Academia
What In The World Is Happening At Nature?
Its recent editorial about Jason Arday should make us wonder whether academia adds value to anything.
By now, the tragic story of Jason Arday is well-known. But it seems that many people are doing their best to not learn anything from it. In this case, “many people” seems to be the editorial board of Nature, perhaps the most prestigious scientific journal in the world (together with Science). Nature’s editorial discusses the …
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CONTINUE READINGDear 2026 1L
Today’s entering law students are preparing to start careers at a critical time for the environment.
Welcome to law school. You’re beginning your life in the law at a critical time. What we do together between now and 2035 will determine what your lives look like in 2050 and 2080, and what your children and grandchildren will see in the next century. So, grab your books, get yourselves ready, and be prepared to head for the legal trenches when you graduate. No time to waste!
UCLA Law Clinic Files Brief Supporting DC’s Clean Buildings Act in DC Circuit
Energy law experts explain local governments’ longstanding primary authority over local gas distribution and use.
Last Friday, UCLA’s Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic filed a DC Circuit brief in support of the District of Columbia’s Clean Buildings Act on behalf of 11 leading energy and environmental law professors: UCLA’s own William Boyd, Lincoln Davies at the University of Utah, Dan Farber and Sharon Jacobs at UC Berkeley, Alexandra Klass …
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CONTINUE READINGEscalating the War on Science
Now the National Academies are in the cross-hairs.
The National Academics of Science, Engineering, and Medicine are at the pinnacle of American science. Recently, President Trump President Donald Trump ordered a so-called suspension and debarment investigation into the National Academies for what a supposedly “fraudulent, biased, and misleading” report on climate change. The Academies, he said, are “run by Radical Left Dumocrats,” which is apparently more than enough reason to ban them from government funding.
CONTINUE READINGScreaming in the Wilderness
More is screaming needed.
It is no surprise that, in the past couple of weeks, the Trump Administration has moved to gut habitat protection under the Endangered Species Act, opening wilderness areas to mining and oil drilling, and to eviscerate Monument designation for most of two wilderness areas in Utah. Trump and his allies made their intentions clear in …
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CONTINUE READINGInforming Housing Policy Debates With The Latest Research
New CLEE “working paper” housing literature review
Housing is in short supply in states like California, leading to massive inequality, economic hardship, population loss, and climate impacts, as more residents live farther from job centers in climate-risky areas that require long commutes. Yet the debate around solutions to this problem, such as zoning and permitting reforms, are often colored by misinformation and …
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CONTINUE READINGLegislating Sunlight Reflection in Latin America and the Caribbean
UCLA’s ESI Project co-hosted a science-policy dialogue with Latin American and Caribbean parliamentarians.
In early June, UCLA’s ESI Project, in partnership with the Degrees Initiative, had the exciting opportunity to address the Parliament of Latin America and the Caribbean (PARLATINO), on the emerging issue of Earth system interventions, notably sunlight reflection or SRM. As an interparliamentary body with broad reach, PARLATINO is a forum for legislators from the …
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CONTINUE READINGLeft-NIMBYs Take Another Loss — And This One Is Really Embarrassing
The Urban Institute Study Loved By Supply Skeptics Goes Up In Flames
As I wrote last year, the Urban Institute produced a study purporting to show that land use reforms did not substantially increase housing production. I noted that the study has become very influential, particularly among Left-NIMBYs, who want to maintain strict land use controls but not acknowledge that such controls make housing more expensive (which …
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CONTINUE READINGProtecting Consumers in the Electric Vehicle Transition
Paul Hanaoka via Unsplash
UC Berkeley paper highlights opportunities for California to strengthen consumer protections in the EV transition.
Guest contributor Jackie Dall is a UC Berkeley School of Law student (J.D. Candidate, ’27) Personal vehicles are one of the most significant financial commitments American households make, providing mobility and access to economic opportunity in most communities. The electric vehicle (EV) transition is underway and has the potential to directly impact consumers through the entire …
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CONTINUE READINGScrap Yards, Scrapped Enforcement?
The City of Los Angeles’s regulatory tools exist to protect communities from metal recycling hazards—but they’re rarely invoked.
This post was co-written by UCLA Law student Kate Inman (J.D., 2026). Throughout California’s Senate District 20, roughly thirty scrap metal recycling facilities sit in the industrial corridors running alongside residential housing. For the working-class, majority-Latino communities living blocks away, the legal system has been slow to respond. Drive through Sun Valley or Pacoima on …
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