Evolving Energy Positions, 2016-2024
The national debate over climate and energy has shifted since Trump’s first run in 2016.
Over the past three presidential elections, the battle lines over energy and climate policy have shifted. Coal, once a political flash point, has almost disappeared as an issue, with oil and gas production in unchallenged first place for Republicans. Clean energy subsidies, a side-issue in 2016, have now taken center stage, while EPA regulations get much less attention. The one thing that remains unchanged is the gulf between the parties. The Eclipse of Coal in Favo...
CONTINUE READINGGovernor Newsom Should Veto These Four Bills
Four seemingly modest bills — AB 1122, AB 1296, AB 637 and AB 3179 — are sneaky legislative efforts to threaten California’s world-leading clean transportation investments.
This post was co-authored by Ruben Aronin, Principal of the Better World Group. With just weeks to go before November 5, all eyes are on the election, including what it means for environmental policy. And yet, one of the largest threats to California’s clean transportation leadership in recent history has materialized right under our noses — and it’s coming from our own legislature. Our elected leaders understand that California’s transition to a clean en...
CONTINUE READINGThe Contract with America
Or, as some critics called it, “the Contract ON America.”
Tomorrow is the thirtieth anniversary of the Contract with America. On September 27, 1994, more than 300 Republican congressional candidates stood outside the Capitol to sign the Contract. In retrospect, this was an important step toward the divisive politics of the Trump era. The Contract was a list of promises about what Republicans would do if they won the House. A key plank tied deregulation and tax breaks for business to worker welfare. After they took control...
CONTINUE READINGNew Law Reaffirms Local Authority to Ban Oil Drilling
AB 3233, part of a trio of bills that the governor just signed, paves a clear path for local phase-out efforts.
This morning, Governor Newsom signed a trio of bills—AB 3233 (Addis), AB 1866 (Hart), and AB 2716 (Bryan)—that will protect communities in Los Angeles and across the state from the harms of oil and gas production, the impacts of which are disproportionately experienced in low-income communities of color across the state. He signed the package on a Los Angeles soccer field that overlooks oil wells, joined by community organizers who have led the charge for years. ...
CONTINUE READING‘Schedule F’ Would Be Bad—Even for Trump
My time in the Biden administration shows that Project 2025’s proposal to purge civil servants would be bad policy for everyone.
Here’s one of the best kept secrets of the federal government: nothing gets done without effective civil servants. I learned this secret firsthand in the three years I just spent at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), first as Chief Counsel, then as Acting Administrator. Political appointees, as I was, help set an agency’s agenda, but we can’t carry it out without the expertise, talent, professionalism, and dedication of career emplo...
CONTINUE READINGThe Battle for Congress: Key U.S. House Races in California
These elections could prove critically important to how much the next President can reshape energy and environmental policy.
The battle for control of the U.S. House is going to be very tight. Democrats need to pick up only four seats to flip control – something that will be especially important for them if Trump wins and Republicans win the Senate as expected. Especially in that scenario, control of the House will have a big impact on climate and energy policy, one way or the other. The consensus among political observers is that there are six toss-up races in California. Here are ...
CONTINUE READINGUnderstanding China’s National Energy Security Strategy
How should the US compete with Chinese green development?
China’s dominance in clean technologies (solar, wind, electric vehicles, batteries) has been in the news recently (see, e.g., here and here). China accounts for more than 80% of global manufacturing capacity for solar products and batteries. Chinese companies produce 65% of EVs globally. The US has responded to this both with measures to improve US competitiveness, such as the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, as well as through efforts to ...
CONTINUE READINGCommunity Solar: Compensation
Who gets the money? Compensation mechanisms are where a lot of the power of these programs resides, but naturally, also the debate.
This post is co-written by Naomi Caldwell (J.D. '24, UCLA School of Law). Two recent posts explored community solar through the lens of its many potential benefits. (Part One on systemwide benefits and Part Two on local and individual benefits.) Today's post follows the money, exploring community solar compensation mechanisms. The question of who makes money based on which attributes can vary according to the goals for the community solar program. Most communit...
CONTINUE READINGThe Dirty Truth Behind a Feel-Good Energy Story
The San Francisco 49ers just became the first NFL team to buy sustainable aviation fuel. But that move is overshadowed by Big Oil sponsorships in sports.
Did you see the story about a new ‘NFL first’? The San Francisco 49ers announced that it was the first NFL franchise to buy sustainable aviation fuel or SAF —enough to fly from San Francisco to LA for their Sunday game against the LA Rams. The story generated headlines, the way any “first” tends to. The 49ers called it “a meaningful part of our commitment to more sustainable practices” and praised United for its SAF program, which both companies said ca...
CONTINUE READINGEarth system tipping events now seem inevitable – what does this mean for climate governance?
Building meaningful earth system governance creates multiple new research challenges
A tipping point is a system threshold beyond which change becomes self-perpetuating until a qualitatively different stable state is reached. For example a rainforest turns into a grassland, or an ice sheet melts completely. Such shifts are non-linear, and practically irreversible. Fears that growing human impacts might push aspects of the global climate past such 'tipping points' are not new. Such concerns have appeared in both popular science and fictional accounts...
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