoods for four month...
CONTINUE READINGTurning Conservative Legal Theories Against Trump
Is the risk of legitimizing bad ideas worth it? Maybe so, under the circumstances.
Should we use conservatives’ ideas to fight the current threat to democracy and the rule of law? Can we afford not to? For decades, conservatives have been obsessed with the idea of a runaway federal government crushing everything in its path. They’ve been successful in promoting ideas to rein in Leviathan, at a time when by our lights the government was behaving very reasonably. But now we really do have a rampaging federal government. Conservative ideas c...
CONTINUE READINGWhat the Hell Happened To The Sierra Club?
Its recent implosion over left-wing politics shows a trend that threatens environmental advocacy.
In an era of growing American fascism, for progressive organizations, there are successful strategies, and unsuccessful strategies. And then there is the Sierra Club, which appears to have destroyed itself, according to a depressing and enraging expose in the New York Times (co-written by David Fahrenthold, one of their best reporters): “Sierra Club is in a downward spiral,” a group of managers wrote in a letter reviewed by The New York Times to the club’s lea...
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