Region: California
The NIMBY Presidency
Peter Navarro hates foreign trade. He also hates housing.
Well what a surprise. Not: Before Peter Navarro designed trade wars for President Trump, he orchestrated housing wars in San Diego across five unsuccessful bids for local office. Navarro, then a UC Irvine economics professor, led San Diego’s slow-growth movement in the 1990s, drawing battle lines that still define today’s development fights. His zero-sum view on homebuilding then …
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CONTINUE READINGLocal EV Leadership During Federal Withdrawal
The clean mobility transition is in local hands.
The federal landscape for electric vehicle (EV) investment is laden with pause and uncertainty. High-profile program discontinuations–both planned and executed–threaten to disrupt EV deployment efforts, while unpredictable tariffs interfere with drivers’ ability to afford vehicles. As local leaders work to reconcile ambitious transport decarbonization goals with the current lapse in federal climate leadership, public planners, …
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CONTINUE READINGMAGA vs NOAA, Executive Orders, and Growing IRA Support
The Drain is a new weekly roundup of climate and environmental news from Legal Planet.
Trump wants to “Make Weather a Mystery Again.” The news that started leaking last Friday is that the Trump administration wants to break up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and essentially end NOAA’s climate work by abolishing its primary research office and forcing the agency to instead help boost U.S. fossil fuel production, according …
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CONTINUE READINGHelp Shape the Bay Area’s Climate Future
Seeking input from local leaders, organizations, and individuals to shape California’s Fifth Climate Assessment for the region
The California Climate Change Assessment is a key initiative to understand and address the state’s climate impacts and build resilience through informed decision-making. California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment included a series of technical reports, regional summaries, and a statewide synthesis covering key issues such as extreme heat, wildfires, and sea level rise—providing critical guidance for …
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CONTINUE READINGWildfire Liability in California: A Primer
California has a unique approach to lawsuits against utilities for causing fires.
Like other states, California allows wildfire lawsuits against utilities based on negligence. When a plaintiff can prove that the utility was negligent – in other words, failed to exercise reasonable care – plaintiffs can recover for environmental damage, reforestation costs, and loss of profits. But California also allows recovery even when a utility did nothing wrong, under a theory called inverse condemnation. The PG&E bankruptcy made it clear that no-fault utility liability could threaten the financial health of the power system. The legislature created a new fund to deal with the problem.
CONTINUE READINGThe Mirage of Trump’s State Climate Law Executive Order
There is no overreach.
On Tuesday, the White House released an Executive Order titled “Protecting American Energy from State Overreach.” It is unclear what the order believes is in need of protection, but it is certainly not the near-term health of our lungs or the long-term livability of our communities. What is clear, fortunately, is that there is little …
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CONTINUE READINGIntroducing Your Legal Planet Weekly Roundup
The L.A. Times Boiling Point is ending its informative weekly news roundups. Here’s your weekly Legal Planet roundup, The Drain.
Good morning! The L.A. Times fantastic Boiling Point column is ending its weekly news roundups of environmental and climate stories. As columnist Sammy Roth noted in his message to readers, “reading and analyzing so many news stories every week takes up an enormous amount of time and energy.” No kidding! I produce something similar for …
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CONTINUE READING168 Years of Climate Science
The scientific evidence for climate change traces back before the Civil War.
Climate change is no fad or Johnny-come-lately in science. Rather, our knowledge has grown over 168 years, since an American scientist first discovered the heat-trapping properties of carbon dioxide.Over time, it has become more and more certain that humans are causing climate change and that continuing down that road poses great risks.
CONTINUE READINGThe Death of CEQA?
Not quite, but Assemblymember Wicks’ new bill would severely limit CEQA for housing.
“Legislative bombthrower” is one of those cliched – and thus overused – metaphors. And California State Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Richmond) has no reputation as one. But with her latest effort, AB 609, it seems like she is enjoying her Molotov cocktail shaken, not stirred. Wicks’ bill – now cosponsored with several other Assemblymembers – is …
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CONTINUE READINGGetting Creative on Vehicle Emissions
UCLA Law set to host a symposium on April 9 on ways to charge ahead on cutting emissions.
These are tough times for lovers of zero emission vehicles–and clean air. I probably don’t need to recite the threats to both, but here’s a sampling: the Trump Administration has pledged to roll back federal air quality standards and mobile source emissions standards; is gutting funding for EV charging networks (and is even, maddeningly, shutting …
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