California Air Resources Board

U.C. Davis Professor Dan Sperling Awarded Blue Planet Prize

Kudos to my U.C. Davis faculty colleague, Dan Sperling, this year’s recipient of the prestigious Blue Planet Prize. The Prize, awarded by the Asahi Glass Foundation, is often referred to as the Nobel Prize for environmental science. Dan Sperling is one of the most influential transportation scholars and policymakers in America. A professor of engineering …

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Is California Fracking Regulation Out of Focus?

I’ve long been skeptical of the push that some on the left have made to ban hydraulic fracturing of natural gas.  From an environmental perspective, I’d much rather have a natural gas-based fuel mix than one based on coal, and in any event, if there is that much money in the ground, people are going …

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Supreme Court Grants Review in Two Clean Water Act Cases From Ninth Circuit

This morning the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in two high-profile Clean Water Act cases from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  The justices simultaneously denied review in a major federalism decision, also from the Ninth Circuit, involving an industry challenge to a California Air Resources Board’s regulation requiring ships to use low-polluting fuels near …

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California Court of Appeal Upholds AB 32 Scoping Plan for Greenhouse Gas Reduction

Today, the California Court of Appeal  rejected an appeal by environmental justice advocates seeking to scuttle the California Air Resources Board’s AB 32 Scoping Plan.  EJ advocates objected to the Scoping Plan’s adoption of a cap-and-trade program to achieve some of the greenhouse gas reductions required under the landmark California law AB 32.  Their primary …

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Guest Bloggers Erica Morehouse and Tim O’Connor of Environmental Defense Fund: 9th Circuit Allows CARB to Enforce the LCFS

(It’s exam season; so, for any remedies students out there this post can count as review!) On Monday, a motions panel at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) can continue enforcing the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).  This decision stayed (pending appeal) a trial court judge’s preliminary …

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California’s New Clean Car Rules: How Can They Succeed?

Yesterday, the California Air Resources Board significantly toughened the state’s regulations on carbon emissions from automobiles: The package of Air Resources Board regulations would require auto manufacturers to offer more zero- or very low-emission cars such as battery electric, hydrogen fuel cell and plug-in hybrid vehicles in California starting with model year 2018. By 2025, …

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California Adopts Landmark Cap-and-Trade Program

Defying the trend in the rest of the country to ignore the perils of climate change, the California Air Resources Board voted today to establish the country’s first economy-wide cap-and-trade program covering greenhouse gas emissions.  The vote  comes five years after the state passed sweeping legislation — AB 32 — to roll California’s carbon emissions …

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California Sup Ct Lets California Continue Its Cap and Trade Work

The California Supreme Court issued an order today that allows the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to continue implementing its cap and trade program. The history here is somewhat convoluted.   The state’s plan (called the scoping plan) to implement the California Global Warming Solutions Act contains within it a cap and trade program.   A group of environmental justice …

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Dueling Orders and Lots of Confusion in AB 32 Case

Yesteday, I described a California Court of Appeals order lifting the injunction preventing the California Air Resources Board (CARB) from implementing its cap and trade program.  The order was apparently issued last Friday afternoon.   Even in this age of instantaneous communication, however, apparently neither the Superior Court judge in the case, Earnest H. Goldsmith, nor the lead …

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Cultivating Pot A Huge Source Of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

I’m not kidding.  And oh the possibilities for bad puns. “Energy Up in Smoke” is the title of a new study that finds that marijuana production in the United States results in 1 percent of all electricity production across the country. One percent of all electricity production is the equivalent of providing electricity to 2 million …

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