The Problems with the SCOTUS ‘Good Neighbor’ Arguments
Guest contributors Megan Herzog and Sean Donahue write that last week’s argument in the case of EPA’s Good Neighbor Rule shows the perils of agency rulemaking cases on the Supreme Court’s shadow docket.
Megan M. Herzog (former Emmett/Frankel Fellow at UCLA School of Law 2012-2016) and Sean H. Donahue are partners at Donahue, Goldberg & Herzog, which represents the Environmental Defense Fund, a Respondent-Intervenor in the Good Neighbor Rule litigation. Last Wednesday, the Supreme Court did something it has done only three times in the last half-century—it heard oral argument in a case without merits briefing. The argument concerned four applications f...
CONTINUE READINGAmerica’s Leading Environmental Court
Hint: It’s in the southernmost state. Which is not Florida.
The state court on the cutting edge of environmental law is a long way from the major population and media centers, which may be one reason it doesn’t get much attention. It deserves more. The Hawaiian Supreme Court has been forging new paths in environmental law that may lead the way for other courts in years to come. Environmental rights. In 2023, the court issued two major decisions relating to climate change. The first case, In re Hawaii Electric Co. , invol...
CONTINUE READINGRecentering Environmental Law: A Thought Experiment
If we had understood then what we know now. . . .
In 1965, scientists sent LBJ a memo mentioning the risks of climate change. Imagine if history had been a little different. Suppose it had been this memo and a follow-up report, rather than Rachel Carson’s attack on pesticides, that sparked the environmental movement. How would environmental law look different and how might we be thinking about it differently? First of all, we would have had a very different understanding of the air pollution problem. We thought th...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia’s Climate Leadership: A Timeline
California embraced climate action 2002 and has never looked back since.
The Golden State has adopted a slew of climate change laws over the past twenty years, and an even greater number of regulations . To help you keep track, here is a timeline of California's most important actions. 2002 SB1078. California established first renewable portfolio standard (20% from renewables by 2010). AB 1493 (Pavley Act). Required the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to set standards for greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) new vehicles. ...
CONTINUE READINGNew Bill Targets Carbon Dioxide Pipeline Leaks
Legislation introduced by Assemblymember Arambula, with research help from UCLA students, aims to protect Californians from the dangers of transporting captured carbon dioxide.
Guest contributor Jennifer Imm is a J.D. Candidate at UCLA Law (2L) Last week, Assemblymember Dr. Joaquin Arambula introduced AB 2623, a bill designed to guard California communities against the dangers of transporting carbon dioxide in pipelines. These risks aren’t hypothetical: A leak from a carbon dioxide pipeline already caused serious health harms in Satartia, Mississippi, where 45 people were hospitalized following a pipeline rupture in early 2020. Firstha...
CONTINUE READINGDelivering Workforce Benefits in an Emerging Industry
Observations on the workforce development provisions in the California Energy Commission (CEC) draft Offshore Wind Strategic Plan
California’s offshore wind (OSW) industry is transitioning from planning to implementation in a statewide effort to deliver 2-5 GW clean energy by 2030. In support of this goal, the California Energy Commission (CEC) released a draft of its Assembly Bill 525 Offshore Wind Strategic Plan (the Plan). In a nascent industry with complex community interests at play, the need to monitor and optimize OSW’s local impacts is paramount. Among the range of benefits that OSW can...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Water Law Symposium is this Saturday in San Francisco
This student-organized event will focus on "Diversifying Solutions to Water Governance in California"
If you're interested in California water, the 20th Annual California Water Law Symposium is a great way to spend this Saturday! The symposium is a collaborative student-run event that consistently brings together leading minds in water law and policy to discuss California’s critical water issues. Students from 7 northern California law schools—led by a stellar 4-member team from this year's host school, the University of San Francisco School of Law—have worked...
CONTINUE READINGRanking Presidents on Climate Change
Seven presidents, seven very different legacies.
Although a 1977 memo alerted Jimmy Carter to the problem of climate change, the first tentative responses to climate change didn’t emerge until he left the White House. Since then, there have been seven very different men in the White House. You may find the rankings surprising. Here’s how I would rank them, from best to worst: Joe Biden, Barack Obama George H.W. Bush & Bill Clinton (tie) Ronald Reagan George W. Bush Donald Trump If you w...
CONTINUE READINGWe Crossed 1.5 C. Did We Breach the Paris Agreement?
Here’s what the recent rise in global temperature means for international climate targets.
If you’re not a climate scientist—and maybe even if you are—reading news headlines this month has been confounding and a little scary. “In First, Earth’s Temperature Breached Key Threshold Over a 12 Month Period” is how the Wall Street Journal put it. “Earth Just Experienced 12 Months Of Global Temperatures Above Critical 1.5C Climate Threshold,” was the version at Forbes. And the Washington Post went with “Earth Breached a Feared Level of Warming O...
CONTINUE READINGI ♥ IRA
Yes, the IRA has flaws. But it was a really unexpected breakthrough for US climate policy.
Call me eccentric, but this is my Valentine to a federal statute, the Inflation Reduction Act, better known as the IRA. No one really expected IRA to pass. A version of the Green New Deal had passed the House. But the Democrats had only a one-vote margin in the Senate, and that one vote was Joe Manchin. Manchin was (and is) the least liberal Democrat in the Senate. On top of that, he represented West Virginia. That’s a place where coal is still King and Trump ...
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