Month: November 2016
Hanging in the Balance: The Future of Environmental Law
10 huge questions that will be answered today.
By tomorrow morning, we should know a lot more about the future of environmental law — maybe, whether it has any future. We’ll certainly learn whether the U.S. will give up the fight against global warming. Whichever way you vote matters! Here are ten key questions we will be able to answer 24 hours from now: …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Science Takes Win in Effort to Save Bearded Seal
Ninth Circuit upholds NMFS’s reliance on climate projections to 2095 in decision to list Pacific bearded seal as threatened under ESA
Climate change is expected to wipe out critical habitat of the Pacific bearded seal by 2095. This projection, based on IPCC climate data and models, justifies listing the Beringia distinct population segment of the bearded seal as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, according to a recent Ninth Circuit opinion in Alaska Oil and Gas …
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CONTINUE READINGAt the Tipping Point
Tomorrow’s vote is a tipping point for climate policy, with large, irreversible consequences.
We’re now at a tipping point for climate policy. Tomorrow’s election will send us down one of two very different paths for years to come. The political system lends itself to such tipping points in policy. Linear systems don’t have tipping points: small changes have small effects that can be reversed. Tipping points are a …
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CONTINUE READINGTahoe Regional Planning Agency Wins Big in Ninth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals Rejects Challenge to TRPA’s Regional Plan
This week the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) won a major legal victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. A unanimous three-judge panel of that court rejected environmentalists’ challenge to TRPA’s adopted Regional Plan for the Lake Tahoe Basin in Sierra Club v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. The Ninth Circuit decision effectively …
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CONTINUE READINGStill Undecided? Here’s What You Need to Know
Trump says climate change is a hoax & favors more coal and oil. Clinton wants climate action.
The positions of the two candidates on climate change are polar opposites. Trump wants to undo all of Obama’s effort to fight climate change and increase renewable energy. He views climate change as a hoax. In fact, just this past Tuesday, he vowed to abolish all U.S. climate programs. Clinton views climate change as a …
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CONTINUE READINGUC Berkeley & UCLA Law Launch New Climate Policy Website
Register for a webinar on the new site’s features on Wednesday at 2pm, with a keynote by Mary Nichols
To meet the challenge of climate change, California and other governments will need to adopt a suite of policies affecting multiple sectors. Reducing economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions will take reforms in energy, land use, transportation, and agriculture, to name just a few. Since 2009, UC Berkeley and UCLA Schools of Law, with the generous support …
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CONTINUE READINGLet’s Get America Moving Again
Make infrastructure a top priority for the new Congress
There’s actually one policy that Clinton and Trump agree on: the need for a massive investment in infrastructure. However the election comes out, that should be a top legislative priority, combining economic, safety, and environmental benefits – and political benefits for the next President because of its popularity. It would help get the country moving …
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CONTINUE READINGMy Environmental Law Wish List For A California Legislative Super-Majority
Tuesday could give Democrats enough seats to make a major impact on environmental policies
The presidential election next week is making most of the news these days, but while the rest of the country flirts with electing Donald Trump as the next president, California is going its own progressive way. The Republican Party has been all but completely marginalized in this state, for a variety of demographic reasons and …
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CONTINUE READINGBattle for the Governor’s Mansion in the Granite State
Determining the Future of State Environmental Policy
Governors’ races don’t get as much publicity as the national contests. But we live in a federalist system, and states help shape environmental and energy policy. They can cooperate with and even go beyond federal policy, or they can drag their feet and litigate every federal initiative. This time around, there are three races that …
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CONTINUE READINGObama’s Remarkable Environmental Achievements
When you look at the whole of his legacy, it’s a stunning record.
When he leaves office in January, President Obama will have compiled a remarkable record of environmental achievements. The record spans everything from climate change to endangered species and ocean protection. We can only hope that next Tuesday’s election doesn’t undo many of these gains. Here is a list, in no particular order, of twenty of …
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