The Northwest Extreme Heat Wave Is a Call to Policy Action
Extreme heat in the Pacific Northwest over the past few weeks shattered records - 108º in Seattle, 116º in Portland, 121º in Lytton, BC, the day before a wildfire devastated the town - and has been linked to hundreds of deaths, a number that will surely increase as local officials gather more information. It has melted streetcar infrastructure, buckled roads, and threatened crops. It is an unmistakable climate change disaster, and unsurprisingly it is disproportionate...
CONTINUE READINGJefferson’s Bridge
Anticipating modern environmental views, Jefferson viewed nature as a public trust.
Today being the Fourth of July, it seems appropriate to think about how the author of the Declaration of Independence felt about nature. A revealing example involves some land Jefferson owned between Lexington and Roanoke, which he sought to preserve. Two years before the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson purchased 157 acres of land from the King. He bought the land because it contained a remarkable feature -- a 200-foot natural bridge carved out of the rock ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Illusions of Takings Law
Nothing is as it seems, when the issue is whether a regulation is a “taking” of property.
For the last century, the Supreme Court has tried to operationalize the idea that a government regulation can be so burdensome that it amounts to a seizure of property. In the process, it has created a house of mirrors, a maze in which nothing is as it seems. Rules that appear crisp and clear turn out to be mushy and murky. Judicial rulings that seem to expand the rights of property owners turn out to undermine those rights. The Court’s decision last week in Cedar Poin...
CONTINUE READINGCalculating the Extinction Cost of Carbon
Or, how many megatons do we need to cut to prevent one extinction?
Economists often talk about the social cost of carbon, which basically translates the harm done by a ton of CO2 into dollars. The dollar metric is less useful as applied to ecological impacts like species extinctions than impacts of humans. It may be better to skip the dollar conversion, and just ask how much a ton of CO2 raises the likelihood of an additional species going to extinct. In short, what’s the extinction cost of carbon? There are uncertainties in ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Ongoing Tension over Stormwater Discharges in Los Angeles
Upcoming hearings on a proposed new MS4 permit will set the stage for the future of water quality throughout LA County
[Disclosure: The Frank G. Wells Environmental Clinic at UCLA School of Law is representing Los Angeles Waterkeeper on matters related to the subject of this post. I will shortly be joining Los Angeles Waterkeeper as a Staff Attorney. However, like all other Legal Planet posts, this post reflects only my own views and opinions.] The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (“Regional Board”) is in the process of issuing a new permit for water discharges...
CONTINUE READINGClimate News from Capitol Hill
There are small but hopeful signs of progress in overcoming legislative gridlock.
Over a decade ago, the Waxman-Markey carbon trading bill died in the Senate. President Obama then had to rely entirely on administrative actions to address climate change. Republicans united in a solid wall of violent opposition to climate action. There are some hopeful signs that things may not be quite so tough for President Biden. Here’s a rundown of what’s happened in the past couple of weeks. Methane emissions. The House voted to overturn a Trump rule der...
CONTINUE READINGThe Regulatory Process: FAQs
Here’s an explainer on how federal regulations get issued and reviewed by courts.
Even most lawyers, let alone the rest of the population, are a bit fuzzy on how the regulatory system works. As the Biden Administration is gearing up to start a slew of regulatory proceedings, here’s what you need to know about the process. Issuing Regulations Q: Where do agencies like EPA get the power to create regulations? A: EPA and other agencies are created by Congress. They also get the power to issue regulations from laws passed by Congress. For...
CONTINUE READINGSupreme Court Finds California Labor Access Regulation Works Unconstitutional Taking of Private Property
What Are the Implications of the Cedar Point Nursery Decision for Environmental, Natural Resources & Public Health Programs?
In a closely-watched property rights decision, the U.S. Supreme Court today held unconstitutional a longstanding California regulation allowing labor unions intermittent access to agricultural workplaces for labor organizing purposes. Reversing a decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a 6-3 Supreme Court majority ruled that the challenged regulation triggers a per se, compensable government "taking" of private property under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S...
CONTINUE READINGFacing Up to Reality
More frequent heat waves. Droughts. Wildfires. The West is getting a glimpse of its future climate.
The western U.S. is staring climate change in the face. Most of the West is experiencing “severe” or “exceptional” drought. We could be heading into the worst drought period in centuries. Major dam reservoirs are down to record low levels. The region is also in the grips of a record-breaking heatwave. We can expect another bad wildfire season, maybe not as bad as last year but still bad. Power systems from Texas to California are stressed to their limits. Th...
CONTINUE READINGWhy I Was Wrong About Methane
I didn't think cutting methane was a high priority. Now I do. Here's why.
I didn’t use to think that eliminating methane emissions should be a priority. True, methane is a potent greenhouse gas. But it’s also a short-lived one, which only stays in the atmosphere for twenty years or so. In contrast, CO2 emissions cause warming for 2-3 centuries or more. So methane emissions seemed to be something that could be addressed at any point we got around to them. I’ve rethought that conclusion, however for a combination of policy and political ec...
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