Climate Change
Court 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 READINGClimate Change Impacts in China
The received wisdom used to be that climate change would have relatively little impact on China. But that views seems outdated. Like the United States, China is large and geographically diverse; as such, the impacts of climate change vary across the country. For example, the Chinese government reports that the “frequency of heat waves in …
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CONTINUE READINGNot even NASA rockets are cooperating with climate scientists these days
I heard renowned climate scientist Dr. James Hansen speak at UCLA last week, and one of his key messages was that we need to get a better handle on the importance and effect of aerosols on the Earth’s warming. He was quite excited about the launch of a new NASA satellite that would gather data to tell …
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CONTINUE READINGBoehner Tweet on Plastics Sums Up Republican Disdain for the Environment
In hardly the biggest news story of the day, but one that really irks me, House Speaker John Boehner tweeted this morning, “The new majority — plasticware is back.” He’s referring to the move by the Republican majority to eliminate deposed Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s initiative to green the House of Representatives. The initiative included — …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Change and the Pope
Obviously, I need to pay more attention to news from the Vatican, since this story is a year old: Pope Benedict XVI focused his annual address to ambassadors accredited to the Vatican on the environment and the protection of creation. He denounced the failure of world leaders to agree to a new climate change treaty …
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CONTINUE READINGThis week it’s bad news for the oceans
I try occasionally to report good news on this site, to counteract the tendency of most environmental lawyers to suffer periodic depression. But this week I can’t find anything but bad news in the marine context. Pour yourself a glass of wine, click, and cry: The World Resources Institute has published a new report, Reefs …
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CONTINUE READINGPreview of Coming Attractions: American Electric Power v. State of Connecticut
The U.S. Supreme Court recently announced the scheduling of oral arguments in the biggest (actually, the only) environmental case of its current Term: American Electric Power v. State of Connecticut. The justices will hear arguments on April 19th, and render their decision in this major climate change case by the end of June. Already, however, …
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CONTINUE READINGThree Obstacles To California Climate Progress
California’s AB 32 — the Global Warming Solutions Act — is the biggest and best thing going on the domestic climate change front. The bill is sweeping in its application and the agency charged with implementing the Act, the California Air Resources Board, has moved aggressively to chart out the path the state will need …
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CONTINUE READINGThe N.Y. Times Clears the Air
The Times as a forceful editorial today about pending legislative efforts to block EPA’s climate regulations and other air pollution regulations: Congress’s failure to enact a climate bill means that the E.P.A.’s authority to regulate these gases — an authority conferred by a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2007 — is, for now, the only …
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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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