Region: California

Quest for the Best

Public Health Degree has a list of the twenty cities in the world with the cleanest air.  (I was pleased to see my prior home Minneapolis on the list — not surprisingly, my current home in the Bay Area didn’t qualify.)   That got me interested in looking for other listings of high environmental quality. There …

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Libertarians for Environmental Red Tape!

  Libertarians have long castigated environmental review statutes, such as NEPA and CEQA, for trampling private property rights, the theory being that they make developing property so difficult and expensive that they are tantamount to disrupting those right. That’s why it was so odd to see the Pacific Legal Foundation advocating for more prolix environmental …

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UCLA Emmett Center Assessment of California’s Cap and Trade Regulations

In the wake of the financial market meltdown and liquidity crisis of 2008,  some opponents of a cap and trade program to regulate greenhouse gas emissions have argued that such a system could lead to the kind of market manipulation that led to the 2008 crash.  The UCLA School of Law Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment today released …

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Stop the Presses: Los Angeles is Public-Transit Friendly (well, sort of)

The Brookings Institute has a new study out (and a really nifty interactive website) that ranks cities around the country on their public transit friendliness.  Los Angeles comes out near the top of the list by one important measure:  resident access to public transit, defined as living close to a transit stop.  96% of LA …

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Parking in Los Angeles Creeps into the 21st Century

The Los Angeles Times reports that the City has decided to inject at least a little rationality into its parking policy: in April, the City will begin ExpressPark, which will focus on a 4.5 square-mile zone in the city’s downtown, and will set parking rates based upon demand. It will use sensors and other technology …

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More on California Environmental Leader & Coastal Advocate Peter Douglas

Legal Planet colleague Jonathan Zasloff has previously written about the recently-announced retirement of long-time California Coastal Commission Executive Director Peter Douglas.  I’d like to add a few additional comments about Peter, my long-time mentor, client and friend. Peter Douglas has devoted the past four decades of his incredibly rich and active life to the cause of …

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California Works to Promote Energy Efficiency Retrofits

California has much to brag about when it comes to energy efficiency. Per capita, the state’s residents use far less energy than our national counterparts while enjoying an equal or better standard of living, thanks to energy efficiency standards developed in the 1970s: But the state is committed to doing better. Last week, I was …

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An Environmental Hero Rides Into the Sunset

The Sacramento Bee reports today that Peter Douglas, the long-time executive director of the California Coastal Commission, has taken a medical leave of absence and will retire in November.  Douglas definitely deserves his retirement, but it’s a real loss for the environmental community. Douglas helped draft the original Coastal Act as legislative director for former …

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New nonprofit Harbor Community Benefit Foundation launches, seeks Executive Director to oversee millions of dollars in community benefits projects in Los Angeles’s near-port communities

A historic agreement between the Port of Los Angeles and various stakeholders has resulted in the founding of a new nonprofit organization, the Harbor Community Benefit Foundation.  HCBF’s mission is “to carry out mitigation and other public benefit projects that assess, protect, and improve health, quality of life, and the natural environment, with a focus …

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Nevada Re-Discovers the Public Trust Doctrine

The Nevada Supreme Court was the source of a pleasant surprise earlier this month, when it issued a decision formally “adopting” the public trust doctrine as Nevada law. The opinion, Lawrence v. Clark County, involved a proposed transfer of land in and adjacent to the Colorado River near Laughlin, Nevada to Clark County officials. Nevada …

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