Solving The Energy Efficiency Puzzle
New report recommends ways that California can encourage more private financing of energy efficiency retrofits
Much of our efforts to reduce carbon emissions involves fairly complicated and advanced technologies. Whether it's solar panels, batteries, flywheels, or fuel cells, these technologies have typically required public support to bring them to scale at a reasonable price, along with significant regulatory or legal reforms to accommodate these new ways of doing old things, from generating power to driving a car. Yet ironically, here in California we seem to be making th...
CONTINUE READINGClinton v. Sanders: Their Climate Plans in a Nutshell
Sanders wants a carbon tax. No surprise: Clinton is more incremental.
Sanders and Clinton have much richer discussions of issues on their website than their Republican rivals, perhaps reflecting different expectations for candidates in the two parties. Both Sander and Clinton have environmental views that are starkly different from the leading Republican candidates. But their views do differ from each other as well. Clinton has about an 80% lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters, but Sanders has a perfect scorecard. Thei...
CONTINUE READINGDeep in the Heart of Texas
Some green patches in one of the reddest of the Red States.
The Texas AG's office seems to do little else besides battle against EPA, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz is in the vanguard of anti-environmentalism. Yet even in Texas there are some rays of hope. While Texas is attacking the Clean Power Plan, the city of Houston is leading a coalition of cities defending it. Other cities are taking action for non-environmental reasons. The city of Georgetown, Texas, for instance, has announced plans to become 100% renewable. Lest the...
CONTINUE READINGMitigating the Climate Impacts of Aliso Canyon
Staff from California Air Resources Board released the Draft Aliso Canyon Methane Leak Climate Impacts Mitigation Program last week. While the program has yet to gain approval by the Board, the final version will probably not change much. Overall, the Draft Program signals ARB's desire to take full advantage of the political will and financial resources generated by the horrific environmental disaster that only just ended. In total, ARB has estimated that the leak releas...
CONTINUE READINGLabor Mobility and Environmental Regulation
Net job loss is small, but the effects of regulation might leave some workers stranded.
Regulators should give some thought to issues of labor mobility, which may be smaller than economists have assumed. Recent studies show that people who lost manufacturing jobs due to competition from China often failed to get new jobs in other places or sectors of the economy. Regulation can also cause some individual to lose their jobs, even though others may gain new jobs. In other words, even if there are jobs elsewhere, coal miners may not be in a position to get...
CONTINUE READINGGuest Blogger David Spence: Why Some Electricity Markets Will Struggle With Decarbonization
David Spence is Professor of Law, Politics & Regulation at the University of Texas at Austin
Recently the New York Times published an article chronicling the financial problems experienced by one of the world's premier developers of concentrated solar power (CSP) facilities. The financial headwinds facing CSP are a sign of a more fundamental problem electricity markets face: namely, capturing all of the important values we attach to electricity production. Most utility-scale solar and wind farms are owned by independent power producers (IPPs), not traditional...
CONTINUE READINGA Sea Change in Climate Politics
Something strange has happened in Florida: Rising seas have changed GOP views.
There was a surprise question about climate change at the last Republican debate. What was surprising wasn't the question itself. Instead, it was the source of the question: Tomás Regalado, the Republican mayor of Miami. It turns out that this wasn't a fluke. Regalado and the Republican mayor of Miami Beach have spoken out in an op. ed. about climate change: "The overwhelming scientific consensus is that the rising sea levels are caused by the planet warming,...
CONTINUE READINGCreating An Exit Strategy for Our Use of Natural Gas
To meet long-term greenhouse gas reduction goals, all fossil fuels have to go, even natural gas.
Coal is the climate’s Public Enemy #1. The use of natural gas has helped to ensure that the coal problem has not become even worse. Without natural gas, we would use more coal for space heating and for many more industrial processes than is currently the practice. Without natural gas, our reliance on coal for electricity generation would be at least 50% greater. Many describe natural gas as a “bridge” fuel that helps us avoid more coal use now, and buys us some...
CONTINUE READINGUCLA Law and Berkeley Law Are Recognized Among Top Five Environmental Law Programs in New U.S. News Rankings
Environmental Law Programs Thrive in California's Public Universities
I'm pleased to report that the environmental law programs at both UCLA Law and Berkeley Law are among the top five in the country, according to the new U.S. News and World Report law school specialty ranking for this year. Berkeley is ranked #4, and UCLA is ranked #5. (Technically, there are six top-five schools, since UCLA and Georgetown tied for fifth.) As has been the case in many recent years, specialized law schools with a deep curriculum-wide commitment to en...
CONTINUE READINGJudge Garland Has a Strong Record of Environmental Protection
If Ever Confirmed, He's a Good Bet to Uphold the Clean Power Plan
President Obama’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Merrick Garland, has a record on the D.C. Circuit Court that environmentalists should celebrate. He is almost always deferential to agency interpretations of statutes, including environmental ones (SCOTUSblog has a good summary of his record through 2010 on agency deference). When he has not deferred to the Environmental Protection Agency he has sided with environmentalists. And he has ruled in some signif...
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