San Francisco Tests Supreme Court’s “Hole” In Prop 13 & 218 Restrictions On Local Tax Increases
Ambiguity in California Cannabis Coalition vs. City of Upland creates an opening for simple majority approvals
As I blogged in August, the California Supreme Court potentially "ripped a huge hole" in Prop 13 and 218, the two state constitutional initiatives that created a two-thirds majority requirement on local tax measures. In California Cannabis Coalition vs. City of Upland, the court held that "general taxes" initiated by citizens is not bound by Prop 218 requirements. Although the facts and procedures in the original case were relatively narrow, the reasoning used by the ...
CONTINUE READINGRenewable Energy in the Mountain West: A Tale of Two States
Wyoming and Colorado are very different places — but renewables are thriving in both states.
Politics play an important role in determining the fate of renewable energy in particular places, but so does economics. The Trump Administration is trying to shift the economics, but it seems unlikely they'll be able to have much impact. For now, at least, there are a variety of motivations for states to embrace renewables, as illustrated by two of the Mountain States. Wyoming and California differ dramatically in their politics and their state economies. But ren...
CONTINUE READINGEverything You Always Wanted to Know About the Chevron Doctrine
This doctrine, formerly known only to specialists, will play a large role under Trump.
During the Gorsuch nomination, there was a lot of talk in the press about the Chevron doctrine. Most people have never heard of this doctrine, and only a few are aware of all the nuances. As the Trump Administration’s rulemaking efforts come before the courts, we’re going to be hearing a lot more about it. As the Court's 2017 Term gets underway, I thought this would be a good time to give a roadmap to the doctrine.in fact, we've already seen a short opinion from ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Place of Pruitt’s Nightmares
How is California fighting climate change? Let me count the ways.
In his worst dreams, Scott Pruitt must find himself surrounded by solar panels and windmills, pursued by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Terminator himself, who has returned from the future to stop him before he can doom the planet. When he awakes, he realizes to his relief that he's safe in bed well outside the borders of California. That's a fantasy, of course. But it has a core of truth. California stands for all that Pruitt is most fervently against: a sane approac...
CONTINUE READINGPublic Lands Watch: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Senate budget resolution being considered this week could open refuge to oil drilling
One of the longest lasting fights over the federal public lands has been whether to open up portions of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas development. The Refuge is one of the most important and largest protected areas in North America – it is unusual in that it protects the entire migratory area for a large caribou herd, as well as important habitat for the polar bear, a species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act because o...
CONTINUE READINGDisaster Resilience: Inching Forward, Sliding Back
We're slowing improving disaster resilience. But there have been some notable setbacks.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as the saying goes. The same is true for disasters. We are slowly getting better at mitigating disaster risks. These improvements don't generally take the form of dramatic breakthroughs. Rather they involve incremental progress on a number of fronts. For instance, homes that were constructed after Hurricane Katrina following FEMA guidance suffered minimum harm from Hurricane Isaac seven years later. Several Gulf S...
CONTINUE READINGWill Renewable Energy Keep Getting Cheaper?
Technological and economic forces will continue to cut prices, regardless of Trump.
The Trump Administration is trying to save coal and stop the growth of renewables. Just this week Scott Pruitt issued a proposed repeal of Obama's Clean Power Plan. Whether or not the repeal succeeds, Pruitt & Co. are fighting against the economic tide. If the price of renewables continues to fall, it will be harder and harder to maintain the use of the high-pollution fuels they favor. Fortunately, there are strong reasons to think that the downward price trend...
CONTINUE READINGHow the filibuster shapes environmental law
Political structures affect how environmental law works
In case you haven’t noticed recently, there’s been some national attention paid to how the US Senate operates. In particular, a lot of attention has been focused on the filibuster, the requirement that for legislation (as opposed to judicial or executive nominees), 60 Senators must vote to close debate on the legislation for a vote to occur, effectively creating a supermajority requirement for legislation. Right now, it’s people like President Trump to call f...
CONTINUE READINGForeseeable Yet Lamentable: Pruitt’s Attack on Carbon Restrictions
As expected, the Trump Administration is trying to repeal Obama’s regulation.
Few things were more foreseeable than a repeal of the Clean Power Plan (CPP) by the Trump Administration. The Clean Power Plan had three strikes against it: (1) it addressed climate change; (2) it disfavored coal and promoted the use of renewable energy in electricity generation; and (3) it came from the Obama Administration. The only real questions were when and how it would be rolled back. Tomorrow, the Administration will take the initial step by the release of a prop...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia’s AB 313–A Solution in Search of a Problem
Governor Brown Should Veto Ill-Conceived Bill That Would Undermine State Water Board's Enforcement Authority
Overall, the California Legislature had a most productive year when it comes to environmental issues. It extended until 2030 the cap-and-trade program that's a centerpiece of the state's ongoing efforts to reduce California's aggregate greenhouse gas emissions. It passed the mis-named "gas tax" legislation, which not only provides funding to rebuild California's once-proud but now crumbling road and highway infrastructure but also makes available much-needed funding ...
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