Climate Policy
Climate Issues in the 2026 Governor’s Race: Electricity Affordability
Second in a series of posts outlining key challenges and opportunities facing California’s next governor.
Skyrocketing electricity costs pose a formidable political and economic barrier as California pushes to decarbonize its power supply and electrify homes and transportation. The stakes for the incoming governor are incredibly high: average residential rates for large investor-owned utilities (IOUs) increased 8%-10% annually over the last decade, far outpacing the 3.5% inflation rate. While the …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Issues in the 2026 Governor’s Race: Transportation
First in a series of posts outlining key challenges and opportunities facing California’s next governor.
In collaboration with California Environmental Voters, CLEE is leading a nonpartisan initiative to educate all candidates running for governor, as well as the public, on critical climate, energy, and environmental issues. In February, CLEE and CEV co-hosted a candidate forum featuring 90 minutes of discussion on these issues. And we’ve launched a public website, www.climatevote.org, …
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CONTINUE READINGOne Year of Energy Emergencies
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
This past Tuesday — on the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump taking office and immediately declaring a national energy emergency — the new governor of New Jersey took office and immediately declared a state energy emergency. But these two approaches to executive action on energy couldn’t be more different and the results will help define …
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CONTINUE READINGHow California (And Other States) Can Drive Demand for Clean Trucks
CLEE and the Emmett Institute release new report today and will hold Jan. 13 webinar with Energy Commissioner Nancy Skinner keynote.
This post is co-authored by CLEE fellow Marie Grimm. California’s policies to phase out polluting diesel trucks with zero-emission models took a major hit this year from the federal government. In June 2025, Congress voted to overturn federal permission for California’s zero-emission truck mandate (although this vote is now subject to litigation). In July, Congress …
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CONTINUE READINGQuiet Climate Policy
Just because climate change isn’t salient for most voters doesn’t mean policy isn’t important
This Substack post from Matthew Yglesias on climate policy gets, I think two things right and one thing wrong. And getting those three components of climate policy correct is, I believe, important to long term, politically sustainable success in addressing climate change. First, as Yglesias correctly notes, climate change is not a priority for most …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Must Invest in Climate and Communities to Drive Climate Progress
The state has pioneered an approach—what’s worked, and what’s next?
As solar and other climate infrastructure construction accelerates, and with Californians concerned both about the cost of living and about seeing local opportunities result from climate projects, the conversation about community benefits (commitments to hiring and other local investments made by developers in connection with new projects) has grown increasingly animated in California and even …
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CONTINUE READINGHow Methane Satellites Work and Why it Matters
This new UCLA Law report aims to help policymakers understand the science and utility of methane satellites.
These days, I’ll take progress on climate change where I can get it. And one place to look right now is up — literally. New satellites are providing never-before-seen data about global methane sources, helping policymakers, industry, and others target that superpollutant in new ways. Today, some colleagues at UCLA Law and I are releasing …
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CONTINUE READINGLast Year’s Climate Bond May Not Be What You Thought
While investing in important adaptation and resilience measures, Proposition 4 does less to create new clean energy infrastructure investments
Last year, legislators passed, the governor signed, and California voters approved, a ten billion dollar climate bond (the Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act of 2024, SB 867 (Allen), which appeared on the November ballot as Proposition 4). While the bond act’s full title largely tells the story of …
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CONTINUE READINGDefunding the Energy Transition
The President Proposes Deep Cuts to Climate and Clean Energy Spending for FY 2026
On May 2nd, the White House released what is generally referred to as a “skinny” budget request outlining priorities for discretionary spending for fiscal year 2026. A full federal budget proposal is expected later this month. The “skinny” budget contains, by the White House’s calculations, $163 billion in non-defense discretionary spending cuts, which it argues …
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CONTINUE READINGHunting Methane Using Satellites
Joint UC Berkeley – UCLA Law report aims to help policymakers harness the methane data revolution.
A stream of data about methane—a potent greenhouse gas—is now constantly being beamed down from space. New methane satellites provide a powerful data capability for governments who want to demonstrate leadership in climate policy. To equip policymakers with necessary information on satellite methane data, UC Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE), …
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