Should Private Firms Be Involved in Cooling the Planet?
Private firms like Stardust Solutions want to get in on planet-cooling interventions. Here’s the OK, the bad, and the ugly about startup involvement.
A story at Heatmap News last month reported that an Israeli-American startup firm, Stardust Solutions, has received $60 million in venture funding for a new type of particle they propose can be used to inject in the stratosphere to reflect a little sunlight and (temporarily, imperfectly) reduce global-average heating from greenhouse gases. The company aims to patent their new particle and sell the technology to governments, which would presumably develop the other te...
CONTINUE READINGWhat to Know About the TFFF Announced at COP30
A bold new investment fund aims to channel billions into tropical forest protection – one key change can make it better.
The world is losing vast swaths of forests to agriculture, logging, mining and fires every year — more than 20 million acres in 2024 alone, roughly the size of South Carolina. That’s bad news because tropical forests in particular regulate rainfall, shelter plant and animal species and act as a thermostat for the planet by storing carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere where it would heat up the planet. The United Nations estimates that deforestation a...
CONTINUE READINGRoadless Rule Revisited
Rationale for revocation of the roadless rule does not add up
The roadless rule, promulgated in the Clinton Administration, but not free from litigation until the first term of the Obama Administration, set aside about 2% of the land area of the lower 48 United States from commercial development. It applies to roadless areas of National Forests, and prohibits commercial logging and road construction in those areas. The Trump Administration has started the process of repealing it. What is the Trump Administration’s argument...
CONTINUE READINGAnother Threat to Advocacy Groups
The new regulation on loan forgiveness bodes no one good.
A new Trump Administration rule restricts which organizations qualify as engaging in public service. Unless an organization qualifies, its employees won’t benefit from student loan forgiveness programs. That would cut into their workforce. On the face, the standard seems reasonable: organizations must "not engage in activities such that they have a substantial illegal purpose.” But when you dig beneath the surface, the whole rule turns out to be legally dubious...
CONTINUE READINGIs Diversity A Strength? Not Always
Environmental history shows that specifics matter
To absolutely no one’s surprise, Zohran Mamdani defeated Andrew Cuomo Tuesday in the race for the Mayor of New York City, becoming the Big Apple’s first Muslim mayor. Also to absolutely no one’s surprise, much of the campaign against Mamdani descended into Islamophobia – less from Cuomo himself and more from his supporters and outside voices. But Cuomo said one thing the week before the election that got him into hot water, which had interesting environmental ...
CONTINUE READINGOf Pistachios and Water Features
What might be included in the SB 131's CEQA exemption for advanced manufacturing may surprise you
One of the most controversial provisions of SB 131, which created a range of new CEQA exemptions, was an exemption for “a facility for advanced manufacturing, as defined in Section 26003, if the project is located on a site zoned exclusively for industrial uses.” But what on earth might that cover? Is this a broad or narrow exemption? What kinds of projects are we exempting from environmental review? With a term like advanced manufacturing, you might suspect...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Change is Coming for Your Coffee
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
My drug habit is becoming more expensive thanks to the dangerous duo of climate change and Donald Trump. The cost of coffee keeps going up. I saw firsthand why this is happening back in May on an eye-opening trip to Acre, Brazil, where I toured a couple of farms in the Amazon. One was a family farm run by Celso and Elizelda Timpurim and their kids, about 120 km outside of the city of Rio Branco. Their bucolic acreage used to be cattle ranch land, but now it’s...
CONTINUE READINGThe Tariff Case & Environmental Law
The Court's ruling could open doors legally for some future environmental actions.
The Trump tariff case will be argued tomorrow. It will have enormous political and economic importance. It should also clarify legal doctrine. In this post, I explain how the Court's decision could impact environmental law, a topic that seems far removed from trade policy. Ironically, a ruling for Trump could empower future environment policies. A ruling against him, on the other hand, would help resist other Trump environmental initiatives. There is no gainsa...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Wonders if it is Doing Wildfire Risk All Wrong
The California Wildfire Fund seeks input from stakeholders on a range of possible reforms.
Senate Bill 254 (Becker) deservedly received a lot of attention when the Governor signed it into law earlier this year. After many twists and turns and late night speculation of will they/won't they, SB 254 became a landing pad for a sweeping set of wildfire and electric utility policy adjustments. Among the headlines: Creation of a Transmission Infrastructure Accelerator to promote public financing, construction, ownership and operation of new transmission Reple...
CONTINUE READINGAbundance politics and climate politics
Recent issue polling shows the similar challenges facing both climate and abundance politics
This week a study of the popularity of a wide range of issues among the American public came out – and created quite a stir. Most of the attention focused on the unpopularity of various Democratic positions on race and gender identity issues. But here I want to highlight the results in two areas I’ve written about: climate and “abundance.” Many of the policy goals climate advocates have been pushing for years – banning fossil fuel production on federal l...
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