Watch “Clearing the Air: The War on Smog”
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The American Experience's "Clearing the Air: The War on Smog" tells an extraordinary story. It premieres on PBS this Tuesday.
A few years back, a colleague of mine, who I very much wanted to remain at UCLA, approached me because he was contemplating accepting an offer at a Washington, D.C. law school. He feared remaining in Los Angeles, even though he wanted to stay, because he didn't want his young daughter exposed to the southland's legendary air pollution. He sought my counsel about whether his fears were valid. I sent him to a website that showed him -- much to his surprise -- tha...
CONTINUE READINGThe Imperious Presidency
Executive Orders by Biden and Trump speak volumes about their perspectives.
I’ve been reading a lot of executive orders (EOs) lately. Trump’s orders have a special tone, combining bluster about his own authority with attacks on his opponents as ideologues who threaten the country. It struck me that this aura of imperiousness and hostility was something new in the world of presidential documents. To test this out, I compared Day One orders on climate change by Trump and Biden. It's not just the substance that differed; their language itse...
CONTINUE READINGOwens Valley Redux: Los Angeles was Right
Far from a theft, the decision to divert water to Los Angeles made economic, environmental, and equitable sense.
I have a new piece out in The Urban Lawyer about the Owens Valley that might be of interest to Legal Planet readers. Here is an abstract: Everyone knows that Los Angeles stole its water from the Owens Valley, creating environmental devastation and a legacy of rapacity. It is such a commonplace that it needs only assertion. Even the finest journalists can say in passing that “the City of Los Angeles reach[ed] up and over the mountain to steal the Owens River.” Ou...
CONTINUE READINGState Agencies Respond to Trump’s EV Threats
A solid list of proposals - are they enough?
The Trump Administration and Congress have spent much of the year attacking vehicle electrification efforts–everything from executive orders threatening electric vehicle policies and incentives (in the name of promoting “true consumer choice”) and the repeal of vehicle emission standards (backed by false claims of consumer savings) to the elimination of EV tax credits and manufacturing programs and the purported elimination of California’s preemption waivers for ...
CONTINUE READINGWhich Effects Count?
Conservatives argue that only the effects that they care about should matter.
Not that long ago, conservatives demanded that the government balance costs and benefits. They still do, but with a twist: They demand special limits on consideration of environmental effects. But that makes no sense. Whatever rules we have about costs should apply to all types of costs, and the same with benefits. The result of the skewing the analysis is, not surprisingly, that we get conservative results more often. Take a recent Supreme Court case, Seven Cou...
CONTINUE READINGStates Should Not Wait to “Make Polluters Pay”
Guest contributors Laura Fox and Doug Kysar write that now is the right time for more states to adopt climate accountability laws, despite ongoing legal challenges.
As states weigh whether to adopt climate accountability legislation like Vermont’s Climate Superfund Act, some are hesitating out of concern that the Second Circuit’s decision in City of New York v. Chevron Corp., 993 F.3d 81 (2d Cir. 2021), dooms such efforts. That concern is misplaced. In fact, now is precisely the time for states to act. Not only is City of New York v. Chevron limited in scope and geographic reach, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agen...
CONTINUE READINGWhy Does Misinformation Follow Extreme Weather?
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
Nowadays when an extreme weather event strikes in America, what follows is a secondary emergency in the form of misinformation on social media. We’ve seen it play out after floods and heat waves, but this phenomenon really goes into overdrive after hurricanes and wildfires. A recent report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate looked at why this happens and concludes that Meta, X, and YouTube helped spread misleading information after Hurricanes Helene and...
CONTINUE READINGThe Woeful Economics of a Misguided Rollback
The costs of Trump’s rollback of key climate rules far outweigh any benefits.
The Trump Administration’s proposed rollback of Biden’s standards for fossil fuel generators will cost American dearly. A new analysis by researchers at Resources for the Future, a highly respected economic think tank, minces no words. The researchers modeled the effects of repealing the Biden regulation (which they call the CPS for Carbon Pollution Standards), using updated energy demand projection and taking into account the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB). Acc...
CONTINUE READINGWhat Do Bureaucrats Maximize?
New research demonstrates that governments can reduce intractable emissions problems -- if they have the right incentives
It’s no secret that Delhi has perhaps the worst air quality in the world, and it’s also no secret that crop-burning in nearby agricultural areas is one of the principal causes (along with topography). But what can you do about it? It’s illegal already, but because crop-burning is a cheap and effective way to get rid of agricultural waste after the harvest, and farmers just won’t listen. Or will they? A new policy brief in Nature by Columbia's Gemma D...
CONTINUE READINGHow Methane Satellites Work and Why it Matters
This new UCLA Law report aims to help policymakers understand the science and utility of methane satellites.
These days, I'll take progress on climate change where I can get it. And one place to look right now is up -- literally. New satellites are providing never-before-seen data about global methane sources, helping policymakers, industry, and others target that superpollutant in new ways. Today, some colleagues at UCLA Law and I are releasing a new report aimed at helping policymakers understand these new tools, along with their uses and limits. With this report...
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