When a green option doesn’t make things greener…
California’s largest electric utility, the Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), has proposed to offer a Green Option Program through which individual customers could choose to pay a little extra for power that is 100% renewable. In a move clearly designed to discourage local governments from starting their own green power programs, PG&E displays endorsement letters from a number of Northern California mayors. Some of those mayors express hope that tha...
CONTINUE READINGLegal Planet’s International Audience
Wordpress recently added a feature that provides websites with country statistics about readers on a weekly or monthly basis. Not surprisingly, most of our readers are American, and it's almost equally unsurprising that Canada and the U.K. are next on the list. But somewhat more surprisingly, the fourth country is India, followed by Australia, Germany, and the Philippines. And even more surprising is that viewers from 98 countries read Legal Planet last week -- i...
CONTINUE READINGThe NRC Ducks the Hard Questions
As Fukushima revealed, the Japanese nuclear industry had a very cozy relationship with regulators. That kind of coziness is not unheard of in the U.S. context, either. After the Three Mile Island accident, Congress divided the responsibilities of the Atomic Energy Commission, giving its mandate to promote nuclear power to DOE and its regulatory authority to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). But in terms of creating an impartial regulatory body, this move was a...
CONTINUE READINGLos Angeles’ Expo Line: A Cautionary Tale For Building Rail
This weekend, the long awaited Expo Light Rail Line will finally open in Los Angeles, connecting the traffic-choked Westside with the rest of the city's rail network, more than two decades after the region's first modern rail line opened. The relatively short light rail line (8.6 miles, 12 stations) took an absurdly long amount of time to build. To put it in human terms, my wife and I attended the groundbreaking ceremony when she was three months pregnant with our ...
CONTINUE READINGGuest Bloggers Erica Morehouse and Tim O’Connor of Environmental Defense Fund: 9th Circuit Allows CARB to Enforce the LCFS
(It's exam season; so, for any remedies students out there this post can count as review!) On Monday, a motions panel at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) can continue enforcing the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). This decision stayed (pending appeal) a trial court judge's preliminary injunction against the LCFS which was based on a finding that the LCFS violates the Dormant Commerce Clause. Ann Carlson, Rick Fran...
CONTINUE READING“Tailpipe truths” and glib contrarianism
An all-too-frequent foible of journalists who cover environmental issues is what one might call “glib contrarianism.” Journalists write articles that purport to debunk the “politically correct” environmentalist common wisdom. Doing so establishes the journalist’s credibility as a “balanced” news provider and also gets good traffic from outraged conservatives and guilt-ridden liberals who question whether they have been doing the right thing all along. ...
CONTINUE READINGIs It Green to Occupy a Vacant Urban Lot and Turn It Into a Farm?
A local branch of the Occupy movement has taken over a parcel of land near my house here in the Bay Area. The parcel is an agricultural research field owned by UC Berkeley. The protestors are apparently upset that Berkeley is considering turning some of its land into a development: specifically, senior housing, and commercial uses including a Whole Foods Market. They insist the parcel should instead be used for urban farming, and they unfurled a banner that read ...
CONTINUE READINGALEC’s Battle for Dirty Energy
Climate Progress has a very interesting post about ALEC's activities in the energy area. You may remember ALEC as the corporate supporter of the "stand your ground" laws that allow you to kill someone who seems threatening when it would be just as easy to walk away. ALEC now has its guns aimed at state renewable portfolio standards. I guess this is not too surprising since its major supporters include Peabody Coal, the Koch Brothers, and Exxon Mobile, all of whom h...
CONTINUE READINGNew journal issue on using the Clean Air Act to address greenhouse gas emissions
UCLA's Journal of Environmental Law and Policy has just published its current issue, Volume 30, with all its content available free online in pdf format. This volume is a special symposium issue, featuring articles relating to the use of the Clean Air Act to address greenhouse gas emissions. Several of the articles' authors were speakers at our 2011 environmental law conference, Perspectives on Climate Change, Pollution, and the Clean Air Act. The content includes a...
CONTINUE READINGNew legislative effort underway to develop public access to the L.A. River
Earlier this year, California State Senator Kevin De Leon introduced SB 1201, a bill that could bolster efforts to open up the Los Angeles River for lawful recreational uses such as boating. I have a particular interest in this, since UCLA's Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic worked with the advocacy group Friends of the Los Angeles River and other advocates to develop the legislation. UCLA Law fellow (and co-blogger) Rhead Enion and I have worked on this effor...
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