California OLD

Our strawberries’ safety: will California approve methyl iodide this year?

As Margot Roosevelt reports in the Los Angeles Times, California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation has signaled that it will make a decision before Governor Schwarzenegger leaves office about whether to approve the use of methyl iodide as a strawberry fumigant.  Farmworker advocacy groups and environmental advocates fear the pesticide will be approved, and are planning …

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A poor grade for California’s new Rigs-to-Reefs law

Ever gaze up from a Southern California beach and wonder about the fate of the oil and gas rigs dotting the horizon?  Fellow blogger Sean Hecht has just published, with UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, an assessment of California’s new law governing “rigs-to-reefs” conversions–and suggests that lawmakers have much more work to do …

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Jerry Brown and the Environment

During the campaign, Jerry Brown stressed environmental issues.  His campaign website has a very extensive list of proposed environmental policies.  It’ no surprise that he favors AB 32 and renewable energy, as well as vigorous enforcement of other existing environmental laws.  Some  of the other policies are a little less familiar.  Here are some that …

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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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The California Attorney General race and the environment

This New York Times article notes why the California Attorney General’s race is very important for our state and national environmental and energy policies.  As a close observer of that office’s work on environmental issues and as a former California deputy attorney general myself, I believe the reporter is surely correct.  This race will matter from …

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Why Maureen Gorsen is wrong: Prop 26 will undermine environmental regulation

Followers of this blog know that, yesterday, UCLA Law released an analysis of Proposition 26’s impacts on state funding for environmental and public health programs.  Today, the Yes on 26 campaign struck back with a press release in which Maureen Gorsen suggested that we failed to understand Prop 26 and ignored facts. (The Yes on …

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UCLA releases new analysis of Proposition 26’s impacts to state environmental programs

As Sean has written, Proposition 26 hasn’t been getting as much attention in the media as other anti-environmental measures on next Tuesday’s California ballot, but it has the potential to be a real sleeper threat.  UCLA Law just released a careful analysis of Proposition 26’s impacts to state funding for environmental and public health programs, concluding …

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Proposition 26: The most important ballot initiative affecting California’s environment?

*UPDATES:  UCLA Law released a report analyzing Proposition 26’s impacts on the State’s environmental protection laws.  And co-blogger Rhead Enion has responded point by point to some of Maureen Gorsen’s arguments criticizing our analysis of the initative.* My co-bloggers have argued whether Proposition 25 or Proposition 23 is more important to California’s environmental future.  I …

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State AGs Ready to Attack Constitutionality of California’s AB 32

An important postscript to my earlier post regarding Berkeley Law’s/CLEE’s newly-published white paper on Proposition 23. That’s the California initiative measure that, if approved by voters this November, would suspend implementation of that state’s Global Warming Solutions Act, better known as AB 32. The San Francisco Chronicle reports today that the Attorneys General of Alabama, …

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Berkeley Law/CLEE Publish White Paper on Efforts to Suspend California’s AB 32

Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE) has today published, “California at the Crossroads: Proposition 23, AB 32 and Climate Change.” This white paper is intended to provide an objective, non-partisan analysis of California Proposition 23, an initiative measure that will appear on California’s November 2nd general election ballot. If enacted, Proposition …

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