Legal Planet

The 2023 NEPA Rewrite and the Supreme Court’s New Climate Case

NEPA isn’t a common law subject. What the statute says matters more than pre-2023 judicial opinions.

The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to hear a case about whether environmental impact statements need to address climate change. To read the arguments made about the case, you’d think that this was a common law area where courts establish the rules. But as I discuss in a forthcoming article, recent amendments have put a lot of flesh on the previously barebones law. The. bottom line: The Supreme Court shouldn’t give advocates of narrowing NEPA a victory that they wer...

The Hawai’i Youth Climate Settlement

Thirteen youth plaintiffs secured a court-enforced agreement to decarbonize the state’s transportation system without even setting foot in a courtroom.

At the precise time on Monday, June 24 when 13 young Hawaiians were set to file into a Honolulu court for the start of trial, they instead gathered at the historic Iolani Palace to celebrate with their legal teams and supporters. Their case, Navahine v. Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation, was the latest youth climate lawsuit in the spotlight, but on the eve of trial the plaintiffs and the governor announced a legal settlement. Headlines about the settlement h...

Luminosity

The story behind today’s energy efficient lighting and a forgotten episode in the culture wars.

“Attack of the Dim Bulbs” was the title of a Legal Planet post I wrote in 2012. It was prompted by Mitt Romney’s claim that Obama was out to ban “Thomas Edison’s light bulb.” Romney was taking part in what was then a major culture war battle. Conservatives raised the alarm about the threat to the incandescent bulb from a newer technology, the compact florescent light (CFL). A lot has happened since then. An even newer lighting technology has moved in. A...

Is Activism a Part of Responsible Climate Scholarship?

Climate protestors dressed in red stand on steps in Bordeaux, France

Academics needn’t become activists, but I argue that we must support activism. Indeed, inclusive engagement with activism could enhance our scholarship.

Climate activism has diverse expressions. From blowing up pipelines, to throwing orange cornflour on historic monuments. From street protests to writing politicians. In the opinion of some commentators, scientists and scholars should steer clear of all such activities. Some fear alienating publics from science and scholarship. Others suggest that participating in activism reveals a disturbing lack of objectivity. Such arguments against “climate scientists becoming ...

The “Silver Bullet” Required to Improve California’s Water Rights System: More & Better Data

California Lags Behind Other Western States in Obtaining Critically-Needed & Available Water Diversion Data

Recently I've posted stories about efforts to enforce California's water laws in the face of efforts by some diverters to evade and ignore limits on their ability to privatize public water resources--especially in times of critical drought. One post focused on the federal government's successful criminal prosecution of a San Joaquin Valley water district manager who illegally diverted millions of gallons of water from the government's Central Valley Project for mor...

Major League Soccer’s LAFC Has a Big Oil Problem Too

The Dodgers are not the only LA sports team sullying their brand by taking oil money. Beloved soccer club LAFC recently renewed a partnership with Chevron.

BMO Stadium, the home of Los Angeles Football Club, is revered as one of the best places to watch soccer in the U.S., thanks to forward-thinking design and good vibes among their famously devout fans. BMO has even been called the future of stadium design. So, it’s all the more jarring that LAFC allows Big Oil advertising to flash behind their big plays. Like on May 11 when Denis Bouanga tied a team record with three assists in a single game thanks to a gorgeous ...

Universities Gear Up to Fight Climate Change

Here are some recent developments at leading universities.

Universities have three main missions research, teaching, and public service -- and all three are implicated by the climate crisis. Universities have begun to realign their institutional structures in response to these challenges. Of course, faculty and students across many campuses are already deeply engaged with climate issues. But this kind of bottom-up response needs institutional support. It’s all very well for universities to “let a hundred flowers bloom” b...

The Hawai’i Youth Climate Trial

Thirteen youth plaintiffs say the Aloha State is failing to live up to its ambitious climate goals. Here’s what to watch for as Navahine v. Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation goes to trial this month.

Last summer, many Americans were glued to the events unfolding in Maui as a raging inferno overtook the town of Lahaina, trapping thousands and killing at least 99 people.   This summer, we’ll see 13 youth plaintiffs in Hawaiʻi take the state’s Department of Transportation to court for allegedly failing to implement climate policies meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions—emissions that increase climate risks like last year’s Maui wildfires. Though...

Hillary Clinton, Climate Change, and the ‘Sliding Doors’ of History

Here’s what could have happened instead of Trump's crusade against climate action, if Clinton had squeaked out a victory in 2016.

In the movie Sliding Doors, Gwyneth Paltrow is racing to catch the subway, only to have the doors slide shut when she’s inches from boarding. This turns out to be a crucial fork in the road— if she’d caught the train, it turns out, her whole life would have been different. In 2016, Hillary Clinton missed winning the presidential election by the narrowest of margins. The trajectory of climate policy would have been entirely different if she’d just squeezed thr...

Counting the Climate Costs of Warfare

There are calls for nations to disclose their military-related greenhouse gas emissions as researchers try to tally the climate impacts of war in Ukraine and Gaza.

What if I told you that nations around the world were ignoring a significant amount of their greenhouse gas emissions by omitting an entire dirty sector from their tally? Would you be horrified? Would you want to close that loophole so that parties to international agreements are required to report these hidden emissions as part of their national climate targets? That is, of course, the case with the climate costs of warfare. Parties to the Paris Agreement are not...

NEPA isn’t a common law subject. What the statute says matters more than pre-2023 judicial opinions.

Thirteen youth plaintiffs secured a court-enforced agreement to decarbonize the state’s transportation system without even setting foot in a courtroom.

The story behind today’s energy efficient lighting and a forgotten episode in the culture wars.

Academics needn’t become activists, but I argue that we must support activism. Indeed, inclusive engagement with activism could enhance our scholarship.

California Lags Behind Other Western States in Obtaining Critically-Needed & Available Water Diversion Data

The Dodgers are not the only LA sports team sullying their brand by taking oil money. Beloved soccer club LAFC recently renewed a partnership with Chevron.

Here are some recent developments at leading universities.

Thirteen youth plaintiffs say the Aloha State is failing to live up to its ambitious climate goals. Here’s what to watch for as Navahine v. Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation goes to trial this month.

Here’s what could have happened instead of Trump's crusade against climate action, if Clinton had squeaked out a victory in 2016.

There are calls for nations to disclose their military-related greenhouse gas emissions as researchers try to tally the climate impacts of war in Ukraine and Gaza.

TRENDING

NEPA isn’t a common law subject. What the statute says matters more than pre-2023 judicial opinions.

Thirteen youth plaintiffs secured a court-enforced agreement to decarbonize the state’s transportation system without even setting foot in a courtroom.

The story behind today’s energy efficient lighting and a forgotten episode in the culture wars.

Academics needn’t become activists, but I argue that we must support activism. Indeed, inclusive engagement with activism could enhance our scholarship.

California Lags Behind Other Western States in Obtaining Critically-Needed & Available Water Diversion Data

The Dodgers are not the only LA sports team sullying their brand by taking oil money. Beloved soccer club LAFC recently renewed a partnership with Chevron.

Here are some recent developments at leading universities.

Thirteen youth plaintiffs say the Aloha State is failing to live up to its ambitious climate goals. Here’s what to watch for as Navahine v. Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation goes to trial this month.

Here’s what could have happened instead of Trump’s crusade against climate action, if Clinton had squeaked out a victory in 2016.

There are calls for nations to disclose their military-related greenhouse gas emissions as researchers try to tally the climate impacts of war in Ukraine and Gaza.

Environmental law helped create a world awash in toxic chemicals. It’s time to think about how regulation can operate as a form of green industrial policy for chemicals.

New CLEE / Prospect Silicon Valley report outlines top strategies from a series of expert convenings

The UCLA Emmett Institute is tracking California environmental bills. In a year of tough budget choices, here are the notable bills that cleared Sacramento’s first big legislative deadline.

Oil and gas companies want the justices to take up Honolulu’s climate liability case because this type of litigation is starting to gain strength.

San Joaquin Valley Water District Manager Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Steal Public Water for 20+ Years

Building A Political Firewall Against IRA Repeal

Here are 22 climate-related questions that moderators could ask Biden and Trump in the presidential debates, as well as the one question they should avoid.

Overdue State Water Reform Legislation Likely Be Enacted in 2024–Finally

Here’s what could have happened instead of Trump’s crusade against climate action, if Clinton had squeaked out a victory in 2016.

Thirteen youth plaintiffs say the Aloha State is failing to live up to its ambitious climate goals. Here’s what to watch for as Navahine v. Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation goes to trial this month.