Being Thankful for Environmental Progress
Environmentalists do a lot worrying, seasoned by dashes of anger and despair. Here are some things to feel good about instead.
Environmentalists have a tendency to focus on the environmental harm we haven't been able to prevent and the frustrations of making further progress. Once in a while, though, it's good to look at the progress we've made. Take a few minutes this holiday weekend to be thankful for some of this year's steps forward on climate change -- and to the people whose years of hard work made these forward steps possible. And be grateful to all the people who worked very hard, t...
CONTINUE READINGWildfires and the Grid
Wildfires are huge problem in California. Maybe we can learn from those on the other end of the Pacific.
California and Australia are 8000 miles apart, but it turns out they have similar wildfire problems. And in both cases, the electric grid and climate change are part of the equation. The problems in California and the rest of the West are familiar to many readers. Though they don’t necessarily get much attention in the U.S., Australia has had some horrendous fires, with blackouts as one consequences. The Black Summer fires burned over 30 million acres of land, ca...
CONTINUE READINGHow Cities Can Optimize Federal and State Funding Opportunities for Local Climate Action
Part Three of CLEE’s analysis for funding and financing municipal climate action
As my colleagues Katie Segal and Ted Lamm have covered here and here, last week our team at CLEE released an analysis detailing how San Francisco can fund its ambitious Climate Action Plan. Katie provided an overview of the city’s Climate Action Plan (CAP), describing how San Francisco will need to secure tens of billions of dollars over the coming decades to deploy the emissions reduction strategy set forth in the CAP. Ted’s post explained how a city can use bonds, ...
CONTINUE READINGHow Can Local Governments Pay for Climate Action?
San Francisco Analysis Points the Way for Peers
As my colleague Katie Segal wrote earlier this week, our team at CLEE recently released a report detailing how San Francisco can fund its ambitious Climate Action Plan. As more local governments in California and around the country develop robust climate action plans–and as federal action to reduce emissions remains unpredictable as ever–it is increasingly clear that local strategies will be a key driver of decarbonization and resilience. However, these local ap...
CONTINUE READINGCoordinating Climate Policy
We have a White House climate czar. That’s not going to be enough.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) creates a massive funding program for clean energy and other climate policies. This funding complements regulatory efforts at EPA elsewhere. Yet authority over energy policy is fragmented at the federal level. Without better coordination, there’s a risk that various policies will mesh poorly or operate at cross-purposes. And state governments, who are also major players in this area, will find it hard to coordinate with the Feds if t...
CONTINUE READINGFunding & Financing San Francisco’s Ambitious Climate Action Plan
New CLEE analysis recommends revenue, equity, and implementation measures for city climate action
Cities are leaders in climate policy and planning, and many cities have developed local climate action plans (CAPs) that envision strategies to reduce emissions and increase resilience in a changing climate. Hundreds of local governments in California have adopted such plans, ranging from dense Bay Area cities to rural Central Valley counties. However, few of these cities have built detailed strategies to advance equity goals–and even fewer have figured out how they wi...
CONTINUE READINGEnvironment and Energy Impacts of the 2022 Election
The consequences will play out in D.C. and in some important states.
The President's party typically does poorly in the mid-terms, Biden's popularity is low, and Americans are upset about inflation. But the election didn’t produce the Republican wave many observers predicted in the last few weeks of the campaign. Although the GOP will likely control the House, the Democrats have held the Senate. Here’s where things stand and the policy impacts we can expect. Congress The House. It looks likely the Republicans will have a very ...
CONTINUE READINGA Stealth Climate Bill
There’s more money for climate action tucked away in a must-pass bill.
Surprise! The lame-duck Congress is about to consider another bill with billions of dollars of spending for climate adaptation and emission reductions. Another surprise: the bill is named for Senator James Inhofe. In case you’ve forgotten, he’s the climate change denier who once took a snowball to the Senate floor to disprove climate change. You might not guess that the bill is climate-related at all from the rest of the title either: the “National Defense Autho...
CONTINUE READINGTomorrow’s Elections: What Enviros Should Watch For
Who will control the House and Senate — and why it matters. [WITH NOV. 10 UPDATE]
Will Biden be able to pass new climate legislation in the next two years? Will EPA be shut down due to budget disputes? Will he be able to add any new judges to balance Trump’s anti-regulatory appointees? Can Biden appoint new administrators to serve the next two years? How much will the Administration be hammered by hostile committees or impeachment efforts? The answers depend on what happens tomorrow night. Right now, election prospects have revert...
CONTINUE READINGThe Supreme Court’s Earliest Pollution Cases
Long before Congress, a notoriously conservative Court started taking pollution seriously.
Well over a century ago, the Supreme Court ruled that it had that power to remedy interstate water pollution. That was in 1901. Six years later, the Court decided its first air pollution case. Notably, these cases came during the conservative Lochner era when the Court was hardly known for its liberalism. Quite the contrary. Yet the Court didn't hesitate to address pollution issues. The water pollution case was Missouri v. Illinois. In a feat of engineering prow...
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