Region: California
What The 2018 Election Results Mean For California Climate Policy
Big wins for state initiatives and pro-climate candidates, plus opportunities for high speed rail and cap and trade
Some big wins for California (and therefore national) climate policy last night: Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom is elected governor, which means the state will continue its climate leadership on various policy fronts Prop. 6 loses, which would have repealed the gas tax increase and meant less funding for transit going forward Prop. 1 wins, which …
Continue reading “What The 2018 Election Results Mean For California Climate Policy”
CONTINUE READINGMajor Policy Attacks on California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard and Why They’re Off-Target
Second in a Series About California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard Program
[Post co-authored by Ted Parson and Sean Hecht] In this post, we continue our discussion of California’s Low-Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), which we introduced in our post on October 4, 2018. Because it’s a prominent and ambitious policy that will reduce California’s reliance on petroleum-based transport fuels, it is unsurprising the Low-Carbon Fuel Standard has …
CONTINUE READINGTear Up the Dodger Stadium Parking Lot
It’s not just the Dodgers’ bullpen that needs revision
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ second consecutive World Series flameout has management considering a number of important off-season questions. What is Clayton Kershaw’s future at the club? Will Manny Machado, who reportedly left the stadium after Game 4 wearing a “Villains” backwards cap, get the boot? Here at the Emmett Institute, we have been pondering another …
Continue reading “Tear Up the Dodger Stadium Parking Lot”
CONTINUE READINGObama-Era Vehicle GHG Emission Standards Critical for Californians and Consumers
Berkeley Environmental Law Clinic’s Comments on the SAFE Vehicles Rule
On Friday, the comment period closed on EPA’s proposed “Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles (SAFE) Rule.” The rule would roll back Obama-era vehicle GHG emissions standards and rescind California’s preemption waiver, which allows the state to maintain its own standards. 83 Fed. Reg. 42986 (Aug. 24, 2018). The UC Berkeley Environmental Law Clinic (ELC) submitted two …
Continue reading “Obama-Era Vehicle GHG Emission Standards Critical for Californians and Consumers”
CONTINUE READINGA Global Standard for a Global Problem
Emmett Institute Submits Comment in Support of CARB’s Proposed Tropical Forest Standard
The Emmett Institute submitted a comment to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) yesterday in support of its proposed Tropical Forest Standard (“Standard”). If approved, this Standard would provide CARB a set of criteria to follow when determining whether to trade tropical forest offsets between California’s Cap and Trade Program and a foreign emissions trading …
Continue reading “A Global Standard for a Global Problem”
CONTINUE READINGHow I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Scooter
Criticism of electric scooters misses the climate change and pedestrian safety benefits
If you live in a major city on the West Coast or in handful of cities on the East Coast, you probably have an opinion on the electric scooters that have been dropped haphazardly onto your local streets and sidewalks. And it’s probably not a positive one. But I’m here to tell you why scooters …
Continue reading “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Scooter”
CONTINUE READINGOn the future of climate policy
A response to William Nordhaus’s comments about how essential carbon taxes are to addressing climate change
William Nordhaus recently (and deservedly) won the Nobel Prize for Economics for his work on the economic implications of climate change and policies to respond to climate change. In the press coverage after the award, some comments were attributed to Nordhaus that I think are important to consider in more depth – in part because …
Continue reading “On the future of climate policy”
CONTINUE READINGLand Use Planning, Transit, and the Dodgers: The Legal Planet World Series Special
Stop the Myths About Evil Walter O’Malley
Since the World Series starts in a few hours, I fully expect the standard kvetchers to come out of the woodwork and complain about Los Angeles stealing the Dodgers from Brooklyn, etc. Peter Golenbock, in Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers, compares O’Malley to Hitler and Stalin. Nonsense. It is time to set …
CONTINUE READINGAmerican Journal of International Law Publishes Symposium on Climate Change Localism
The online alter ego of the American Journal of International Law, AJIL Unbound, has just published its symposium on Climate Change Localism. The symposium explores the implications of subnational actors’ efforts to address climate change. The explosion of initiatives and declarations in recent years outside the federal government, ranging from state and local governments to …
CONTINUE READINGCEQA and Local Land Use Regulations: Shakedown Street
Local Government Discretion Has Powerful Political Support
Eric’s post the other day about CEQA and local land use regulation states an important and often-overlooked truth: environmental review can only hold up a project if it is discretionary. If local land use regulations state clearly what a developer can and cannot do, then no amount of environmental review could change a decision, and …
Continue reading “CEQA and Local Land Use Regulations: Shakedown Street”
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
