CEQA
Paper or Plastic?
The California Supreme Court today issued a significant decision interpreting and applying California’s most important environmental law–the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA. The issues in Save the Plastic Bag Coalition v. City of Manhattan Beach were: 1) whether a Southern California beach community was required to prepare an environmental impact report (EIR) under CEQA …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Slowing Down on Cap and Trade
Yesterday, Mary Nichols slipped a bit of a bombshell into testimony before the California Senate Select Committee on the Environment, the Economy and Climate Change. She announced that the state’s Air Resources Board is planning to “initiate” the cap and trade program in 2012 but not “start the requirements for compliance” until 2013. This effectively …
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CONTINUE READINGBreaking News: AB 32 Cap and Trade Program Allowed to Proceed Pending Appeal
The 1st Appellate District of the California Court of Appeal has temporarily stayed (in other words lifted) the trial court’s injunction preventing the California Air Resources Board from implementing its cap and trade program for greenhouse gas emitters. As Cara blogged previously, the trial court in Association of Irritated Residents v. ARB issued a writ of …
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CONTINUE READINGThe recent court decision blocking California’s scoping plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: One-stop shopping for recent Legal Planet commentary
Several of the bloggers on Legal Planet have been commenting extensively on the recent California court decision that will block the California Air Resources Board from moving forward with its AB 32 Scoping Plan and related regulations. I’ve provided links below to a series of our posts on this decision. The court, ruling on a …
CONTINUE READINGName That CEQA Plaintiff!
The recent environmental justice lawsuit on AB 32 carried with it a typical CEQA characteristic: the plaintiff is a community organization formed for the purpose of a lawsuit whose name is usually a play on the issue. Thus, this case was Association of Irritated Residents v. CARB: “AIR,” get it? Cute. But not even close …
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CONTINUE READINGTwo Cheers for Environmental Justice Cynicism
Ann is a little puzzled about what the environmental justice community hopes to achieve by suing the state over cap-and-trade: why would a carbon tax be better? she asks. Sean says that we need to understand that the EJ community is deeply committed to a series of process-oriented goals, and believe that these goals have …
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CONTINUE READINGAB 32 Lawsuit: Assessing the Environmental Justice Arguments Against Cap and Trade
As Cara wrote yesterday, a California court has put AB 32 on hold temporarily on the grounds that in preparing its scoping plan, the California Air Resources Board failed to assess alternatives to its plan with appropriate detail. In particular, the court took issue with CARB’s failure , under the California Environmental Quality Act, to …
CONTINUE READINGCourt 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 …
CONTINUE READINGCourt’s AB 32 Ruling Is Quite Narrow and At Most a Temporary Setback
Cara published a terrific summary of a tentative California superior court decision in which the court held that the state’s Air Resources Board (CARB) violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in implementing AB 32, the state’s landmark climate change legislation. The CEQA portion of the ruling — should the judge stick with it when …
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CONTINUE READINGCalif court tentatively rules AB 32 implementation unlawful
A California superior court has issued a proposed decision, not yet final, holding that ARB failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in its adoption of the Scoping Plan that is guiding its implementation of AB 32, California’s landmark climate change law. The ruling proposes to set aside ARB’s CEQA documentation and to …
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