What Should EPA Do After Repealing the Clean Power Plan?
The CPP has been overtaken by events, but EPA does have some options.
My last post argued that EPA should immediately repeal the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan. The Plan was Obama’s signature climate policy. It attempted to move away from fossil fuels and toward zero-carbon sources like solar power to supply electricity. The Plan has been overtaken by later events, and it seems clear that the Supreme Court is determined to kill it off. Here are the options going forward for regulating existing power plants. Switch to anot...
CONTINUE READINGThe Latest Chapter in Los Angeles’ Century-Long Water War With the Eastern Sierra’s People & Environment
LADWP's Unilateral Revocation of Water Allocation to Mono County's Farmers & Ranchers Triggers County's CEQA Challenge
There LADWP goes again. Recently the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power announced it was walking away from its longstanding obligation to provide Mono County residents and the environment with a tiny fraction of the water it transports from Mono County to LADWP’s urban customers in Los Angeles. When efforts by county officials to resolve the dispute informally with LADWP failed, the County sued, arguing that LADWP’s unilateral action violates Californ...
CONTINUE READINGGuest Contributor Sharaban Tahura Zaman: COP26 outcome on Carbon Markets: Takeaways for the Global South
Where is the Global South heading with carbon market mechanisms in the coming decade?
As a government delegate, I have been involved in the UN climate negotiation process since 2017 to uphold Bangladesh's and the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group’s position. After an unsuccessful COP in Madrid (2019), as a Bangladeshi citizen (a country often referred to as "ground zero" for its climate vulnerability) I had to wait another two years to renegotiate issues that were blocked and left unresolved at COP25. At COP26, I had to deal with the risk of glo...
CONTINUE READINGIt’s Time to Repeal the Clean Power Plan
The CPP no longer serves any useful purpose, and keeping it on the books invites mischief by the Supreme Court.
The Clean Power Plan (CPP) was the Obama Administration’s signature climate effort. This 2015 regulation aimed to move state power grids away from coal and toward renewable energy. It immediately became ensnared in litigation and never went into effect. It’s now considered irrelevant for all practical purposes. Yet the Supreme Court is now set to address numerous challenges to this zombie regulation. It’s time to put the CPP to rest. When fully implemented, the ...
CONTINUE READINGWhat today’s students think about climate change
Voices from a climate law classroom
Teaching provides a chance to see important issues anew, through our students’ eyes. So for my last Climate Law and Policy class at UCLA Law this semester, I once again asked my students to tell me what they are thinking about the future of climate policy in light of today’s global circumstances, keeping in mind lessons we’ve learned through the semester. In case you're curious how a group of tomorrow's leaders are thinking about these challenges, here are s...
CONTINUE READINGDebating Environmental Racism in the Ninth Circuit
A recent case occasioned a sharp exchange about accusation of environmental racism.
Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice v. FAA is a Ninth Circuit opinion decided before the Thanksgiving break. It involved to a legal challenge to the FAA’s refusal to prepare a full-scale environmental impact statement before approving a major Amazon distribution center at the San Bernardino airport. I probably wouldn’t have read the decision if my colleague Bob Infelise hadn’t brought the dissent to my attention because of its focus on environme...
CONTINUE READINGThe Need for Enhanced and Meaningful Confidentiality in Tribal Cultural Resource Protection
For Indigenous Peoples, the forced removal from ancestral lands coupled with the Western commodification of human remains and ceremonial objects has resulted in a devastating and ongoing loss of cultural resources. This loss includes both tangible resources and landscapes as well as intangible traditional knowledge. During the pursuit of cultural resource protection, tribes are compelled to reveal an extraordinary amount of sensitive information. The UCLA Law Tribal Lega...
CONTINUE READINGWhat to Be Thankful For (2021 edition)
Here's the one thing environmentalists should be most thankful for this year.
If there is a single thing for environmentalists to be thankful for this year, it is simply this: the virulently anti-environmental Donald Trump is no longer in the White House. My Thanksgiving post last year began, “Nearly four years into the Trump Administration, we’re now accustomed to waking up every morning to learn about a new attack on the environment." Five years ago, in the aftermath of the 2016 election, the picture seemed even worse: “These are dark...
CONTINUE READINGWhat’s in the Reconciliation Bill?
The House takes an important step toward transforming the energy system
Last Friday, the House passed its version of the Build Back Better Act. Due to a quirk in parliamentary procedure, the Senate will be able to consider the $1.7 trillion bill under the “reconciliation” process, which means no filibuster is allowed. It remains unclear whether anyone can wrangle all fifty Senators into supporting some version of the House bill. In the meantime, however, it’s worth asking what’s in the bill. Only fiscal measures (basically taxes, ...
CONTINUE READINGFive Reasons Why Juliana Stumbled
The legal deck was stacked against the “children’s lawsuit.”
Juliana has been a valiant effort by a group of young people to force the federal government to plan for stringent reductions in U.S. carbon emissions. As I wrote in a previous post, several well-regarded foreign courts have upheld claims that are similar in concept to the Juliana case. The U.S. legal system, however, provided a less hospitable setting. Although the case is still being considered on remand by the District Court, the Supreme Court has already signaled i...
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