Paper or Plastic?
The California Supreme Court today issued a significant decision interpreting and applying California's most important environmental law--the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA. The issues in Save the Plastic Bag Coalition v. City of Manhattan Beach were: 1) whether a Southern California beach community was required to prepare an environmental impact report (EIR) under CEQA before enacting a ban on local retailers' distribution of plastic bags to their custom...
CONTINUE READINGA “Modest Proposal” for Ending the U.S. Debt Crisis: A Debt-Nature Swap with China
Debt-nature swaps allow countries with major debt over-hang and relatively weak economies to reduce their debt in return for undertaking environmental measures. The U.S. now seems to be in the same need of debt relief as many developing countries in past decades. In the meantime, the Chinese have a thriving economy and hold enormous amounts of U.S. debt. The Chinese leadership also seems to realize that climate change is a serious problem facing China in the future...
CONTINUE READINGSo Much for California’s Anti-Sprawl Law, Ctd.
My post on the shortcomings of SB 375, California's anti-sprawl law, generated a swift response from NRDC’s Amanda Eaken and TransForm’s Stuart Cohen, two smart growth advocates for whom I hold a lot of admiration and respect. In their detailed post, which is largely a critique of the San Diego Association of Government's (SANDAG) sustainable community strategy (SCS) plan and less about the arguments I made, they describe my post as “poorly informed.” Yet now...
CONTINUE READINGAttack of the Dim Bulbs
The country may be flirting with deadbeat status and risking another financial meltdown, but some people keep their eyes on the prize -- they know what's really important. The House of Representatives yesterday voted on the BULB Act, repealing the federal mandate to increase the energy efficiency of light bulbs. (The bill was considered so urgent that it was brought to the floor under a special suspension of the rules; fortunately, this procedural move backfired when BUL...
CONTINUE READINGBolstering Public Transit in California: A New White Paper from UCLA / Berkeley Law
Public transit in California, while historically underfunded compared to roads and freeways, has suffered even worse as the state's economy has tanked and Sacramento legislators have raided transit funds to pay their general fund bills. But the buses and trains that comprise the state's transit system provide badly needed economic benefits for Californians. These benefits include the jobs created from new investment and the money saved by households who no longer n...
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Law Scholarship: A Sampler
If you're wondering what environmental law scholarship is about, here's about three-weeks-worth of recent publications, covering everything from roadless rules to fisheries to renewable energy to climate change. 1. Aarons, Kyle J. Note. The real world roadless rules challenges. 109 Mich. L. Rev. 1293-1325 (2011). 2. Blades, Emmi. Comment. Using the legal system to gain control of natural resources on tribal lands: lessons from the Confederated Salish an...
CONTINUE READINGA Nation of Frogs?
It is said that, if you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, it immediately jumps out and is saved. But if you put a frog in a pot of cold water and gradually warm it, you can boil the frog without it ever realizing that it's being cooked. It's not hard to see the possible connection with climate change. The average temperature gradually warms; rainfall patterns shift; there seem to be a few more places every year with record-setting heat waves, droughts, or floo...
CONTINUE READINGA Judicial Setback for PACE Energy Efficiency and Renewables Financing
Many moons ago, I blogged about the saga of the PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) financing program and the lawsuits to preserve it. As a quick review, PACE allows municipal governments to use funds from the bond market to help property owners finance energy efficiency retrofits and renewable energy arrays on their property. The property owners then repay the local governments, which in turn repay the bondholders, via assessments on their property tax bills over a ...
CONTINUE READINGWelcoming a New Blogger
We're pleased to welcome Alex Wang to Legal Planet. He is beginning a two-year term as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Berkeley Law School. Alex comes here following six years as a Senior Attorney and Director of the China Environmental Law Project for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). He worked on environment and energy issues at NRDC and helped establish and run NRDC’s office in Beijing. Alex previously blogged at Switchboard, the NRDC blog....
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Regulation as a Jobs Program
This is a continuation of my earlier posting about the impact of environmental law on the economy as a whole, putting aside its benefits in terms of human health and welfare. As in the earlier post, I'm going to use the compliance cost estimate of a report from the Small Business Association of $280 billion (2009 dollars), since that’s a number liked by opponents of environmental regulation. It may seem counterintuitive, but in the present economy, this spending is...
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