Region: California
California designates new Marine Protected Areas
The California Department of Fish and Game has created a new network of state-designated Marine Protected Areas, as Tony Barboza reported today in the Los Angeles Times. This action, controversial because of its restrictions on fishing in the protected areas, begins to fulfill the promise of California’s decade-old Marine Life Protection Act. As this detailed …
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CONTINUE READINGUCLA Law will host local government land use symposium on February 11
UCLA Law’s Evan Frankel Environmental Law and Policy Program is hosting a symposium about local government land use law on February 11, 2011. This event, Local Agencies on the Cutting Edge – Emerging Challenges to Local Land Use Authority: Proposition 26, the Public Trust Doctrine, RLUIPA, and Takings Law, will focus on issues of practical …
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CONTINUE READINGGoogle Earth Engine and Forest Offsets in California Cap-and-Trade
Last week, Google Labs released Google Earth Engine, an online platform for viewing and analyzing satellite imagery and data. The platform’s strengths are ease of use for viewing images, collaboration tools, and use of Google’s computing infrastructure to analyze the satellite data. Google intends to use the platform to, among other things, help developing countries …
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CONTINUE READINGHigh Speed Rail To…Corcoran?
The saga of high speed rail in California continues. Since state voters approved a bond measure in 2008 to authorize construction of a system linking north and south, the California High Speed Rail Authority has faced lawsuits over its unfortunate planned route away from the population centers of the northern Central Valley, opposition from wealthy …
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CONTINUE READINGBottles and cans, bisphenol-A, and chemical regulation
The online magazine Yale Environment 360 has published an informative and rather frightening interview with Frederick vom Saal, a biologist at the University of Missouri’s Endocrine Disruptors Group, about bisphenol-A and what he sees as a completely broken regulatory system for managing hazards from chemicals. Elizabeth Kolbert, known recently for her stellar journalism in the New …
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CONTINUE READINGOur strawberries’ safety: will California approve methyl iodide this year?
As Margot Roosevelt reports in the Los Angeles Times, California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation has signaled that it will make a decision before Governor Schwarzenegger leaves office about whether to approve the use of methyl iodide as a strawberry fumigant. Farmworker advocacy groups and environmental advocates fear the pesticide will be approved, and are planning …
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CONTINUE READINGA poor grade for California’s new Rigs-to-Reefs law
Ever gaze up from a Southern California beach and wonder about the fate of the oil and gas rigs dotting the horizon? Fellow blogger Sean Hecht has just published, with UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, an assessment of California’s new law governing “rigs-to-reefs” conversions–and suggests that lawmakers have much more work to do …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Cap-and-Trade Math
In late October, California Air Resources Board (CARB) released their draft regulations for cap-and-trade under AB 32. I looked at CARB’s proposed allocations: the cap, the offset percentage, the reserve percentage and the projected emissions level. Running the numbers allows a few general observations: If covered emitters take full advantage of the 8% allowed offsets, …
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CONTINUE READINGUCLA Sustainable Technology and Policy Program (STPP): New interdisciplinary program of UCLA Schools of Law and Public Health
The UCLA Sustainable Technology and Policy Program (STPP) has just launched its new website. STPP is an interdisciplinary program based in the UCLA School of Law and the School of Public Health, with partners and affiliated faculty across the UCLA campus. The program’s goal is to promote public health and environmental protection by developing and promoting …
CONTINUE READINGWhy the Feds Should Pay the Administrative Costs of Implementing AB 32
There’s been a lot of discussion of whether Prop 26 interferes with the use of fees to pay the administrative expenses for AB 32. I would like to suggest an alternative solution: the Feds should pick up the tab. This may seem a little far-fetched, given the current political situation, but it makes real sense …
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