Pollution Bursts and Public Health
EPA needs to give much more serious thought to controlling bursts of pollution.
When a facility installs and operates the required pollution control equipment, we normally think of the pollution problem as solved. But there still may be bursts of pollution associated with start-up, shut-down, accidents or external events. A recent study of pollution in Texas shows that these events have substantial health impacts, involving significant deaths and overall costs of about a quarter billion dollars a year in that state. Ironically, the study comes o...
CONTINUE READINGFollow the Money (Again!): New Investment in the World Energy System Still Dominated by Fossil Fuels
It’s that time of year again. Last month, the International Energy Agency (IEA) released its annual World Energy Investment Report, providing a survey of investment trends in the global energy sector. If you want get a sense of where capital is going in the world energy system, this is one of the best sources out there. Not much has changed since last year (summarized in a previous blog post), which is bad news for the climate. As IEA Executive Director Fatih B...
CONTINUE READINGUpdates on the War on Science
The Trump Administration continues its campaign to suppress science.
The Trump Administration’s hostile attitude toward science has continued unabated. The Administration has used a triad of strategies: efforts to defund research, suppression of scientific findings, and embrace of fringe science. Budget.Administration continues to favor deep cuts in research support. Its initial 2020 budget proposal calls for a 13% cut to the National Science Foundation, a 12% cut at the National Institutes of Health and elimi...
CONTINUE READINGThe Surprising Mr. DeSantis
Florida’s GOP Governor proves unexpectedly pro-environmental.
There was little reason to expect much from Governor DeSantis. The GOP candidate for Governor was expected to be Adam Putnam, the Agriculture Commissioner. Instead, due to Trump’s personal intervention, Ron DeSantis snagged the nomination. DeSantis pledged to “reduce bureaucracy, eliminate unreasonable regulations and crack down on lawsuit abuse.” He called himself the #1 conservative in Florida. Admittedly, he did have some environmental-sounding pledges on his ...
CONTINUE READINGWhat Do Dems Think about Climate Policy?
The candidates are united on some issues, but divided or equivocal on others.
Yesterday, the Washington Post published a survey of the Democratic candidates’ positions on climate change. The differences between candidates probably don’t have a lot of immediate policy relevance, given the political and legal constraints on what a new president could accomplish. But they are very revealing about the direction of the Democratic Party today. The Green New Deal. The Green New Deal has been the rallying cry for advocates of drastic carbon cuts....
CONTINUE READINGRegister For June 20th Webinar On Increasing Energy Retrofits For Low-income Multifamily Properties
Expert panel with Energy Commissioner Andrew McAllister will discuss forthcoming Berkeley Law/UCLA Law report
California will need to double the energy efficiency of existing buildings by 2030 in order to achieve the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by that year. While state leaders have adopted aggressive standards for efficiency in appliances and new construction, convincing property owners to undertake retrofits to improve energy performance, from switching out incandescent light bulbs to LEDs to installing energy efficient windows and wa...
CONTINUE READINGStanding and the Juliana v. United States Plaintiffs
Sympathetic Plaintiffs Also Help Legally
It's not news that the 21 children (some now adults) who are suing the United States for the right to a safe and stable climate are sympathetic and telegenic. They are the primary reason Juliana v. United States has garnered so much attention, including a lengthy, highly positive segment on 60 Minutes. But the Juliana youth are not just telegenic. They are also key to one of the most important legal questions in the case: whether the plaintiffs have the right to br...
CONTINUE READINGA Motley Crew
The leadership at EPA has lots of experience, much of it in opposing environmental protection.
The best-known figure at EPA is Andrew Wheeler, the ex-coal lobbyist who is now the fox in charge of the henhouse. But it’s worth looking at some of the key remaining staff so we can see just what’s happened to EPA since Trump took office. Compared to some of Trump's cabinet appointments, they all look pretty good, but that’s an incredibly low bar -- though surprisingly, two of them actually seem somewhat committed to the agency's mission. Bill Wehrum is the hea...
CONTINUE READINGGuest Blogger Michael Panfil: Supreme Court Declines to Hear New York and Illinois Clean Energy Cases Challenging Zero Emission Credits
Cert. Denials Have Significant Implications for Environment, Human Health, and Clean Energy
States are on the leading edge in crafting pathbreaking climate and clean energy policy. They rely on longstanding authority to do so to further their citizens’ welfare and wellbeing. That bedrock authority recently received important reaffirmation from the Supreme Court, which last month declined petitions for review in two cases with important implications for power sector regulation and state authority to promote clean energy generation as a means to reduce the emis...
CONTINUE READINGLaw Schools and the Environment: East Coast Version
Environmental law centers aren’t just a California thing. .
Readers of this blog probably have some sense of what the environmental law centers at UCLA and here at Berkeley are doing. There are too many environmental law centers to do a a comprehensive nationwide survey, and trying to pick a top-10 list would be completely subjective. To keep this post manageable, I’ll only discuss programs in about a half dozen centers. But I hope readers will use the comments section to say more about these programs and the many others doing ...
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