What Does a Trump Presidency Portend for California’s Environmental Policies?
Constitutional Issues Loom Large in Future, Likely Federal-California Legal Confrontations
Sensing political storm clouds ahead, California Governor Jerry Brown yesterday issued a statement on the presidential election results that concludes: "We will protect the precious rights of our people and continue to confront the existential threat of our time--devastating climate change." Several of my Legal Planet colleagues have recently posted thoughtful commentary on what Donald Trump's election as the nation's 45th president signifies for national environmen...
CONTINUE READINGCould A Trump Presidency Actually Slow Climate Change?
A Trump-induced recession could temporarily slow global emissions
This might sound crazy, but Donald Trump's presidency could actually have a temporarily positive impact on climate change. How? Nothing reduces emissions like a recession, and according to economists, Trump's stated policies are likely to cause one. Specifically, if Trump follows through on his promise to start a trade war with countries like China, he could end up reducing the U.S. carbon footprint significantly. Imagine higher tariffs on goods from China, U.S. ca...
CONTINUE READINGAnother Job For California: Energy & Climate Research
If Trump guts research funding, California should step into the breach.
During the campaign, Trump said he would save $100 billion by cutting climate programs. His campaign staff referred as support to a report, which said that 75% of the funding was energy related and included "about 68 percent for energy technology, 23 percent for science, 8 percent for international assistance and 1 percent for adaptation to climate change." The chair of the House Science Committee has dedicated himself to attacking climate science, which Trump thi...
CONTINUE READINGTrump and Climate Change
There's Nothing Good to Be Said About It
A Trump Presidency is a disaster for U.S. leadership on climate change. There's no other way to spin this election. Myron Ebell, the head of Trump's EPA transition team, thinks that President Obama's Clean Power Plan is illegal, the Paris Agreement unconstitutional and that climate change "is nothing to worry about." Though most of the focus on climate policy in the coming months is likely to be on the U.S. commitment to the Paris Agreement and on the Clean Power Pla...
CONTINUE READINGThe Way Forward On Climate Change
State coalitions and global subnational action represent the best hope
After last night's presidential election results, it's easy to despair that we've lost the fight against climate change. Trump will likely kill the federal Clean Power Plan and pull the U.S. out of the Paris agreement. He'll also probably pull back regulations that make it harder to permit coal-fired power plants and conduct other business activity that furthers a fossil fuel-powered economy. Yes, California's climate program will continue, as a bright spot. But t...
CONTINUE READINGDefending the Environment in Dark Times
Where do we go from here?
Yesterday’s election didn’t turn out the way many of us hoped. The results may put in danger much of the progress made over the past eight years in addressing environmental issues and even risk some earlier accomplishments. What’s done is done, however, and we need to think about how to move forward. The Bush years provide a blueprint that still largely applies. Environmentalists were able to use a three-part strategy to deal with the anti-environmental pressure...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia’s Big Land Use And Transportation Initiatives To Watch Today
Measures in both San Francisco and Los Angeles could have a big impact on the future of the state
Yes, there's a lot happening today in the national election. Lost in the shuffle though are three big initiatives before some California voters that could have a big impact on the state's transit and development future. Measure RR to restore BART: this is an unusual transit measure because it's one of the first I've seen that makes no promises about expanding transit service. Instead, it seeks to issue bonds solely for maintenance of the aging San Francisco Bay Area...
CONTINUE READINGHanging in the Balance: The Future of Environmental Law
10 huge questions that will be answered today.
By tomorrow morning, we should know a lot more about the future of environmental law -- maybe, whether it has any future. We'll certainly learn whether the U.S. will give up the fight against global warming. Whichever way you vote matters! Here are ten key questions we will be able to answer 24 hours from now: Will the U.S. honor its pledge or will it tear up its promises under the Paris Agreement? Will EPA's climate change initiatives be supported or kil...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Science Takes Win in Effort to Save Bearded Seal
Ninth Circuit upholds NMFS’s reliance on climate projections to 2095 in decision to list Pacific bearded seal as threatened under ESA
Climate change is expected to wipe out critical habitat of the Pacific bearded seal by 2095. This projection, based on IPCC climate data and models, justifies listing the Beringia distinct population segment of the bearded seal as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, according to a recent Ninth Circuit opinion in Alaska Oil and Gas Ass’n v. Pritzker. This explicit acceptance of IPCC climate data and models in assessing species survival as far as 80 years in...
CONTINUE READINGAt the Tipping Point
Tomorrow's vote is a tipping point for climate policy, with large, irreversible consequences.
We're now at a tipping point for climate policy. Tomorrow's election will send us down one of two very different paths for years to come. The political system lends itself to such tipping points in policy. Linear systems don't have tipping points: small changes have small effects that can be reversed. Tipping points are a feature of complex, non-linear systems like global climate. The political system is also prone to tipping: a few hundred votes in Florida, a ...
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