Climate Change
The Difficult Politics of Climate Change
How can we enact policy that is effective, resilient, and expands its ambition over time?
Climate change is a difficult problem to solve, politically. The costs of addressing climate change are born by current generations, but the benefits accrue to many generations to come. Addressing climate change might require people today to make significant sacrifices to benefit people around the world, as well as future generations. There are significant, powerful …
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CONTINUE READINGTowards Better Permitting Reform
What are we trying to achieve?
This is the third in a series of posts on permitting reform. The first post is here. The second post is here. How could we realistically achieve permitting reform that will advance climate and environmental goals? Answering that question requires recognizing the political realities of a sharply divided Congress and country. Any significant change to …
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CONTINUE READINGDeal or No Deal?
Should Congress pass EPRA?
This is the second in a series of posts on permitting reform. The first post is here. Given the provisions of the Energy Permitting Reform Act (EPRA), should Congress enact it as it stands now? Answering that question is tricky, in part because it depends both on uncertain political and administrative action, as well as …
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CONTINUE READINGShould We Do Permitting Reform?
What is at stake with the Manchin bill.
As Congress wraps up its lame duck session before the new Congress and President arrive in January, there is a lot of debate about whether to move forward on permitting reform within a quickly shrinking window of time. The basis of debate is the Energy Permitting Reform Act (EPRA) co-sponsored by Senators Manchin and Barrasso. …
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CONTINUE READINGA Framework for Equity and Local Leadership in the EV Transition
New tools to help local governments plan for equitable and effective investments
Eliminating fossil fuel-powered vehicles from the road is necessary to fight climate change and save thousands of lives at risk due to poor air quality. As governments and the auto industry advance the switch to electric vehicles, this rapid technology transition may disrupt traditional mobility patterns–and, without equitable planning and policy, it has the potential …
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CONTINUE READINGYes, Virginia, There ARE Federal Climate Laws.
Contrary to myth, Congress has actually passed laws relating directly to climate change.
It’s a common misconception that Congress has never passed any climate change legislation. But Congresshas passed at least laws regulating two powerful greenhouse gases, as well as a series of other laws stretching back almost forty years. The story begins under President Nixon and extends into the Biden years with the multi-billion dollar Inflation Reduction Act.
CONTINUE READINGWhat’s Making this COP Especially Difficult?
Notes from COP29 in Baku, where the subject of real money, U.S. politics, and other tricky factors are converging.
My UCLA colleagues Ted Parson, JP Escudero and I just returned from Baku. Most of our work there related to side talks on advancing methane regulation (and our UCLA project on that topic), but we also got a sense of how the central negotiations were unfolding. As the New York Times and others are reporting, …
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CONTINUE READINGCommunity Benefits Tools and Policy Drivers:
Select mechanisms can help ensure that energy projects deliver meaningful benefits for California communities
This is the third in a series of posts detailing CLEE’s new set of resources on Equitable Climate Infrastructure Investment. Communities and local and state governments are increasingly turning to community benefits tools to support an equitable climate transition, catalyze substantive long-term investments in community priorities, and achieve effective, durable projects. CLEE’s new report, Community Benefits Tools and California …
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CONTINUE READINGNEPA in the Supreme Court (Part II)
Here’s why the Supreme Court should reject radical arguments for limiting environmental impact statements.
Our last post explained the background of the Seven Counties NEPA case, which is currently pending in the Supreme Court. Today, we discuss the radical arguments that have been made in the case and why they should be rejected. NEPA requires that agencies consider the environmental effects of their projects, but the petitioners raise hairsplitting arguments to exclude obvious effects due to technicalities. Pleas for revising the law should be made to Congress, not to the Supreme Court.
CONTINUE READINGNEPA in the Supreme Court (Part I)
A pending case could mean radical retrenchment of a foundational environmental law.
In what could turn out to be another loss for environmental protection in the Supreme Court, the Court is about to decide a major case about the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). The case, Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, has important implications for issues such as whether NEPA covers climate change impacts.
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