Region: California

LA River oral argument: the Justices debate how to tell the Ninth Circuit that it screwed up

I attended the oral argument on Tuesday in L.A. Flood Control District v. NRDC. (See Sean’s post for an in-depth background on the case, and Richard’s initial reactions to the oral argument). The Justices were actively engaged and appeared to have a strong grasp of the underlying facts about the District’s MS4. Much of the …

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Breaking News: Judge Rules San Diego’s SB 375 Transportation Plan Violates State Environmental Law

San Diego Superior Court Judge Timothy Taylor today ruled that the San Diego Association of Government’s (SANDAG) regional transportation plan, with a sustainability chapter as required by SB 375, violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Judge Taylor concluded that the environmental review accompanying the plan, as required by CEQA, did not sufficiently analyze the …

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Challenging L.A. candidates to get specific on environmental sustainability

What would a sustainable Los Angeles look like?  Most agree that we want L.A. to have air that doesn’t make us sick; we could do with a lot less traffic and better transit; we want clean, reliable power and water; we should fight pollution hotspots; and we want well-paying jobs that can sustain our communities …

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How the Democrats’ Supermajority Can Improve California’s Downtowns

Now that Democrats in California have achieved the Pete Wilson Supermajority in the legislature, they should focus on two key reforms to revitalize the state’s downtowns and ensure more efficient land use. First, the supermajority should put on the ballot a constitutional initiative to lower the threshold for passing local tax measures to fund transit. …

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The strange saga of how Los Angeles County’s stormwater pollution ended up in the Supreme Court

Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. Natural Resources Defense Council. This case involves a lawsuit by clean-water advocates to require our County Flood Control District to take responsibility for ensuring that polluted stormwater doesn’t impair our local water quality in two local rivers. The Ninth …

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California electricity consumers may receive cap-and-trade dividend

 As I mentioned on Monday, the 23.1 million greenhouse gas (GHG) allowances (current-vintage) sold at the cap-and-trade auction on Monday were all consigned to auction by utility companies. The $233 million generated by that sale must now be used by those utilities to the benefit of ratepayers. Last Friday, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued its …

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California raises almost $300 million in its first cap-and-trade auction

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) released the results from its first auction of greenhouse gas (GHG) allowances today.  It sold all of the approximately 23 million current allowances (2013 vintage) at $10.09.  It sold 14% of the approximately 39.5 million advance allowances (2015 vintage) at $10.00. As I discussed last week, the unsold advance …

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Cap-and-Trade: Why Auctions are Better than Give-Aways

Earlier this week California began auctioning off greenhouse gas emissions allowances, and the sky has not fallen.  But is an auction really the best way to distribute the allowances?  The California Chamber of Commerce says no.  Its lawsuit—discussed in recent posts by Ann, Rhead, and Sean—doesn’t challenge the State’s authority to limit greenhouse gas emissions, …

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What happens if not all allowances are sold at the first cap-and-trade auction?

California held its first cap-and-trade auction for greenhouse gas (GHG) allowances yesterday.  The California Air Resources Board (CARB) will announce the results from that auction on Monday, Nov. 19.  What happens if not all the allowances are purchased at the auction? The short answer is that unsold allowances will be withheld from the market and …

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Why California’s cap-and-trade auction is not a tax

Yesterday, Ann and Cara gave their initial reactions to the California Chamber of Commerce lawsuit against California’s cap-and-trade auction.  The main thrust of that lawsuit is that the auction (that happens today) is an unconstitutional tax because, according to the lawsuit, AB 32 gave the California Air Resources Board (CARB) no authority to withhold and …

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