How Biden’s Climate-Related Financial Risk Order Relates to State Policy
The federal government takes a big step, but state leaders still have a role to play
On Thursday the White House issued an Executive Order on Climate-Related Financial Risk that outlines a key plank in the Biden Administration’s whole-of-government approach to addressing climate change. Whereas the Trump Administration sought to actively block consideration of environmental factors in investment decision-making, the Biden Administration is directing financial and climate regulators to develop strategies to address the physical and transition risks that...
CONTINUE READINGGetting the Lead Out
The Ninth Circuit tells EPA to determine safe levels for lead based solely on science.
Lead can cause neurological damage to young children and developing fetuses. The only really safe level is zero. Because poor children are the most likely to be exposed to this hazard, this is also a major environmental justice issue. The Trump EPA took the position that it could set a hazard level higher than zero because of the cost of reaching a lower threshold. In a split decision, the Ninth Circuit reversed. The statutory issues are complicated, and the dissent m...
CONTINUE READINGCost-Benefit Analysis and the Biden EPA
The recent rescission of a Trump rule hints at how the Biden Administration views the role of cost-benefit analysis.
In its closing days, the Trump Administration issued a rule designed to tilt EPA’s cost-benefit analysis of air pollution regulations in favor of industry. Last week, EPA rescinded the rule. The rescission was no surprise, given that the criticisms of the Trump rule by economists as well as environmentalists. EPA’s explanation for the rescission was illuminating, however. It sheds some important light on how EPA views the role of cost-benefit analysis in its decisi...
CONTINUE READINGGuest Contributor Jetta Cook: Greater Than the Sum: Sub-national Renewable Energy Policy during the Trump Administration
Even Red-States Supported and Increased Renewable Energy during the Trump Administration
Below the federal level, it’s difficult to discern the impact that the Trump Administration had on energy policy. To take a closer look, I conducted a fifty-state survey to discern how state, local, and public utility actions affecting energy policy came together as a whole over the past four years. Across the nation, I found, policymakers continued to shape the energy policy of the United States without much regard to national policy. These actors varied in size a...
CONTINUE READINGThe Supreme Court’s (Non-)Decision in Major Climate Change Case
BP P.L.C. v. Baltimore Ruling a Technical Win for Energy Defendants--But There's Less There Than Meets the Eye
Today the U.S. Supreme Court issued its first major environmental decision of the Court's current Term--and in a climate change case, no less: BP P.L.C v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore. Superficially, the multinational energy corporations sued by the City of Baltimore prevailed, in a 7-1 majority opinion authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch. But upon closer inspection, the justices issued a narrow, procedural ruling that, in Solomonic fashion, rejects the argument...
CONTINUE READINGTaxing Carbon?
Should we adopt a corporate carbon tax? Something to think about on Tax Day.
Today is Tax Day, delayed from its usual spot in mid-April due a backlog at the IRS. It seems like an apt time to think about a carbon tax. At present, it doesn't seem to be on Biden's agenda, but agendas can change with circumstances, sometimes unpredictably. Politically, the biggest problem with a carbon tax always been that it's . . . a tax. Democrats are planning to raise some taxes anyway, however, so this might be less of a consideration. A...
CONTINUE READINGMaking Corporate Commitments Credible
How can we make climate pledges something more than cheap talk?
Companies across many different economic sectors have announced ambitious goals like being climate neutral by 2050. Commitments on ESG - Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance — are a growing corporate emphasis. Talk is cheap, however. How can we know they’re serious? How can we even be sure that the information they release about their environmental performance is true? There are not easy questions, but there are steps that companies could take if they ...
CONTINUE READINGGuest Contributors Clara Barnosky, Jane Sadler, Richard Yates, and Zachary Zimmerman: The Biden Administration’s First 100 Days of Reversing Environmental Rollbacks
An Early Analysis of Progress and Priorities in the Executive Branch
In the final months of the Trump presidency, we (a team of students working with U.C. Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE)) compiled a database of over 200 environmental rollbacks enacted during the Trump administration. These rollbacks characterized the administration’s aggressive focus on deregulation of industry and disregard of protections for the environment. After January 20, 2021, the work shifted as President Biden took office. The...
CONTINUE READINGWashington State Ups Its Climate Game
After much travail, the state has finally put a price on carbon.
The Washington state legislature passed a historic climate change bill on April 24. The bill requires a 95% cut in carbon emissions by 2050. After much travail, the state has finally managed to put a price on carbon by adopting a cap-and-trade system. With the decision of additional states to join the east coast RGGI system, this may be a sign that the stalled momentum for carbon pricing might be picking up a bit. In any event, Washington State is giving California rea...
CONTINUE READINGThe Ninth Circuit Makes EPA an Offer It Can’t Refuse
Regulate chlorpyrifos or else!
Chlorpyrifos is one of the most widely used pesticides in America, although it has been banned in the EU. Last week, the Ninth Circuit took the extraordinary step of ordering EPA pointblank to ban or reduce traces of chlorpyrifos in food. A dissenter accused the majority of misreading the statute in question and abusing its discretion by limiting EPA's options so drastically and giving it only sixty days to act. Warning: The majority and dissenting opinions cover 116 p...
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