Understanding China’s National Energy Security Strategy
How should the US compete with Chinese green development?
China’s dominance in clean technologies (solar, wind, electric vehicles, batteries) has been in the news recently (see, e.g., here and here). China accounts for more than 80% of global manufacturing capacity for solar products and batteries. Chinese companies produce 65% of EVs globally. The US has responded to this both with measures to improve US competitiveness, such as the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, as well as through efforts to ...
CONTINUE READINGCommunity Solar: Compensation
Who gets the money? Compensation mechanisms are where a lot of the power of these programs resides, but naturally, also the debate.
This post is co-written by Naomi Caldwell (J.D. '24, UCLA School of Law). Two recent posts explored community solar through the lens of its many potential benefits. (Part One on systemwide benefits and Part Two on local and individual benefits.) Today's post follows the money, exploring community solar compensation mechanisms. The question of who makes money based on which attributes can vary according to the goals for the community solar program. Most communit...
CONTINUE READINGThe Dirty Truth Behind a Feel-Good Energy Story
The San Francisco 49ers just became the first NFL team to buy sustainable aviation fuel. But that move is overshadowed by Big Oil sponsorships in sports.
Did you see the story about a new ‘NFL first’? The San Francisco 49ers announced that it was the first NFL franchise to buy sustainable aviation fuel or SAF —enough to fly from San Francisco to LA for their Sunday game against the LA Rams. The story generated headlines, the way any “first” tends to. The 49ers called it “a meaningful part of our commitment to more sustainable practices” and praised United for its SAF program, which both companies said ca...
CONTINUE READINGEarth system tipping events now seem inevitable – what does this mean for climate governance?
Building meaningful earth system governance creates multiple new research challenges
A tipping point is a system threshold beyond which change becomes self-perpetuating until a qualitatively different stable state is reached. For example a rainforest turns into a grassland, or an ice sheet melts completely. Such shifts are non-linear, and practically irreversible. Fears that growing human impacts might push aspects of the global climate past such 'tipping points' are not new. Such concerns have appeared in both popular science and fictional accounts...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia’s Electric Car Culture
The state has been pushing EVs for over thirty years, with huge progress in the past five years.
Since the Pavley Act passed in 2002, California has been a leader in cutting greenhouse gas emissions from new cars. Even today, a third of all new U.S. electric vehicles (EVs) are sold in California. Getting here has been the result of a long regulatory process, which helped create a market for companies like Tesla. Achieving California’s ambitious targets will require an exponential increase in EV sales over the next eleven years. In this post, I trace the history ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Libertarian Critique of Trump’s “Schedule F”
As it turns out, you can hate BOTH government regulation and Trump’s assault on the “deep state.”
Skepticism about regulation is part of the Cato Institute's DNA. Cato is the country’s leading libertarian think tank. But Cato is no friend of Schedule F, the centerpiece of Trump’s attack on the bureaucracy during his presidency. Schedule F, which is also a core part of Project 2025, aimed to take thousands of senior officials out of the Civil Service system so they could be replaced by Trump loyalists. Trump initial effort was repealed by Biden, but he has p...
CONTINUE READINGOil and Gas Sponsorships in Major League Sports
A survey of sponsorships across six major league sports leagues in the U.S. reveals more than 60 deals with high-polluting companies.
If California Attorney General Rob Bonta attends a home game to cheer on his local NBA team—the Sacramento Kings—he may encounter sponsorship ads promoting not one but two of the oil companies he’s suing for allegedly deceiving the public about climate change. Then again, Attorney General Bonta, a former soccer player and self-described soccer dad, might be more likely to attend a Los Angeles Football Club game at BMO Stadium while working in L.A. There to...
CONTINUE READINGA New Energy Project at UCLA Law
The Emmett Clean Energy Law & Leadership project will build a bridge between the existing expertise of UCLA’s energy law scholars and policymakers.
You don’t have to look beyond the front pages of newspapers, or beyond rooftops in your neighborhood to know that we are in the midst of a clean energy revolution, with renewable energy technologies dramatically decreasing in price and increasing in availability. These technologies promise to reduce energy cost burdens for households, as well as reduce climate- and health-harming pollution. However, there are many legal and policy challenges to overcome to ensure t...
CONTINUE READINGChina, Climate, and Clean Energy
China seems to have leap-frogged the U.S. on clean energy. We need to catch up.
China accounts for almost a third of global emissions, over twice as much as the U.S. Its emissions have continued to grow, though not as quickly as during its economic boom years earlier in this century. Yet in 2023, China accounted for about 60% of the world’s new renewables and electric vehicles. Four questions: Why have emissions continued to grow despite the huge expansion in renewables? Will that change? How is China's clean energy spree impacting other...
CONTINUE READINGThe Case that Wouldn’t Die
The Juliana plaintiffs make a final effort to resurrect their case.
Since you’re reading Legal Planet, you probably know already that the Juliana case is an effort to force fundamental reform of federal climate and energy policies. Here's the state of play: (1) the Ninth Circuit ruled that the plaintiffs had no standing because the case violated the separation of powers; (2) the district court tried to sidestep that ruling; and (3) the Ninth Circuit responded with a mandamus writ to end the case. Which brings us to (4): plaintiff...
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