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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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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 …

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The Politics of Geoengineering Are Getting Stranger

Of all the pollution threats out there, why are state lawmakers and U.S. EPA targeting solar geoengineering?

There are strange things happening in Climate World, in addition to all the horrifying things. Among the strangest is a surge in state bills to prohibit solar geoengineering. Just as strange is the recent shot across the bow by Trump’s EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin against one tiny startup firm that claims to be doing geoengineering. …

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What Should You Do For Earth Day? Get On The Phones

The Environmental Voter Project is pushing hard in Michigan and Texas.

Politics matters. A lot. This assertion might strike as the epitome of obviousness, but when it comes to Earth Day, there is a tendency to get away from the hard work of blocking and tackling and more toward thinking about Our Relationship With The Earth on a conceptual level. At this point, I’m sick of …

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