General
Would You Believe That, by Law, Renewables are a National Defense Priority?
Support for Clean Energy from an Unexpected Direction
The National Defense Act was a Korean war measure. As behooves a wartime law, it seems to contemplate fairly heavy-handed economic control by the government. (If we were ever to get a truly socialist president, they’d do well to give the DPA a careful read.) Even though it’s been amended since then, it’s not a …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Endhó Dam: One of the World’s Least Known Sacrifice Zones
It’s well past time to end sacrifice zones, including the area that has been treated as “Mexico’s toilet bowl” for decades.
Last week, about halfway down the New York Times’ Monday morning newsletter, there was a video titled “Living Next to Mexico’s Toxic Reservoir.” I watched it, appalled not only by the dangerous conditions described in the video and accompanying article, but also by the fact that I had never heard of this enormous environmental justice …
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CONTINUE READINGThree Cheers for Two Clean Energy Victories for California
Gov. Newsom signed SB 1359 and AB 2313, two bills that the UCLA Emmett Institute had identified as clear winners for ratepayers.
After a suspenseful few weeks, we’re excited to see that yesterday, Governor Newsom signed into law two key bills that will help reduce costly gas bills and help households transition to a cleaner energy future: SB 1359 and AB 2313. We’ve written about both of these bills before, in multiple reports and blog posts. It’s …
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CONTINUE READINGFrom Desert to Oasis?
Xi Jinping’s Tree-Planting Toast and the Future of U.S.-China Environmental Cooperation
Last week, China’s President Xi Jinping shocked retired American teacher Ron Sakolsky by mentioning him in a toast at a White House state dinner as a “shining example of friendly exchanges” between Chinese and American people. Sakolsky found himself in unexpected company: Xi’s brief history of U.S.-China friendship included George Washington’s purchase of Chinese porcelain; …
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CONTINUE READINGGorsuch is (Partly) Right
Justice Gorsuch is wrong about the cure, but delegation has gotten out of hand.
Justice Gorsuch has made it a personal crusade to revive the nondelegation doctrine, in part because of concerns about the rising tide of presidential power. The nondelegation doctrine tries to limit the ability of Congress to delegate authority to the executive branch. That’s an unworkable solution, but Gorsuch is right that Congress has put far too much trust in the good faith and sound judgment of the President and his subordinates. That’s especially true of national security and emergency powers.
CONTINUE READINGThe Overlooked Fast Track for Cutting Planetary Warming
Guest contributors V. Ram Ramanathan, Durwood Zaelke, and Marcelo Suárez-Orozco write that we can cut the rate of warming by 30% to 50% within 15 years. “And we must.”
This guest post is authored by V. Ram Ramanathan, Durwood Zaelke, and Marcelo Suárez-Orozco and is informed by a presentation that Ramanathan is set to give at the Vatican on September 26. Among the three of us, we have 15 decades of high-level experience in climate science, policies and actions, and we have never been …
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CONTINUE READINGGood News from Turkmenistan! Bad News from the UN
The Drain is a roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times — this week, like most weeks. The UN Environment Programme’s new report, “Limiting Overshoot: Navigating exceedance of 1.5°C and pathways toward return” was simultaneously big news and yet met with stony silence in many quarters of the media. The report narrates what it …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat We Know About Trump’s Impact on Clean Energy
U.S. clean energy has taken a major hit but not a fatal one.
Biden’s climate legacy has taken serious hits but more has survived then we feared. There’s a general impression that Trump has wiped out Biden’s ambitious climate statute and with it brought the energy transition to a halt. It’s become clear that the situation is a lot more complicated than that. Politico has unearthed new evidence about funding under Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. That new evidence complements some of the other pieces of the puzzle. Here’s what we know at this point.
CONTINUE READINGThe Attack on California’s Coast Puts Us in Uncharted Waters
The Drain is a roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
California’s coast faces danger from which of these threats: a) Increasingly likely Super El Niño b) Super king tides c) Rising sea levels d) The Trump Administration e) All of the above If you answered “e,” congratulations. California is staring down a rare convergence of El Niño, climate-fueled sea level rise, and big waves that …
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CONTINUE READINGDon’t Mess With Solar
A new clean energy PAC has become a big player in GOP primaries. But what happens in November?
Congressmember Andy Ogles of Tennessee is a zit on the face of American politics: a white nationalist and Islamophobe who started out as a flunkie for the Koch Brothers and lied about his credentials when he first ran for Congress. Unsurprisingly, he is also a climate denier, (in)famously stating during a 2024 House debate on …
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