Remembering Electric Vehicle Pioneer Ryan Popple, 1977-2021
Former Proterra CEO was a major contributor to UC Berkeley/UCLA Law EV report
Ryan Popple, former CEO and co-founder of electric bus company ProTerra, venture capitalist for transportation electrification, early Tesla employee, Iraq War veteran and father of three, passed away on Wednesday night at the age of 44, for reasons unknown. I had the good fortune to meet Ryan back in 2012, when UC Berkeley Law and UCLA Law convened a group of experts (including Ryan) on ways that California could dramatically scale up the sale of battery electric vehi...
CONTINUE READINGCOPs as Three-Ring Circus
Reflections on Glasgow a few weeks later
It is often hard to make sense of what happens at the annual climate meetings, and easy to get cynical. For two or three weeks, climate politics gets intense worldwide news coverage. Acute pressure mounts over the two weeks to get some announcable achievement, which almost always happens after all-night negotiations on the final day. Then things move on. Given the long-standing and continuing failure of negotiations to achieve real, concrete progress in handling climate ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Renaissance of Energy Law
An esoteric field of law has become exciting and important.
Energy law used to be an obscure niche subject. It was devoted to subjects like oil and gas leases, the proper inflation adjustments in utility rates, and depreciation schedules for power plants. Utilities were famously set in their ways, using nineteenth century technologies to produce and deliver their products. Only specialists really paid much attention. All that has changed dramatically. Energy law is a hot topic. Law students are thronging to the field, seeing a...
CONTINUE READINGLosing Justice Hobbs, Western Water Expert and Valued Mentor
When former Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory J. Hobbs passed away recently, just weeks shy of his 77th birthday, he left a gaping hole in the hearts of many. Not just family and close friends. But people across the Colorado legal community, the broader Western water community, and a far-flung network that includes Berkeley Law staff, faculty, and alumni. Long-term connections with Berkeley Law Justice Hobbs’ connections with Berkeley Law run deep. He go...
CONTINUE READINGArguments over Solar Geoengineering Research
Science Magazine weighs in
Doing research on environmental issues or responses is usually an easy call for policy-makers and gets wide political support, even if there’s disagreement what to do about the issue. But there is now one big exception: research on solar geoengineering (SG). SG would cool the Earth, temporarily and imperfectly offsetting some of the climate effects of elevated greenhouse gases, by reflecting a bit (around 0.5% to 1%) of incoming sunlight. The way to do this that now ...
CONTINUE READINGCornhuskers Go Green
Nebraska has become the first solid Red state to adopt climate targets
Last week, Nebraska became the first state under complete Republican control to adopt a 2050 goal of net-zero emissions from the grid. No Democratic presidential candidate has carried the state in almost fifty years (and the last previous time was before World War II). Republicans have controlled the state legislature and governor’s mansion since this century began. You really can’t get more Republican than that. But Nebraska has a unique approach to supplying electr...
CONTINUE READINGWhat 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 ...
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