Region: California

Could A Trump Presidency Actually Slow Climate Change?

A Trump-induced recession could temporarily slow global emissions

This might sound crazy, but Donald Trump’s presidency could actually have a temporarily positive impact on climate change. How? Nothing reduces emissions like a recession, and according to economists, Trump’s stated policies are likely to cause one. Specifically, if Trump follows through on his promise to start a trade war with countries like China, he …

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Another Job For California: Energy & Climate Research

If Trump guts research funding, California should step into the breach.

During the campaign, Trump said he would save $100 billion by cutting climate programs.  His campaign staff referred as support to a report, which said that 75% of the funding was energy related and included  “about 68 percent for energy technology, 23 percent for science, 8 percent for international assistance and 1 percent for adaptation …

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Trump and Climate Change

There’s Nothing Good to Be Said About It

A Trump Presidency is a disaster for U.S. leadership on climate change. There’s no other way to spin this election.  Myron Ebell, the head of Trump’s EPA transition team, thinks that President Obama’s Clean Power Plan is illegal, the Paris Agreement unconstitutional and that climate change “is nothing to worry about.”  Though most of the …

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The Way Forward On Climate Change

State coalitions and global subnational action represent the best hope

After last night’s presidential election results, it’s easy to despair that we’ve lost the fight against climate change.  Trump will likely kill the federal Clean Power Plan and pull the U.S. out of the Paris agreement. He’ll also probably pull back regulations that make it harder to permit coal-fired power plants and conduct other business …

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Defending the Environment in Dark Times

Where do we go from here?

Yesterday’s election didn’t turn out the way many of us hoped. The results may put in danger much of the progress made over the past eight years in addressing environmental issues and even risk some earlier accomplishments. What’s done is done, however, and we need to think about how to move forward. The Bush years …

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California’s Big Land Use And Transportation Initiatives To Watch Today

Measures in both San Francisco and Los Angeles could have a big impact on the future of the state

Yes, there’s a lot happening today in the national election. Lost in the shuffle though are three big initiatives before some California voters that could have a big impact on the state’s transit and development future. Measure RR to restore BART: this is an unusual transit measure because it’s one of the first I’ve seen …

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Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Wins Big in Ninth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals Rejects Challenge to TRPA’s Regional Plan

This week the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) won a major legal victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  A unanimous three-judge panel of that court rejected environmentalists’ challenge to TRPA’s adopted Regional Plan for the Lake Tahoe Basin in Sierra Club v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.   The Ninth Circuit decision effectively …

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UC Berkeley & UCLA Law Launch New Climate Policy Website

Register for a webinar on the new site’s features on Wednesday at 2pm, with a keynote by Mary Nichols

To meet the challenge of climate change, California and other governments will need to adopt a suite of policies affecting multiple sectors. Reducing economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions will take reforms in energy, land use, transportation, and agriculture, to name just a few. Since 2009, UC Berkeley and UCLA Schools of Law, with the generous support …

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My Environmental Law Wish List For A California Legislative Super-Majority

Tuesday could give Democrats enough seats to make a major impact on environmental policies

The presidential election next week is making most of the news these days, but while the rest of the country flirts with electing Donald Trump as the next president, California is going its own progressive way. The Republican Party has been all but completely marginalized in this state, for a variety of demographic reasons and …

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The Steadily-Dying Sierra Nevadas

Drought, Bark Beetle Infestation, Climate Change Imperil Sierra Pine Forests

Like over 600 other environmental lawyers, professors, law students and regulators, I attended the 25th annual Environmental Law Conference at Yosemite last weekend.  As always, the Conference–sponsored by the California State Bar’s Environmental Law Section–was a big success, filled with inspirational speakers and thought-provoking panels. But the major topic of conversation–during the Conference proceedings, in …

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