California OLD
California Supreme Court Upholds Abolition of Local Redevelopment Agencies
The California Supreme Court waited until the very end of 2011 to issue the year’s most important land use decision. While the specific issues relate to arcane issues of public finance and state constitutional law, today’s decision in California Redevelopment Association v. Matosantos is likely to have major consequences for local land use authority and …
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CONTINUE READINGU.C. Davis’ “CEQA at 40” Conference Now Available Online
On November 4th, the U.C. Davis School of Law’s California Environmental Law & Policy Center hosted “CEQA at 40: A Look Back & Ahead.” Celebrating the 40th anniversary of California’s bedrock environmental law, the California Environmental Quality Act, the conference drew some 400 attendees to U.C. Davis, with many more viewing the proceedings via a …
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CONTINUE READINGDefending the “green guinea pig”
Just a quick post to point out my UCLA colleague Matt Kahn’s piece, in the Christian Science Monitor, defending California’s AB 32 climate regulations from a recent Wall Street Journal editorial (sub. req’d.) that maligns the state’s approach. Apparently the WSJ relies on a long-debunked estimate of the costs to households from California’s program, an estimate that (among …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Case for Cap-and-Trade
Dan asked for a vote, and being a good Legal Planetary citizen, I responded — voting very reluctantly for cap-and-trade. The biggest difficulty, as is the case with most polls, lies in the phrasing of the question: “all things considered” what is “the best strategy” for controlling greenhouse gases. The problem with this locution — perhaps unavoidable …
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CONTINUE READINGA dangerous bill (ctd.)
Recently the California state legislature passed a series of measures that provided for accelerated judicial review for challenges to the CEQA review process for certain projects. (CEQA is the California Environmental Quality Act. It requires review of the environmental impacts of many kinds of development projects in California.) The projects to be exempted were those …
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CONTINUE READINGTwo tales of environmental ignorance
Citizens in Tokyo have discovered patches of radiation that are comparable to some of the evacuated areas near Chernobyl, radiation that presumably came from the recent nuclear power plant accident. The EPA has recently reported that the number of waterways in California that exceed water quality standards are 170 percent higher today than in 2006. …
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CONTINUE READINGCEQA “Reform” in California: 3-For-3
As expected, California Governor Jerry Brown this week signed into law SB 226, the third and final piece of a three-bill package of statutory amendments to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) that state legislators enacted last month. Brown last week approved the other two, more controversial CEQA bills, SB 292 and SB 900, as …
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CONTINUE READINGSupreme 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 …
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Governor Brown Signs CEQA Reform Bills
Today California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law legislation amending the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to facilitate construction of both a major new sports stadium in downtown Los Angeles and large “environmental leadership development projects” involving financial commitments of at least $10 million and that incorporate substantial urban infill or renewable energy components. This …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat EPA should do with its delayed performance standards for GHGs
On September 15, EPA announced that it would not meet its September deadline for proposing performance standards for greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution from power plants. (That is the second delay; this proposal was originally scheduled for July 2011.) Some are asking if this delay is a big deal, and several environmental leaders sent President Obama …
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