Why Trump’s Faux Withdrawal and Reality TV Announcement May Backfire
Opponents are Galvanized
President Donald Trump’s announcement that he will withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement may have dramatic consequences for his administration – but not in the way he might imagine. His announcement is toothless. The U.S can’t withdraw from the Paris Agreement until the next Presidential election (assuming he makes it to the end). Yet his faux withdrawal has generated widespread international contempt, and may generate far more domestic political oppositio...
CONTINUE READINGPlanning for Utility-Scale Solar PV in the San Joaquin Valley
Free evening panel discussion in downtown San Francisco on Tuesday June 6th, 5:30 - 7pm
California aims to generate 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, and a new bill now in the legislature seeks to get to 100% renewables by 2045. A significant amount of this energy will come from solar photovoltaic (PV) installations, with much of the deployment likely to occur in California's San Joaquin Valley. But these facilities often engender controversy related to the loss of agricultural and biologically sensitive lands, among other con...
CONTINUE READINGIn Defense of Nicaragua
In the flurry of news articles, editorials, and think pieces on the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, one fact has been cited widely as evidence that this is a bad move: the only other countries not part of the Accord are Syria and Nicaragua. The insinuation, of course, is that both of these countries are not of the civilized, progressive, strong nature with which we would like the U.S. to be associated when it comes to environmental protection (or any i...
CONTINUE READINGA Bitter Pill
Will Trump's Actions Unravel the Paris Agreement? It's complicated.
It's official: President Trump has decided to pull the U.S. out of the Paris agreement. So far as I c an, there's little support for his decision from anyone who is not beholden to the coal industry. Sadly, this decision is only one way in which this President has dashed the hopes of the world. This is a bitter pill to swallow. What will the effects be? We need to begin by being clear about the withdrawal process. Article 28 of the Paris Agreement provides: At...
CONTINUE READINGAll You Need to Know About the Paris Agreement
Five posts About the Paris Agreement in One Place
Today we will finally know whether Donald Trump will make good on his campaign promise to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. As background, here are five posts I've written since the agreement was adopted in December of 2015. First, Thoughts on the Accomplishments of the Paris COP , which explains why Paris is such a big deal and why solving the climate change problem is so tough. Second, If Trump Guts Key Programs, Does Staying in Paris Even Matter?, which out...
CONTINUE READINGBeyond Cap-and-Trade and Carbon Taxes
The idea of putting a price on carbon has popped up in unexpected ways.
Conventionally, carbon pricing takes place when the government either creates a cap-and-trade scheme or a carbon tax. But we've begun to see carbon prices popping up in other interesting ways. The idea of putting a price on carbon seems to have influence well outside of the classic tax-or-trade models. For instance, carbon pricing has moved beyond the public sector. According to a 2016 survey, 140 global companies included a "shadow price" in their investment d...
CONTINUE READINGThe Way Trump Withdraws From the Paris Agreement Is Almost As Important As Whether He Does
Withdrawal from the UNFCC would say "we don't even want to talk about climate change, let alone do anything about it"
If, as news outlets are reporting, the Trump Administration makes good on its campaign promise to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, one thing to watch for is how it withdraws. If Trump takes the dramatic step of withdrawing from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, (as opposed to simply withdrawing from the Paris Agreement itself) he will undermine 25 years of global cooperation to promote information disclosure, scientific research, technological ...
CONTINUE READINGSlowly and Grudgingly, Change is Coming to Coal Country
Coal is slowly fading from the power mix, even in Mitch McConnell country,
A sign of the times: Fox News has reported, without comment, that the Kentucky Coal Museum is installing solar panels to save money. This is part of a larger trend. On Saturday, the NY Times reported on shifts in power production in states like West Virginia and Kentucky. For instance, Appalachian Power has “closed three coal-fired plants and converted two others to gas, reducing its dependence on coal to 61 percent last year, down from 74 percent in 2012.” In res...
CONTINUE READINGWhither WOTUS?
Trump ordered agencies to reconsider Clean Water Act jurisdiction. Easier said than done.
President Trump ordered EPA and the Army Corps to review the Obama Administration’s WOTUS rule, which sets expansive bounds on federal jurisdiction over water bodies and wetlands. The agencies have sent the White House a proposal to rescind the WOTUS rule and revert to earlier rules until they can come up with a replacement. In my view, either the agencies will have to dive deep into the scientific thicket in the hope of justifying a new rule, or they will have to gam...
CONTINUE READINGUCLA Law Conference Webcast Today: State Climate Policy in the Trump Era
Symposium Features Sessions on California, Federal, and Multistate Greenhouse Gas Reduction Policy
UCLA Law’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment is hosting a full day event today on the timely topic of State Climate Policy in the Trump Era on Monday, May 22, 2017. There will be a live webcast for those who cannot join the event in person. Full details are linked here. And here's a direct link to the live webcast. The webcast will begin around 8:40 am, and the program will start at 9:15 am. We expect to archive the webcast for viewing later,...
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