Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic

Three Questions about the Ninth Circuit Panel’s CRA v. Berkeley Decision

The James R. Browning U.S. Court of Appeals Building

This recent decision has important implications for state and local efforts to protect their residents and reduce greenhouse-gas emission, but boy is it hard to wrap your head around.

On Monday, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit issued a ruling in California Restaurant Association v. City of Berkeley, addressing whether the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) invalidates a Berkeley municipal ordinance specifying when natural-gas infrastructure can be extended into new buildings. Many in the housing-quality and building-decarbonization space have been eagerly …

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Guest Contributors Kelsey Manes & Ashley Sykora: State Should Clean Up Los Angeles Parkways Impacted by Exide Pollution

Parkway garden in Los Angeles

Communities for a Better Environment and UCLA Environmental Law Clinic Urge State Agency to Reevaluate Inequitable Cleanup Proposal

We are UCLA Law students enrolled in the Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic, a class in which students work on behalf of community and environmental groups to help advance client goals through legal advocacy. This semester, we worked with Communities for a Better Environment, a community-based environmental justice organization that works in heavily polluted …

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Guest Blogger Divya Rao: Sen. Udall and Rep. Lowenthal Champion New Legislative Effort to Curb Plastic Waste Pollution

Comprehensive federal legislation on single-use plastics, from bags to straws, anticipated to drop in Fall 2019

This past January, I was one of two students who had the opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. with the Surfrider Foundation and UCLA’s Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic to brief Congress on harms caused by marine plastic pollution and steps the federal government can take to combat the problem by reducing waste from …

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New legislative effort underway to develop public access to the L.A. River

Earlier this year, California State Senator Kevin De Leon introduced SB 1201, a bill that could bolster efforts to open up the Los Angeles River for lawful recreational uses such as boating.  I have a particular interest in this, since UCLA’s Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic worked with the advocacy group Friends of the Los …

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UCLA Sustainable Technology and Policy Program (STPP): New interdisciplinary program of UCLA Schools of Law and Public Health

The UCLA Sustainable Technology and Policy Program (STPP) has just launched its new website.   STPP is an interdisciplinary program based in the UCLA School of Law and the School of Public Health, with partners and affiliated faculty across the UCLA campus.  The program’s goal is to promote public health and environmental protection by developing and promoting …

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UCLA Clinic persuades federal Administrative Law Judge to vacate approval of new coal mining permit on Indian land in Arizona

I have some exciting news I can’t resist sharing: UCLA’s Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic won a major administrative case last month, which is now final now that the time for appeal has run. All twelve of our clinic students spent a significant chunk of this fall working on it, along with me and …

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