Climate Change

Romney and Climate Change

Mitt Romney apparently believes not only that climate change is happening but that it’s human-caused.  He just thinks the U.S. shouldn’t be regulating greenhouse gases without other large emitting countries like India and China regulating too.   That’s according to a “campaign surrogate,” Linda Gillespie Stuntz, who served in the Energy Department under George W. Bush and …

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C-Change.la and a Sea Change in Climate Change Communication

It has become increasingly clear that in order to address climate change effectively through carbon emissions reduction and adapting to new conditions, we will need new communication tools. Last week, I blogged about a new, groundbreaking climate impact study that projects the impacts of climate change on southern California’s communities at unprecedentedly high resolution.  What …

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DC Circuit’s Unanimous Decision to Uphold Greenhouse Gas Rules Across the Board Major Victory for EPA

As Dan just noted, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit — in a unanimous decision — handed the U.S. EPA a sweeping victory in upholding across the board four separate components of the agency’s rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.  The opinion can be found here. A little background is in order …

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NEWSFLASH — Court Upholds Greenhouse Gas Rules

From E & E news: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit announced it had denied industry petitions seeking invalidation of the so-called endangerment finding, the agency’s original conclusion that greenhouse gases pose a health risk and should be regulated under the Clean Air Act, and the “tailpipe” rule that set …

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UCLA and City of Los Angeles Publish First-Ever Detailed Long-Term Climate Forecast for a City’s Neighborhoods

A team led by UCLA researcher Dr. Alex Hall has released a study that projects temperature trends by neighborhood within the Los Angeles region for the mid-21st century.  The report is the most sophisticated regional study of climate trends that has ever been developed, and is based on climate modeling two orders of magnitude higher …

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California Court of Appeal Upholds AB 32 Scoping Plan for Greenhouse Gas Reduction

Today, the California Court of Appeal  rejected an appeal by environmental justice advocates seeking to scuttle the California Air Resources Board’s AB 32 Scoping Plan.  EJ advocates objected to the Scoping Plan’s adoption of a cap-and-trade program to achieve some of the greenhouse gas reductions required under the landmark California law AB 32.  Their primary …

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly about Coal

Coal is in the news these days.  Coal is, of course one of the most abundant fossil fuels in the world.  It is also one of the dirtiest, both from a conventional air pollution standpoint and from a climate change perspective.  Conventional coal-fired power plants emit, for example, about double the carbon dioxide that combined …

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Emmett Center and NRDC Publish New Report on the Environmental, Energy, and Fiscal Benefits of Smart Roofs

My colleague and co-blogger Cara Horowitz has just published a new report on the potential benefits of adoption of “smart roofs” throughout Southern California.  Looking Up: How Green Roofs and Cool Roofs Can Reduce Energy Use, Address Climate Change, and Protect Water Resources in Southern California, co-authored with UCLA Law alumnus Noah Garrison of NRDC, …

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Legal Planet reviews the IPCC

Congratulations to our LP colleagues Sean Hecht and Dan Farber for having been designated as expert reviewers of the IPCC 5th assessment report, to be published in 2014.  They will be reviewing the drafts issued by Working Group II, which assesses climate change impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability.  The IPCC’s assessment reports, written every five to seven years, have not been without …

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The Climate Misinformation Nation

Scientists are more confident than ever that climate change is happening and is largely caused by human activities.  Yet, according to a recent poll, the American public is less likely to believe that climate change is caused by humans than they were even last year. When it comes to climate science, are we a misinformation …

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