Region: California

Methane Action in 2022: Project Climate’s Year In Review

A short summary of efforts to tackle the super pollutant.

Co-authored with Gil Damon, CLEE Methane Research Fellow.  2022 proved to be a big year for methane—the flammable gas that accounts for 30 percent of Earth’s anthropogenic warming. Methane forms when organic material decomposes in sealed spaces and is released in the agriculture, waste disposal, and energy sectors. In terms of warming, methane is a …

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The Coming Ground War For Missing Middle Housing

Municipalities Continue to Maintain and Erect New Barriers To Homes For Working People

Last year, the California Legislature enacted SB 9, which required local governments to allow duplexes (and with ADUs, sometimes triplexes and quadraplexes) in single-family zones. Housing advocates rejoiced, and NIMBYs screamed that it was the end of the world and would lead to “Manhattanization” (because as we all know, Manhattan is famous for its duplexes). …

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UCLA Environmental Law Clinic Students’ Work Used in Litigation for Improved Refinery Monitoring

East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, represented by Earthjustice, filed a petition drafted by UCLA ELC students

On Monday, environmental-justice advocates filed a petition drafted by two of our amazing UCLA Environmental Law Clinic students, Sarah Repko and Monica Heger, opening litigation to improve monitoring of petroleum refineries in Southern California. This spring, Sarah and Monica had the exciting opportunity to work with Earthjustice’s Community Partnerships program to prepare litigation enforcing state …

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The Transport Decarbonisation Alliance at COP27

Call to Action on Active Mobility and Deep Dive on Clean Trucks

Last month at COP 27 in Egypt, CLEE partnered with the Transport Decarbonisation Alliance (TDA) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) as chair of TDA, to convene experts to discuss some of the major next steps in clean transportation. While avoiding the worst of climate change requires a rapid increase in the pace of …

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The Passing of a Respected Water Warrior

Remembering California Water Law Attorney Clifford Lee

Clifford (Cliff) Lee, one of California’s most knowledgable and respected water law experts, died suddenly late last month.  His passing leaves a tremendous void in the field of California water law and policy. After earning his undergraduate degree from U.C. Berkeley, Cliff attended law school at U.C. Davis and quickly became entranced by water law.  …

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How Can Local Governments Plan for Equity in EV Infrastructure?

In August, the California Air Resources Board finalized regulations that will phase out the sale of new internal combustion engine automobiles by 2035. The regulations (known as Advanced Clean Cars II) deliver on a commitment Governor Newsom made in a 2020 executive order and build on decades of emissions reduction programs from CARB. In turn, …

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California Offshore Wind Auction Results in Five Provisional Winners

First Lease Auction Held in the Pacific

Katherine Hoff, CLEE Research Fellow, also contributed to this post. On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced the provisional winners of the first offshore wind energy lease auction in the Pacific. The five leases—three off of Morro Bay and two off of Humboldt—fetched more than $757 million …

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Supercharging Electrolyzers to Support Zero-Emission Hydrogen Generation

New CLEE/UCLA report identifies policy solutions to grow electrolyzer adoption

Join us for a webinar on December 13 at 12 PM to discuss the report’s findings. Hydrogen could play a critical role in helping California to decarbonize its electricity grid and achieve carbon neutrality. The gas can be generated from surplus renewable energy resources (like solar or wind) to create zero-emission (or “green”) hydrogen. The …

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Realizing Equitable Outcomes in Climate Action Plan Implementation

As my colleagues Katie Segal, Ted Lamm, and Ross Zelen have described, our team at CLEE released an analysis earlier this month detailing how San Francisco can fund implementation of its Climate Action Plan. Katie provided an overview of the city’s Climate Action Plan (CAP), describing how San Francisco will need to secure tens of billions …

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Wildfires and the Grid

Wildfires are huge problem in California. Maybe we can learn from those on the other end of the Pacific.

California and Australia are 8000 miles apart, but it turns out they have similar wildfire problems.  And in both cases, the electric grid and climate change are part of the equation.  The problems in California and the rest of the West are familiar to many readers. Though they don’t necessarily get much attention in the …

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