Georgia: A Peach of an Energy Policy
Georgia’s energy policy is much better than you’d expect from its Southern location and politics.
Georgia is a bit of a surprise. It is a leader in solar energy in a region that generally has not been very friendly to renewables. It currently ranks 9th nationally in total solar installations (and even more surprisingly, ranked 3rd in 2016 in newly added solar). What’s also surprising is that Georgia has done this with only a voluntary Renewable Portfolio Standard. Both houses of the state legislature have roughly 2-to-1 GOP margins. But despite the lack of a leg...
CONTINUE READINGTrump Administration Imposes Tariffs On Solar PV Imports
The expected blow for solar companies, consumers, and clean energy & climate advocates will likely bring a U.S. solar slowdown and prompt industry changes
Following up on a campaign promise to crack down on free trade policies, the Trump Administration today announced that they will be imposing tariffs on foreign solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. The tariffs will start at 30 percent in the first year and then decline to 25 percent in year 2, 20 percent in year 3, and 15 percent in year 4. The move was largely expected. The case originated in May 2017 when two now-bankrupt U.S. solar companies filed for temporary relief fr...
CONTINUE READINGGuest Blogger Ken Alex: California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard
Post #2 in a Series on California Climate Policy by Ken Alex, Senior Policy Advisor to Gov. Jerry Brown
[This is the second post in a series expressing my view of why California’s actions on climate change are so important and how they will change the world. The introductory post provides an overview and some general context.] SB 350 (2015) requires that California’s investor and municipal owned utilities provide 50% of their customer’s electricity from renewable sources by 2030, excluding power generated by nuclear and large scale hydro. Already, San Diego Gas ...
CONTINUE READINGGuest Blogger Ken Alex: California’s Vision on Climate Change
Post #1 in a Series on California Climate Policy by Ken Alex, Senior Policy Advisor to Gov. Jerry Brown
California accounts for about one percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. As the Brown Administration enters its final year, I want to set out my view of why California’s actions on climate change are so important and how they will change the world. I thank the faculty at Berkeley Law's Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment and at UCLA Law's Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment for the opportunity to share my views in a series of bl...
CONTINUE READINGSupreme Court Update: PEPTO and Rinehart
Supreme Court denies review in two important environmental law cases
Last week the US Supreme Court brought closure to two cases we have been following here at Legal Planet. First is a case I had blogged about in the past – People for the Ethical Treatment of Property Owners v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – a challenge to the constitutionality of the federal Endangered Species Act as applied to protection of habitat for species present only in one state. I had noted the risks that this case might pose to protections for endang...
CONTINUE READINGOne Year and Counting
He's played his cards. Next year, we'll see how well the other side plays theirs.
In September, Eric Biber and I released a report assessing the state of play in environmental issues 200 days into the Trump Administration, based on an earlier series of blog posts. As we end Trump’s first year, it’s time to bring that assessment up to date. It follows the same outline as the previous report but omits a lot of the detail. I will focus on our predictions at that time and how they’ve borne out since then. But first, some general thoughts about the p...
CONTINUE READINGCities are suing oil companies for climate change harms. Could they win?
Join UCLA Law Emmett Institute and Union of Concerned Scientists for January 25 evening talk on new climate lawsuits
Who should pay for the significant costs that cities and other local governments incur in responding to climate change? Los Angeles is the most recent city to explore the idea of suing fossil fuel companies for these harms, following in the footsteps of San Francisco, San Mateo County and a growing cohort of other jurisdictions that have already filed suit. This past year, eight such lawsuits were filed, and counting. Most have been brought by local governments in Califo...
CONTINUE READINGRenewable Energy on the Lower Mississippi
From Missouri to Louisiana to Alabama, fundamental similarities but individual differences.
The states in the lower Mississippi basin have a lot in common. From Missouri down to Louisiana and Alabama, they all voted for Trump. These states – Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee – were all part of the Confederacy. (I’m stretching geography a bit by including Alabama, since only the top of the state drains into the Mississippi, but it’s a natural pairing with the State of Mississippi.) None of these states has deregulated their electric...
CONTINUE READINGThe Anthropocene and public law
Major doctrinal changes could occur in constitutional law, administrative law, criminal law
In this post, I will discuss ways in which the Anthropocene might affect public law doctrines, focusing on constitutional law, administrative law, statutory interpretation and criminal law. Again, the changes here are driven by three characteristics of the interaction of the Anthropocene with the legal system that I have developed in my prior posts: a rapid increase in the number and scope of ways in which human activities affect the planet; an increasing share of tho...
CONTINUE READINGPublic Lands Watch: Izembek National Wildlife Refuge
Interior Department proposes to authorize road through wildlife refuge in Alaska
Tom Schumann authored this blog post. News outlets report that the Interior Department, reversing a decision made under President Obama, has agreed to a land exchange with an Alaska Native village that would allow construction of a road across a national wildlife refuge that provides important habitat for migratory birds, bears, caribou, and other species. The federal government would cede a 200-acre ribbon through the refuge for a road connecting the village of King ...
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