Region: California

Why is GM using taxpayer funds to fight clean car progress?

Just back from a weekend conference where climate litigator Matthew Pawa gave a keynote address.  He’s one of the lawyers who successfully defended California’s right to demand that automakers make cars that limit their greenhouse gas emissions, calling and cross-examining witnesses in a dramatic 2007 trial that put climate change science on the stand.  In …

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Delta news roundup

It’s been a busy and discouraging ten days for those interested in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta as either an ecosystem or a water source. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the return of fall chinook salmon to the Sacramento River hit a record low last year. The Pacific Fishery Management Council released a gloomy preseason …

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UCLA Working Conference on Nanotechnology Policy

The2009WorkingConferenceonNanotechRegulatoryPolicywillbeheldattheUniversityofCalifornia,LosAngelescampusonApril17.  TheConferencewillbringtogetheraninterdisciplinarygroupofscholarsandresearchers,policymakers,non-governmentalorganizations,andbusinessesforaction-orientedworkshoppanelsonthescienceandpolicyofnanotechnology.  ThegoaloftheConferenceistocriticallyevaluateseveralspecificpolicyproposalsforrespondingtothepotentialpublichealthandenvironmentalimpactsofnanotechnology.  TheConferencewillexaminethreecategoriesofpolicyresponsesthroughseveralpanels:  ∙          Relianceonexistingregulatoryprograms ∙           Developmentofinnovative“nano-specific”regulatoryprograms ∙           Relianceupon“private”regulation(e.g.,industryinitiatives,insurancemechanisms,etc.)  ThepolicyproposalswillbesetoutinaseriesofsuccinctpaperscommissionedbytheConferencesponsorsanddistributedtoallparticipantsinadvanceoftheConference.  ThesepaperswillbepublishedintheUCLAJournalofEnvironmentalLawandPolicy. Registration is availableonline.  Visit the website at http://www.cnsi.ucla.edu/NanoRegulatoryPolicy/

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Hip Hip Hoo—-Wait A Minute …..

Two recent announcements seem to offer reason for good cheer on the renewable energy front.  But in each instance, it pays to read a little deeper and maybe keep the cork in the champagne a bit longer. The first came in the form of a California Public Utilities Commission report that concluded that there are …

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Mary Nichols gets mad

Amid the general relief that California’s legislature has finally passed a budget, our state’s (and nation’s?) chief air & climate conscience makes some serious objections: California’s proposed budget contains a major provision that would weaken air pollution regulations while saving the construction industry millions of dollars. The measure, largely overlooked in a public debate focused on …

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The Fire Next Time

Realclimate.org has an interesting post about the Australian wildfires: Although formal attribution studies quantifying the influence of climate change on the increased likelihood of extreme fire danger in south-east Australia have not yet been undertaken, it is very likely that there has been such an influence. Long-term increases in maximum temperature have been attributed to …

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New York City prepares for climate change’s impacts

New York City’s climate change task force report was released today.  This report, which discusses how climate change will affect the city’s infrastructure and residents, has attracted some media attention.  Notably, the New York Times has an article on the report.   This is important, given how little attention the impacts of climate change on cities’ infrastructure have received to …

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And the Beat Goes On . . .

Two recent reports drive home the fact that phasing-out harmful chemicals is typically only the beginning of effective chemical policy rather than the end.  Methyl bromide, widely used in the last decade as a fumigant in California and elsewhere, is a toxic volatile organic compound and is ozone-depleting to boot.  Although efforts are underway to …

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A Tale of Two Cities

The old adage is that all politics is local.  So is much, if not all, environmental policy-making.  Recent reports from two American cities vividly demonstrate the wide gulf that often separates local efforts to adopt sustainable environmental and energy policies.  A recent story in the Wall Street Journal reports the City of Boulder, Colorado’s groundbreaking …

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Laws as data

Julie Ekstrom, a doctoral student at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara, has put together and made publicly available a searchable dataset of federal and state statutes and regulations dealing with ocean and coastal resources in the California current ecosystem. In a paper in the journal Marine Policy (subscription …

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