California Doubles Down on Its Commitment to Reduce State Greenhouse Gas Emissions
California Air Resources Board Adopts New, Landmark Climate Change Scoping Plan
California's Air Resources Board (CARB) has adopted a new 2017 Climate Change Scoping Plan, which is designed to extend and expand upon the state's longstanding commitment to reduce California's aggregate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This is a landmark achievement, one that moves California further down the road to a sustainable environment and economy. A bit of historical background: in 2006, the California Legislature enacted the landmark Global Warming Solutio...
CONTINUE READINGThe Roots of Regulatory Robustness
What makes regulations politically robust or fragile when Administrations change?
We’ve seen a lot of regulatory innovations in the past decade. Many are under attack, and that underscores the importance of understanding what makes some innovations more robust than others. I don’t have a general theory to offer about what gives some regulations more ability than others to withstand adverse political shifts. But it’s instructive to consider a couple of major examples. At least that way we can start thinking about what factors should be included i...
CONTINUE READINGU.C. Davis to Host Conference Commemorating California Air Resources Board’s 50th Anniversary
CA Governor Jerry Brown, former USEPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, CARB Chair Mary Nichols Featured
On Friday, January 19, 2018, the University of California, Davis, will host a major conference commemorating the California Air Resources Board’s 50th anniversary. The conference represents a three-way partnership between UCD School of Law’s California Environmental Law and Policy Center, UCD’s Institute for Transportation Studies and CARB. Since its creation in 1967, CARB has been a model of environmental stewardship, pollution control innovation and public s...
CONTINUE READINGGuess What? It’s THAT Time of Year Again.
Yes, it's fundraising season. And yes, we're asking for your help.
Like everyone else, I’m sure you find fundraising appeals annoying. That’s why we hardly ever do them. But twice a year doesn’t seem like too much of an imposition, and this is a really important time. In many ways, developments in Washington have been even grimmer than expected. So there’s an especially critical need today for policy-driven research to help keep environmental progress moving forward outside of D.C. At both Berkeley and UCLA, we are wor...
CONTINUE READINGRepublican Tax Bill Would Devastate Renewable Energy & Affordable Housing
Proposed tax code changes would destroy the market for tax credit financing
Donald Trump's electoral college win a year ago certainly promised a lot of setbacks for the environmental movement. True to form, his administration's attempts this year to roll back environmental protections, under-staff key agencies enforcing our environmental laws, and prop up dirty energy industries have all taken their toll. However, until the tax bill passed the Senate this week, a lot of the damage was arguably either relatively limited in scope or thwarted by...
CONTINUE READINGComprehensive New State Survey Shows California Environmental Quality Act Rarely Impedes New Projects
Study covered all state-led projects over a 5-year period
A constant complaint from many business leaders and their allies is the high cost of complying with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the state's signature environmental law which requires environmental review for major new projects. But a new survey from the State of California shows that the law rarely affects most projects where the state is the lead agency. The study examined all state-led projects over a five-year period, from 2011 to 2016. First, ...
CONTINUE READINGClimate and Energy on the East Coast
Renewable energy and climate action are big issues in NY and NJ.
New York and New Jersey are at the core of what people think about in terms of the "Northeast." Both are very active in promoting renewable energy -- New Jersey despite Governor Chris Christie, New York in part because of Governor Cuomo. New York in particular seems ready to position itself as the East Coast equivalent of California. New Jersey Despite having a Republican governor who took the state out of the regional emissions trading program, New Jersey is doi...
CONTINUE READINGLooking Back on Lucas
Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Comm'n has had surprisingly little impact, despite fears at the time.
Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Commission was the high-water mark of the Supreme Court’s expansion of the takings clause, which makes it unconstitutional for the government to take private property without compensation. Lucas epitomized the late Justice Scalia’s crusade to limit government regulation of property. The decision left environmentalists and regulators quaking in their boots, especially because of its possible impact on protection for wetlands and habitat...
CONTINUE READINGWhat’s in Trump’s Proclamations on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments
An analysis of the new proclamations and the legal issues they raise
On Monday, President Trump signed two proclamations, downsizing the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah. These two proclamations are the first official acts by Trump to implement the recommendations from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s national monuments review this summer. (Zinke’s final report and recommendations were just made public yesterday. In a short side-by-side read-through, the public version looks almost identical to th...
CONTINUE READINGPublic Lands Watch: ANWR and Monuments Updates
Updates on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and National Monuments
Two updates on issues that we have been following. First, the Senate passed a tax bill that opens up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development – though an initial version of that provision which would have relaxed environmental review of development in the refuge was stripped out. The bill likely will go to conference committee with the House version of the tax bill which did not have the refuge provision in it. For additional discussion see...
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