Coastal Act Requires Strict Protection from Harmful Seawalls
Students with UCLA’s Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic are giving testimony before the California Coastal Commission on a critical issue.
As coastal communities up and down California contend with sea-level rise, they’re facing tough decisions about how to update their land use plans. One of UCLA Law’s environmental clinics is helping lead the way. Over the last several months students in the Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic, Maeve Anderson, Mackay Peltzer, and Jacqueline Diaz Madrigal, have been working on behalf of the Surfrider Foundation to research and analyze the City of Pacifica’...
CONTINUE READINGBrazil Steps Ahead of the U.S. on Climate Policy
A new emissions trading system is a major step for Brazilian climate policy.
During the Obama Administration, an effort to create a carbon trading system passed the House but petered out in the Senate. Obama tried to do something similar with the Clean Power Plan, which the Supreme Court rejected. Now Brazil has gone ahead where the U.S. federal government has failed. The country has now started to implement an important law passed in December. Brazil has also filed a new commitment under the Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emission...
CONTINUE READINGA Stealth Repeal of NEPA
Proposal from House Natural Resources Committee would effectively repeal NEPA
The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives is working on reconciliation language – legislation that can pass via a majority-vote in the Senate, but only so long as it relates to fiscal matters. It looks like House Republicans are going to try and use the reconciliation process to effectively repeal the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Draft language that went through mark-up in the House Natural Resources Committee this week would allow proje...
CONTINUE READINGDefunding the Energy Transition
The President Proposes Deep Cuts to Climate and Clean Energy Spending for FY 2026
On May 2nd, the White House released what is generally referred to as a “skinny” budget request outlining priorities for discretionary spending for fiscal year 2026. A full federal budget proposal is expected later this month. The “skinny” budget contains, by the White House’s calculations, $163 billion in non-defense discretionary spending cuts, which it argues will generate trillions in savings over ten years. However, the budget also includes a 13% incr...
CONTINUE READINGThe Good, the Bad and the Utter Contempt
The Drain is a weekly roundup of climate and environmental news from Legal Planet.
The news this week has me remembering my grandpa teaching a young me to turn off the tap while brushing my teeth. (Hey, I was an ignorant East Coast kid.) This was in California’s Central Valley around 1990 when drought conditions flared and the federal government cut water deliveries. What was the news story? What if I told you there is a popular government program that costs less money to run than it saves American consumers on their utility bills? Oh, and t...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Lawmakers Vote on Energy Affordability Soon
Senate Bill 254 is the most ambitious energy affordability legislation proposed in recent years.
Energy affordability has been a huge focus in Sacramento as the deadline nears for bills to move out of policy committees. Over the past three years, customers of the largest investor-owned electric utilities (IOUs) in the state have seen their rates rise by an average of 5-41%, with nearly one in five households behind on their electricity bills. Over the past couple of years, policymakers have written reports, held hearings, and committed to the goal of reducing energy...
CONTINUE READINGPermitting Reform as Policy Stability
Compromise Congressional legislation could dampen the swings of Presidential regulatory policy
I’ve noted earlier the problems that rapid swings in regulatory policy at the Presidential level have caused over the past 12 years, swinging from Obama to Trump I to Biden to Trump II. And, as in so many other ways, the second Trump Administration is ramping up the swings to a whole new level, with aggressive efforts to short-circuit normal administrative law and judicial review processes to effect regulatory change (such as this proposed revision to the regulations...
CONTINUE READINGFix Our Forests, version 2
A revised bipartisan proposal in the Senate is a step forward in the right direction
I wrote previously about the Fix Our Forests bill which has been passed by the House and is currently being considered by the Senate. I noted some concerns I had about its overuse of emergency authorities, its expansion of categorical exclusions, and some changes to litigation, as well as some positive features of the bill. A new version of Fix Our Forests has been introduced in the Senate by a bipartisan group of Senators. This version keeps a lot that was good a...
CONTINUE READINGIf Dodgers Don’t Quit Big Oil, the Olympics May Make Them
The Olympic Committee’s ban on most advertising could finally force the Dodgers to drop the 76 sponsorship from Dodger Stadium, which is now an LA 2028 venue.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have all but ignored the growing calls from fans, activists, columnists, researchers, and a state lawmaker asking the team to cut ties with Big Oil and remove the two huge, orange 76 gas ads that dominate the club’s picturesque scoreboards. But the team’s streak may be coming to an end: They can't ignore the International Olympic Committee. When the Olympics come to LA in 2028, Dodger Stadium will be the official venue for baseball a...
CONTINUE READINGWillful Ignorance as Government Policy
The Trump Administration is systematically shutting down sources of vital information.
The Trump Administration is closing 25 scientific centers that monitor water levels across the U.S., which is vital information during floods and droughts. The centers also monitor aquifer levels and underground plumes of pollution. The government has canceled the leases for the centers, which will begin closing soon. Of course, this information is only significant if you think it’s important to deal with floods, droughts, and underground pollution. This is not an...
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