Here’s a New Acronym: CBAM. You’re Going to be Seeing It a Lot.
The EU has taken a major step to pressure global industries to clean up their act.
In December, the EU provisionally adopted a carbon tariff on imports. The official name is the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, or CBAM for short. The purpose of the mechanism is that EU companies, unlike many in other countries, have to pay a price for the carbon emitted in manufacturing. They need a border adjustment to remain competitive. As the chair of the EU environment committee put it: “The message to our industries is clear: there is no need to relocate bec...
CONTINUE READINGTightening the Net
Tackling climate procrastination by closing the loopholes in ‘net-zero’ climate goals
The global stampede to adopt net-zero climate goals continues unabated. As a goal net-zero is achieved when any residual carbon emissions are counter-balanced fully by dedicated carbon removal. Delivered at a global level, this would stabilise global temperatures. Almost 70% of states (accounting for 90% of the world’s economic activity) have adopted net-zero goals, as have 40% of the world’s largest companies. Does this mean climate procrastination is finally coming...
CONTINUE READING…In Which I Attempt To Read My Water Bill
Failure To Install Smart Water Meters Is Wasting Billions of Gallons Each Year
I felt at least decently about myself when I paid my water bill recently, because I was told that my usage was somewhat better than other people in my neighborhood (which is a low bar, but you take what you can get). But when I tried to figure out why it was better, I got no information whatsoever. That’s a huge problem. Michael E. Webber, in his fantastic book Thirst for Power: Energy, Water, and Human Survival, puts it well. Imagine, Webber suggests, if you were ...
CONTINUE READINGThe fight over California’s greenhouse gas and ZEV car standards continues
UCLA Clinic files amicus brief on behalf of Sen. Carper and Rep. Pallone to uphold standards
Of the many achievements of California's legendary legislator Fran Pavley, one of the most remarkable is then-Assemblywoman Pavley's modest bill, AB 1493, which directed California to become the first jurisdiction in the country to control greenhouse gas emissions from cars. That bill, introduced in 2001 and passed the next year, told the California Air Resources Board to create such standards using ARB's special powers under the Clean Air Act to develop more strict ai...
CONTINUE READINGThe Obesity Pandemic
It’s a global phenomenon, with poorly understood causes. But there’s no point in blaming the victims.
I’ve written in the past about the American obesity epidemic. Obesity rates have continued to climb in the United States, though the rate of increase has leveled out. But obesity is also on the rise globally. The obesity rate has increased everywhere. In nine countries, at least one out of five people is now obese: South Africa (23.3%), USA (32%), Brazil (21.4%), Mexico (25%), Egypt (30%), Iran (20.1%), Iraq (21%), Russia (21.5%), and Turkey (26%). What’s causing ...
CONTINUE READINGIs Bipartisanship Possible?
It’s not easy in today’s polarized politics. But maybe it’s not completely off the table.
We are now, as so often, in a time of divided government. That makes bipartisan cooperation necessary. We are also in a time of hyper-partisanship. The problem may be compounded by the concessions made by McCarthy to the far Right in order to become Speaker. Nevertheless, there may be some opportunities for cooperation across party lines on climate issues. Given the urgency for climate action, we cannot afford to neglect those opportunities. It's easy -- and not...
CONTINUE READINGWhose Major Questions Doctrine?
There are two versions of the doctrine. One of them is more dangerous.
When it struck down Obama's signature climate regulation in West Virginia v. EPA, the Supreme Court formally adopted the major questions doctrine as a way to synthesize prior anti-regulatory rulings. The major questions doctrine (MQD to insiders) has gotten a lot of attention. One thing that’s been overlooked, however, is that there are two versions of the doctrine, one in Roberts’s majority opinion and one in Gorsuch’s concurrence. The contrast is revealing. ...
CONTINUE READINGMy Farewell to UCLA
Leaving UCLA to join Earthjustice is exciting, and bittersweet, for me
This will be my final Legal Planet post as a member of the UCLA faculty. After 20 wonderful years at UCLA School of Law, directing our Environmental Law Center and Wells Clinic and then co-directing our Emmett Institute with Cara Horowitz, I'm leaving to join Earthjustice as the managing attorney of the organization's California Regional Office. I’ll be leading a team of about two dozen litigators and other advocates, working on a wide range of environmental issues. ...
CONTINUE READINGWhat Would King Do?
California "YIGBY" Bill Could Empower Churches To Add Affordable Housing
As Martin Luther King day ends here on the west coast, the role of churches and religious institutions looms large. King’s activism arose out of his spiritual commitment. And in California, it looms large in a surprising way concerning the built environment. Land use is (in)famous for its acronyms: NIMBY, BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody), NOPE (Not On Planet Earth), and YIMBY (Yes In My Backward). Now we have YIGBY: Yes In God’s Back Yar...
CONTINUE READINGThe Emergence of the Environmental Justice Movement
The environmental justice movement is now 40 years old. Its influence is only growing.
Dr. King died in 1968, and the Civil Rights Movement had already been a powerful national presence for well over a decade. Yet it was fourteen more years until environmental justice entered the national spotlight. Environmental justice issues first received widespread attention in 1982 when protests erupted over the construction of a new waste disposal facility in a black community in North Carolina. In 1997, the United Church of Christ Racial Justice Commission pub...
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