Guest Bloggers Amy Vanderwarker and Kay Cuajunco: Equity at the Center: SB 775 and AB 378 Create New Path Towards More Equitable, Effective Climate Policy
By Prioritizing Equity, We Fight Climate Change, Improve Local Air Quality and Public Health, and Deliver Economic Benefits
California is at a crossroads in our strategy to fight climate change. With the current form of cap and trade due to end in 2020, our state is deciding to what extent carbon pricing will play a role in meeting the 2030 targets enacted in 2016, and if so, what the program will look like. Environmental justice must be at the center of this conversation. Taken together, the policy design laid out in SB 775 and AB 378 create one of the most effective and equitable paths forw...
CONTINUE READINGWhere To Build Housing In California Through 2030
Join Berkeley Law's Free Webinar On Wednesday, May 17th, 11am to Noon
California isn't building enough housing to meet jobs and population growth, and what housing is getting built is happening too much in sprawl areas on greenfields. While this greenfield-focused development may please pro-sprawl conservatives, it will worsen traffic and air pollution and keep the state from meeting its long-term environmental goals. To discuss where and what type of housing the state should be encouraging, please join me for an upcoming Berkeley Law w...
CONTINUE READINGPublic Lands Watch: Comment Period on National Monuments
You can share your thoughts on Interior's review of National Monuments
As we have noted in earlier posts, President Trump issued an executive order calling for the Interior Department to review a range of National Monuments created over the past 16 years through Presidential proclamations. The Interior Department has recently announced a public comment period for that review. If you are interested in sharing your comments about any of the National Monuments under review (list here), and what should be their future status, you can put yo...
CONTINUE READINGFinally, some good news from Congress
The Senate voted 51-49 Wednesday morning against considering a resolution to repeal Obama-era regulations targeting methane emissions from oil and gas operations on federal lands. The Senate was considering whether to vote on rolling back the rule under the Congressional Review Act, which allows the Senate to repeal rules within 60 days of enactment. Three Republicans voted against the resolution: Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lindsey Graham o...
CONTINUE READINGGuest Blogger Dallas Burtraw: Three Revisions Not to Overlook in California’s New Cap-and-Trade Proposal, SB 775
The Proposal Would Eliminate Allowance Banking and Offsets, and Add a Border Adjustment Mechanism
The California cap-and trade-program is already the most rigorous and best-designed allowance market in the world. Its purpose is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. But now the program requires adjustments for political and legal reasons. These adjustments will be a vitally important legislative decision – for the state and the world. An important new proposal on the stage is SB 775 (Senators Wieckowski and de Leon). This bill woul...
CONTINUE READING“California Alone” Should Not Govern State Climate Policy
SB 775 Turns California Inward and Diminishes Its Role As Global Leader
Last week, Senator Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont) introduced a new bill, SB 775, that would replace California's cap-and-trade system with a new approach to regulating California's greenhouse gas emissions beginning in 2021. There is much to admire in the new bill, including an aggressive pricing approach that would ensure that California’s carbon price remains high. The bill proposes returning to California residents much of the revenue raised from the carbon price in...
CONTINUE READINGThe Future of California’s Greenhouse Gas Cap and Trade Program After 2020: A Conversation
Posts on Legal Planet Over the Coming Week, Linked Here, Will Address Pending California Legislation on Cap and Trade from Multiple Perspectives
This post is the preface to a series of posts by multiple authors (including guests) over the coming week (starting May 9) about the future of the state's cap and trade program for greenhouse gases. Two bills, AB 378 and SB 775, are being debated by the environmental and environmental justice communities, and our bloggers will discuss their implications as the Legislature takes them up. The initial posts will focus heavily on SB 775, which is scheduled for an informa...
CONTINUE READINGThe California Supreme Court’s Environmental Docket: A Tale of Two Arguments
Justices Seem Likely to Reach Environmentally-Friendly Result in One Case, But Reject Environmentalists' Claims in Other
Last week I posted a preview of three key environmental law cases that were scheduled for argument over two days in the California Supreme Court. I attended the arguments in two of those cases, held in San Francisco last Thursday. Here's an account of what transpired, along with my predictions of the likely outcomes in both cases. Lynch v. California Coastal Commission This regulatory takings claim was brought by Encinitas oceanfront landowners, who sought and ...
CONTINUE READINGPoliticians and Commentators Who Criticize Recent National Monuments Are Making Up Their Own Version of History
Republican Presidents from Teddy Roosevelt to Herbert Hoover Designated Millions of Acres Under the Antiquities Act
As several colleagues and I noted here recently, President Trump recently issued an executive order that will result in "review" of national monuments created since 1996. (The Antiquities Act grants Presidents the authority to reserve federal lands as national monuments, protecting them from much new resource extraction and development that would otherwise potentially be available on those lands.) As we explained, the Antiquities Act doesn't give Presid...
CONTINUE READINGThinking Globally, Acting Transnationally
Despite Trump, Americans are joining the international fight against climate change.
The U.S. government obviously isn't going to be taking a global leadership role regarding climate change, not for the next four years. At one time, that would have been the end of the story: the only way to accomplish anything internationally was through national governments. But we live in a different world today and there are other channels for international action against climate change. Today, transnational networks of state and local governments, private firms...
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