Region: National
General Motors Can’t Have It Both Ways
Several media outlets are reporting that General Motors, Toyota, and Fiat Chrysler are intervening on the side of the Trump Administration in California’s lawsuit challenging the federal government’s yanking of the state’s permission to issue its own tailpipe standards for greenhouse gases and to require zero emissions vehicles. (Cara described the lawsuit here. Julia and …
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CONTINUE READINGA Dozen Strategies for the Struggle With Big Oil
Big Oil will fight against energy transformation. How do we fight back?
The oil industry is enormous – something like 2-3% of global GDP. Individuals firms like ExxonMobil earn tens of billions of dollars each quarter. Controlling climate change will mean drastic curtailment in the coming decades of the industry’s major products. There’s no way that the industry will accept this lying down, and it’s a formidable …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Risks of Promising the Improbable
Candidates’ climate proposals are starkly unrealistic. That’s a problem.
As I wrote in a post last Thursday, there’s little prospect that anything like a Green New Deal could pass the Senate even assuming the filibuster is eliminated. In the best case scenario, Democrats would have a one or two vote margin in the Senate. That’s a very slim margin for passing a trillion dollar …
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CONTINUE READINGHow Can We Achieve a Carbon-Neutral Transportation Sector by 2050?
Developments from a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change
Today, the Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing entitled “Building a 100 Percent Clean Economy: Solutions For Planes, Trains and Everything Beyond Automobiles.” As the title suggests, the Subcommittee’s hearing sought to probe opportunities to decarbonize the transportation sector while focusing on modes of …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Trump Revenge Against California Continues
DOJ Sues the State for Its Cap-and-Trade Agreement with Quebec
The Trump attack on California’s climate policies has entered a new phase. In addition to revoking the state’s permission to regulate tailpipe emissions from cars, investigating auto makers for antitrust violations for cooperating with California on reducing car emissions, threatening to revoke highway funds from the state for Clean Air Act violations while simultaneously taking …
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CONTINUE READING2020 in the Courts: A Preview
Some major new cases will be filed; older ones will result in major decisions.
There are going to be some significant environmental cases over the next year. In addition, some important new cases will be filed now or in the near future, which may have produced some interesting rulings. It will probably take more than a year, however, for some of the big new cases down the turnpike to …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat Do the Candidates’ Climate Proposals Tell Us?
There is a big disconnect between climate proposals and political reality.
Some people were upset because there wasn’t a question about climate change at the last Democratic debate. Admittedly, that’s a lost opportunity to highlight the importance of the issue. But the significance of the candidates’ various positions on climate change is limited. Let me start with what they don’t tell us. The main thing they …
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CONTINUE READING“If Present Trends Continue….”
To paraphrase Socrates, “the unexplained projection is not worth giving.”
You often see forecasts like this: “If present trends continue, electric vehicles will be X% of the auto fleet by 2035.” But this doesn’t mean much without explanation: what “trends” and “continued” in what way? The Energy Information Agency is a major culprit in that respect — they provide lots of projections but don’t unpack …
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CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Law Centers — Western version
It’s not just on the coasts where law schools works on sustainability.
This is part of an occasional series on the work of environmental law centers. My goal in this series is to highlight one of the ways that law schools work for the public interest, not just on the coasts but throughout the country. Here, I’ll focus on the Interior West — the plains, mountains, and …
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CONTINUE READINGAging Dams, Forgotten Perils
You’ve heard it before but it’s still true: U.S. infrastructure is a mess.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Critical U.S. infrastructure is dilapidated and unsafe. Regulation is week, and enforcement is weaker. Everyone agrees on the need for action, and climate change will only make the problem worse. but no one seems to do anything about it. Sadly, this has become a familiar story. Take …
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