California
Blue Skies and Wildfire in California
An opinion piece in the NY Times reveals a disconnect between history and what we expect from wildfires and air quality
There’s a lot of news coverage about the wildfires on the West Coast right now, and rightly so. But with that news coverage comes a lot of commentary, some of which might lead us down the wrong policy path. I want to highlight an example from the New York Times opinion page, not because it …
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CONTINUE READINGSupreme Court Finds California Labor Access Regulation Works Unconstitutional Taking of Private Property
What Are the Implications of the Cedar Point Nursery Decision for Environmental, Natural Resources & Public Health Programs?
In a closely-watched property rights decision, the U.S. Supreme Court today held unconstitutional a longstanding California regulation allowing labor unions intermittent access to agricultural workplaces for labor organizing purposes. Reversing a decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a 6-3 Supreme Court majority ruled that the challenged regulation triggers a per se, compensable government “taking” …
CONTINUE READINGA Preview: Major Property Rights Case Currently Before U.S. Supreme Court
Decision in Cedar Point Nursery Could Imperil Key Health, Safety & Environmental Programs
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a major property rights case from California: Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid. That litigation arises in a labor law context. But, depending on how the Court rules, the case could have major, deleterious impacts on a wide array of health, safety and environmental programs. …
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CONTINUE READINGHow Cities Can Use California’s Housing Element to Get New Housing Built
New changes in state law allow local governments to commit to long-term production of housing
Over the next two years, cities across the state of California will undertake a state-mandated process to update the “housing element” of their general plans for land use. Cities must demonstrate that they have—or will provide—adequate zoned capacity to accommodate their share of “regional housing need,” a figure which is determined by the state Department …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia’s Environmental Justice Policies Should Serve as A Model for the Biden-Harris Administration
AB 617’s Program to Reduce Hot Spot Pollution, Port Programs, Zero Emission Trucks Could Go National
No Presidential ticket has come into office more committed to environmental issues than President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Appropriately, climate change is at the top of their agenda. They are also committed to advancing environmental justice by addressing the disproportionate environmental harms many low income communities of color face. California is often …
CONTINUE READINGDriving Sustainable Energy Storage Technology
Maximizing the Environmental Utility of Battery Storage: Building a Life Cycle Assessment Framework
Battery energy storage is recognized as a key element of making our energy infrastructure more sustainable and resilient. Battery storage, however, encompasses many technologies–how should sustainability-minded agencies, utilities and storage developers choose among these options? UCLA’s Emmett Institute and the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability is hosting an interactive workshop on that question …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia’s Burning. What’s the Link to Climate Change?
Answering your denialist friends
It’s a hard day to work in California, what with all the burning. Those closest to the fires and smoke are evacuating (or being rescued), or are among the brave men and women fighting in inferno-like conditions to increase fire containment. But even those of us far away and physically safe from the fires are …
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CONTINUE READINGLet’s Talk Coordinated Governance
Chinese policymakers learn from California’s pioneering work on air and climate regulation.
We are pleased to announce the launch of a new report on Coordinated Governance of Air and Climate Pollutants: Lessons from the California Experience – authored by me, David Pettit at NRDC, and Siyi Shen. The report is an effort to introduce California’s experience in air and climate regulation to Chinese regulators and researchers. In …
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CONTINUE READINGNext Steps in U.S.-China Environmental Cooperation
Pressing Both Countries Toward Carbon Neutrality.
U.S.-China relations are perhaps at their lowest point in decades and there is no end in sight at the moment. Each week brings a barrage of new U.S. federal policy measures aimed at China. Against this backdrop, ChinaFile recently asked a group of China experts to opine on the prospects for U.S.-China relations in coming …
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CONTINUE READINGWater right permitting options for groundwater recharge: Avoiding unintended consequences
by Kate Fritz and Nell Green Nylen
Efforts to boost groundwater recharge are critical to making California’s limited, and increasingly volatile, water resources go further. Recharge is playing a growing role in maintaining groundwater as an effective drought reserve and in slowing or reversing the effects of years of unsustainable groundwater pumping. But implementing recharge projects is not easy. Water managers face …
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