What Will Harris’s Nomination Mean for the Environment?
She's been outspoken on climate and EJ issues, but her core interests may be elsewhere.
Kamala Harris has taken some strong positions on climate change and environmental justice. Her nomination signals the extent to which the Democratic party now embraces those issues. However, to the extent one can judge from her public record, her highest priority interests have been elsewhere during her time in the Senate. While campaigning for the presidential nomination, she released a very ambitious $10 trillion climate plan. It called for a carbon neutral econ...
CONTINUE READINGUCLA Law Faculty Weigh In on Solar Geoengineering Experiment at Harvard
How to engage the public when everyone on Earth is a stakeholder?
It’s been a surprisingly busy year for solar geoengineering research. In late December, Congress appropriated $4 million to NOAA to study the influence of atmospheric aerosols on climate, with an eye on assessing “solar climate interventions.” In March, Australian scientists ran a trial of a cloud-seeding technology on the Great Barrier Reef that may one day be used for “marine cloud brightening.” And then this summer, an independent Advisory Co...
CONTINUE READINGManaging a Pandemic, Enron-Style
The Administration's management harkens back to a spectacular business collapse at the turn of the century.
Think of this as a parable. I'll draw out some parallels at the end with the Trump Administration's handling of the coronavirus, as detailed in a story in Sunday's Washington Post. But first I'll let you make some of the connections yourself. The Trump team's triumph in 2016 was one of the great upsets in American political history. Here's the tale of another great triumph, a company called Enron. While the CEO of the company never used the term "stable genius," Enr...
CONTINUE READINGNext Steps in U.S.-China Environmental Cooperation
Pressing Both Countries Toward Carbon Neutrality.
U.S.-China relations are perhaps at their lowest point in decades and there is no end in sight at the moment. Each week brings a barrage of new U.S. federal policy measures aimed at China. Against this backdrop, ChinaFile recently asked a group of China experts to opine on the prospects for U.S.-China relations in coming years. It's time to think about a more productive path forward. Environmental cooperation will be a critical part of this process (as I write bel...
CONTINUE READINGHot Spots
Climate change isn't uniform. Some parts of the U.S. are seeing conditions that won't hit elsewhere for decades.
Friday's Washington Post had a fascinating article about climate change hotspots within the United States. The largest one was on the Western Slope of the Rockies, which has already seen 2 °C of warming. The story is a reminder that the impacts of climate change will be global and yet also very much local. Before I get to the substance of the Post story, I want to say something about how it was written. One fascinating aspect of the story is what it says about jo...
CONTINUE READINGBP’s Surprising Pivot
An oil giant decides to face the future instead of fighting it.
With all that’s going on, it’s easy to miss what would in normal times be major news. On Tuesday, BP announced it was beginning to turn away from the oil business. The most significant thing may be this: BP stock rose after the announcement. BP has already sold its petrochemical business. It also announced that it will not begin oil and gas explorations in any new countries. By 2030, it plans to cut oil production 40% and increase annual low-carbon investments ten...
CONTINUE READINGThe Whipsaw Effect
Get ready for a rough ride, with sudden weather reversals and climate shifts.
Adapting to climate change is an unavoidable necessity, if only because we’ve already baked additional warming into the climate system. Steady predictable changes in climate and weather would be easier to adapt to. Instead, we may well see some very sudden shifts, both in terms of short-term weather and longer-term climate regimes. That has important policy implications. The shorter-term variety of sudden change was dubbed “whiplash” in a recent article in Yal...
CONTINUE READINGWhen does a groundwater recharge project NOT need a water right?
by Kate Fritz and Nell Green Nylen
Groundwater recharge projects already play an important role in California. That role is about to expand rapidly, as local groundwater managers begin to take more concrete actions to meet their responsibilities under California’s landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). As we mentioned in our last post, an important part of developing a successful recharge project is securing a source of water and the legal right to use it. In that post, we describe...
CONTINUE READINGElection 2020: Three Months till Election Day
The environmental are high: Trump has axed one regulation every two weeks for four years.
Since taking office, Trump has waffled on some issues and shuffled personnel, but on one thing he has held firm: eradicating legal protection of the environment. His motto seems to be: No Regulation Left Standing. Something to keep in mind, as we head toward Election Day. That's three months away, but some states begin early voting much sooner. Some of Trump's targets were well-known and controversial regulations, but the tide of rollbacks has not spared even some...
CONTINUE READINGElection 2020: Update on the Senate
Senate control will matter a lot, regardless of who’s in the White House.
Control of the Senate will determine the environmental views of new judges and whether any environmental legislation can pass. In August, I'll start looking at the environmental stakes in specific Senate races. Here’s why Senate control is so important and where things stand right now. Basically, the question is whether Mitch McConnell retains his grip on legislation and judicial appointments. Control of the Senate will have a big impact on post-2020 policy in man...
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
