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Why are California’s Zero-Emission Truck Standards Under Attack?

They are highly effective, as CLEE’s new Factsheet series on Zero-Emission Trucks documents.

The world of zero-emission trucks is at a pivotal moment. On one hand, the technology is rapidly advancing, and manufacturers are producing a growing number of zero-emission truck models in Europe, China, and here in California. Yet on the other hand, this clean transition is facing significant political and legal challenges from the U.S. federal …

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Why 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 …

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The Energy Secretary Pushes Pseudoscience

The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.

Remember alternative facts? That catch phrase from Season 1, Episode 1 where Trump officials lied about the size of his inauguration crowd has now metastasized into a governing philosophy for how federal agencies plan to ignore, and ultimately exacerbate, the climate crisis. Trump 2.0 is pushing alternative science. Late last month, Energy Secretary Chris Wright …

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The Animal Agriculture Industry Undermines Climate Action

Guest Contributor Alexander Wood, a UCLA Law student, writes that lessons learned from Big Oil can be applied to animal agriculture.

The case for decarbonization to address climate change is often, understandably, directed toward the fossil fuel industry. Public opinion toward the oil and gas industry has shifted in recent years, driven in part by public protests and litigation. Why hasn’t there been more movement against greenhouse gas emissions caused by animal agriculture? Emissions from Animal …

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World’s Biggest Court Opinion on Climate

The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.

For more than 24 hours last week, my social media feeds were a wall of jubilant reaction to the World Court’s big climate opinion. People who work on, and care about, the climate crisis needed some good news, clearly. That begs the question, is the advisory opinion really as big a deal as people wanted …

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Global Energy Trends

Trump or no Trump, the global economy is shifting toward clean energy.

Globally, fossil fuels aren’t disappearing but they’re not gaining a lot of ground, while renewables have been booming. Trump can’t do much to change this: right now China is a big player than we are.

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Trump’s Funniest Executive Orders

Yes, they’re destructive and often cruel. But sometimes, they’re also unintentionally funny.

Imagine some later historian flipping through the pages of the Federal Register and coming upon Executive Order 14264, “Maintaining Acceptable Water Pressure in Showerhead.” Think of it: he went to incredible lengths to attain the ultimate power, and this is what Trump does with it.  Or there’s the one where he aims the full might of the U.S. government at the goal of “Ending Procurement and Forced Use of Paper Straws.”   Who says Americans can’t dream big anymore?   

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Why Do Heat Pumps Have a Bad Rap? Lies

The Drain

The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.

I just listened to dozens of people tell me that heat pumps don’t work, may cause homelessness, and can bankrupt small businesses. This was shocking news to me, in no small part because I’m currently in the process of installing a heat pump in my condo. Obviously, I don’t want to waste money, sleep on …

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Could Zero-Emission Hydrogen Help Reduce Aviation Emissions in California?

State’s federally funded hydrogen hub releases aviation whitepaper co-led by CLEE.

Few industries face as complex a challenge in decarbonizing as aviation. While great for decarbonizing on-road transportation, batteries are generally too heavy to power long-distance flights. Low-carbon biofuels blended into fossil jet fuel represent only a partial solution, due to lack of feedstocks and blend limits. Zero-emission hydrogen could represent a solution, either as an …

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Gas Price Politics and Desperate Moderates

The Drain

The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.

In 18 years of working in newsrooms around Los Angeles, I talked with lots of political campaigns — but a phone call from Antonio Villaraigosa in spring of 2018 stands out. I was at my desk in the cramped newsroom of KCRW, sitting in between All Things Considered host Steve Chiotakis and producer Ben Gottlieb, …

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