Air Resources Board

Why Was the Lawsuit Challenging California’s Cap-and-Trade Auction Filed Just One Day Before the Auction?

As Ann posted earlier today, the California Chamber of Commerce has filed a petition for writ of mandate in a California superior court, alleging that the auction of allowances to emit carbon dioxide scheduled for tomorrow constitutes an illegal tax and is not authorized by the California law AB 32.  AB 32 requires the state …

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Previewing This Week’s Constitutional Battle Over California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard

On Tuesday morning, October 16th, attorneys will gather at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s majestic courthouse in downtown San Francisco to argue one of the nation’s most important, currently-pending environmental cases.  The case is Rocky Mountain Farmers Union v. Goldstene, and the issue is the constitutionality of California’s Low Carbon Fuel …

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Supreme Court Looking Hard at Litigation Challenge to CARB Marine Fuel Regulations

The U.S. Supreme Court today asked the Solicitor General for his views as to whether the Court should hear and decide a controversial case from California challenging the California Air Resources Board’s authority to regulate ocean shipping.   The specific CARB regulations at issue require marine vessels operating in state waters and ports to use …

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Might recent events allow Governor Brown to consider a new direction for AB 32 implementation?

My colleague Jonathan Zasloff suggests that environmental justice groups are using litigation to try to get leverage for some sort of compensation or other measures, rather than to actually stop the state’s cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gases. I doubt that.  But what I do wonder — with no evidence, but I can speculate wildly on …

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Reflections on environmental justice and AB 32’s emissions trading program

I have a few thoughts on environmental justice and the new court decision halting implementation of the AB 32 scoping plan, inspired by my colleague Ann Carlson’s post, and the comments on that post.  Reflecting on the environmental justice community’s successful (at least temporarily) attack on greenhouse gas emissions trading in California – and on the …

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Court issues final ruling in AB 32 challenge — enjoins implementation of AB 32 scoping plan pending CEQA fixes

On Friday, a California superior court judge handed down his decision in the challenge, brought by environmental justice advocates, to the state’s implementation of AB 32, California’s landmark Global Warming Solutions Act. The decision is available here.  More analysis to come.  On first read, the decision looks very similar to the tentative decision issued by the …

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California full-steam-ahead on cap and trade

Whether or not Californians focused on climate change in voting on Proposition 23 (as Ann and Sean discuss), their rejection of 23 means full steam ahead on climate change regulation.  Notably, while the rest of the country leaps back from cap and trade (here’s Obama throwing it under the bus in his post-election comments), California …

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Cool Cars For California

Those California environmental regulators: there they go again… This past week, California’s Air Resources Board adopted first-ever regulations requiring auto manufacturers to include sun-reflecting window glass for all cars and light trucks sold within the state. The new rules take effect in 2014. It turns out that conventional vehicle windows waste a lot of energy. …

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California environmental justice advocates sue Air Resources Board over climate scoping plan

UPDATES: California Air Resources Board Chair (and former UCLA colleague) Mary Nichols comments below. The Complaint in this action is available here (caption page separately available here). A coalition of California environmental justice advocates has filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the California Air Resources Board‘s scoping plan for AB 32, the landmark climate …

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California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard–& a Paean to Applied Scholarship

Jonathan Zasloff has previously written about the California Air Resources Board’s pioneering decision last week to mandate carbon-based reductions in state transportation fuels. These regulations, known as California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), are the first of their kind in the United States. More importantly, the LCFS is an integral part of CARB’s ambitious plan …

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