Making Polluters Pay for Climate Consequences
A pair of new bills introduced in the California State Legislature would create a climate superfund. Here's how it would work.
The dramatic increase in extreme weather events has been wreaking havoc on states across the country, from devastating fires, floods, and droughts to rising sea levels. As a member of the Board for the American Red Cross Pacific Coast Region, I have seen firsthand how the organization is responding to twice as many climate-related disasters as we were just a decade ago. As states shoulder the burden of recovery and rebuilding efforts, they are seeking ways to fund ad...
CONTINUE READINGThe Seven County Case and the Limits of Causation Under NEPA
Analysis of causation under NEPA should be driven by the statute’s purpose of informed decisionmaking.
Our final article on the Seven Counties case before the Supreme Court, and how to think about causation and NEPA, is now out with the on-line companion to the Administrative Law Review, Accord. For those who don’t have time for the whole paper, here’s the abstract: This spring, the Supreme Court will decide Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, its first significant case under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) since the early 2000s. The...
CONTINUE READINGHow to Grow a Victory Garden out of Trash
Private recycling subscription services are helping my family divert our waste, though I wish we didn’t need them.
While unelected billionaires and sycophant cabinet members are pretending to get rid of waste in Washington, I’ve declared war on waste, fraud, and abuse in my own Los Angeles home. My family is fighting food and plastic waste using a pair of recycling subscription services. Yes, I realize it’s just a small ripple in the sea of bullshit that is 2025 so far, but hey, you have to start with the things you can control, right? And my own waste stream fits that bill. ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Top-Ten Lower Court Decisions on Environmental Law
Don’t let the headlines deceive you. It’s not just the Supreme Court that shapes environmental law.
The Supreme Court tends to get all the attention, but for every Supreme Court opinion on environmental law there are probably fifty opinions in the lower federal courts. Collectively, the lower courts have done at least as much to shape the law as the Supreme Court’s occasional interventions. Any “top ten” list is a bit arbitrary. Given the sheer number of lower court cases, my selection will reflect chance – which lower court cases I happen to know the most ab...
CONTINUE READINGNew State Bill Targets Pollution from Aggregate Facilities
Guest contributors Mayahuel Hernandez and Ian Bertrando explain the air-quality benefits of SB 526, a bill they worked on with California State Sen. Caroline Menjivar.
The California Senate just took a critical step toward confronting unhealthy air quality in environmental justice communities through the introduction of a new Senate Bill 526. This proposed legislation aims to curb dangerous dust emissions from aggregate facilities in the South Coast Air Basin, where industrial pollution has long threatened public health and the environment. As students in UCLA Law’s California Environmental Legislation and Policy Clinic (Fall 202...
CONTINUE READINGCongress Lacks Authority to Review California’s Car Waiver
It’s a complicated issue but the answer is clear: the Congressional Review Act does not apply.
The Trump Administration has asked Congress to kill California’s current clean car and truck regulations. The process is a bit circuitous. Congress wouldn’t directly overturn the California regulations. Instead, Congress would overturn an EPA order that waives federal preemption of EPA’s regulations. The problem is that the statute which authorizes this kind of congressional action does not apply here. Although some previous posts have touched on the issue, it...
CONTINUE READINGNew Tools for Communities Seeking to Leverage Energy Infrastructure Projects for Community Priorities
Local action becomes even more important under a new federal regime
The Biden Administration placed substantial emphasis on community benefits mechanisms in federal climate infrastructure investments, building on years of legal and community advocacy work that laid the foundation for federal community engagement standards for project developers. With the Trump Administration taking a different approach at the federal level, the role of stakeholders at the local level becomes even more critical. Several recent publications and tools in th...
CONTINUE READINGTrump’s Seven Most Anti-Environmental Moves — and How to Push Back
There were dozens of actions, all harmful to the environment. These are the worst of the worst.
At this point in Trump’s first term, Ann Carlson wrote a post entitled “Trump’s Environmental Assault Begins.” As expected, he’s gotten off to a much faster start this time. I had originally planned a post collecting all of Trump’s attacks on the environment in his first month. But there are just too many! Here are what I think are the most significant actions so far, and how to push back. Regulatory rollbacks. Trump set in motion agency efforts...
CONTINUE READINGWhy Isn’t Hydrofluoric Acid Banned at Oil Refineries?
The Torrance Refinery Action Alliance and Rep. Maxine Waters have renewed calls to ban hydrofluoric acid at SoCal refineries. Here’s why and how that could work.
On the morning of Feb. 18, 2015, pent-up gases at ExxonMobil’s refinery in Torrance triggered an explosion so powerful it registered as a magnitude 1.7 earthquake and sent industrial ash over entire neighborhoods. It’s been called the near-miss disaster that most people have never heard of. But that near miss is raising new calls to ban a toxic chemical that is still used in Torrance to this day. This past Saturday, Congresswoman Maxine Waters announced that she w...
CONTINUE READINGWhat can we learn from EU’s battery regulation?
New CLEE report with model policies to ensure a responsible EV battery supply chain
From cars and trucks to buses and trains, electric vehicles are playing an increasingly vital role in decarbonizing mobility and reducing oil dependence However, this transition brings with it a significant challenge: the immense pressure on battery supply chains. As demand for EVs increases, consumer countries will need to develop and implement policies that address the environmental and social impacts of the supply chain, while ensuring a stable supply of these transi...
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