What 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 than 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. ...
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 could bring record flooding and erosion. But the fourth, and most detestable, threat comes from Trump attacking coas...
CONTINUE READINGA Better Approach to Wildfire on Public Lands
Why our proposal improves on Fix Our Forests.
This blog post was co-authored with Dave Owen, at UC Law SF. The draft article this blog post series is based is here. This is the seventh in a series of blog posts on our proposal to reform wildfire law in the United States. The first post is here. The second post is here. The third post is here. The fourth post is here. The fifth post is here. The sixth post is here. Our current proposal includes a major reform of federal land management with respect ...
CONTINUE READINGInsurance Law and Wildfire
Providing a federal backstop for wildfire insurance in return for state and local reforms
This blog post was co-authored with Dave Owen, at UC Law SF. The draft article this blog post series is based is here. This is the sixth in a series of blog posts on our proposal to reform wildfire law in the United States. The first post is here. The second post is here. The third post is here. The fourth post is here. The fifth post is here. Insurance markets to protect homeowners against fire risks are teetering across the country, though particularly ...
CONTINUE READINGConsumer Clean-Energy Sovereignty
Consumers seem to be voting with their wallets for clean energy.
The Rhodium consulting firm has issued its quarterly report on energy trends. The basic picture isn’t bad. The headline news isn’t bad: in the second quarter (Q2) of 2026, “clean energy and transportation investment in the United States totaled $75 billion, a 22% increase from Q1 2026 and a 4% jump from Q2 2025.” Considering Trump’s effort to summon all the power of the federal government to destroy clean energy, that’s not bad. What seemed most surprising ...
CONTINUE READINGLand-Use Law and Wildfire
Creating incentives for local and state governments to manage development in high-risk areas
This blog post was co-authored with Dave Owen, at UC Law SF. The draft article this blog post series is based is here. This is the fifth in a series of blog posts on our proposal to reform wildfire law in the United States. The first post is here. The second post is here. The third post is here. The fourth post is here. Any successful effort to address fire in the United States must address land-use. Development in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), wher...
CONTINUE READINGWildfire and Air Quality Law
Reforming how the Clean Air Act handles smoke from wildfires
This blog post was co-authored with Dave Owen, at UC Law SF. The draft article this blog post series is based is here. This is the fourth in a series of blog posts on our proposal to reform wildfire law in the United States. The first post is here. The second post is here. The third post is here. The core of the Clean Air Act is a set of national ambient air quality standards that set minimum levels of air quality needed to protect human health. States must...
CONTINUE READINGWildfire and National Forests
Reforming federal forest management to address wildfire
This blog post was co-authored with Dave Owen, at UC Law SF. The draft article this blog post series is based is here. This is the third in a series of blog posts on our proposal to reform wildfire law in the United States. The first post is here. The second post is here. Federally managed Forest Service lands comprise about 30% of all US forests, disproportionately in the western United States, where fire issues have been particularly severe. Federal land ...
CONTINUE READINGEl Niño is Coming. Californians Still Need Better Tools to Recover from Disaster.
AB 2385 would have helped local governments prepare for disaster recovery, but the bill failed to make it out of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Last week, AB 2385 (Petrie-Norris) died in the California Senate Appropriations Committee. Its demise is the latest frustration in the long saga to rebuild from the terrible January 2025 Los Angeles fires—and to apply some lessons learned about disaster recovery in the process. I’ve had a front row seat, as both an Angeleno and a co-leader of the UCLA research team that supported the Blue Ribbon Commission convened by County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath to offer rec...
CONTINUE READINGA Mile High Solution To Housing Affordability?
Want to expand the availability of deed-restricted affordable units? Build market-rate ones!
One of the most dispiriting debates in housing policy and land use concerns the relative merits of deed-restricted affordable versus market-rate housing. YIMBY advocates argue building more market-rate units will eventual filter down and expand affordability; many on the Left argue that market-rate housing reduces the availability of land for deed-restricted affordable units. Eunisses Hernandez ran a successful Los Angeles City Council campaign opposing all market-ra...
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