GHG emissions

Trump’s Public Statements Aren’t Relevant in Assessing His Likely Climate Policy

The Media Need to Take Trump’s Advisors, and Their Policy Proposals, More Seriously Than They Take Trump’s Off-the-Cuff Comments

The media need to get their act together when they report and editorialize about President-elect Donald Trump’s public statements.  Chief among many failures in reporting on the campaign was the tendency of major newspapers and television outlets to focus on candidates’ rhetoric, symbolism, and character, to the virtual exclusion of governance and policy. This contributed …

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Guest Blogger Ken Alex: State of the State

Ken Alex is a Senior Advisor to Governor Jerry Brown and the Director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research.  The views expressed in this blog post are his own. Thanks to Legal Planet, the UCLA Law Emmett Center and Environmental Law Center, and Berkeley Law Center on Law, Energy, and the Environment for …

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Guest Blogger Ken Alex: Big Data and the Renewable Revolution

Ken Alex is a Senior Advisor to Governor Jerry Brown and the Director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research.  The views expressed in this blog post are his own. Earlier this year, UCLA’s Center for Sustainable Communities launched an interactive energy map for energy use in most of Los Angeles.  It was a …

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Guest Blogger Ken Alex: An EV in Every Garage

Ken Alex is a Senior Advisor to Governor Jerry Brown and the Director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research.  The views expressed in this blog post are his own. Four years ago, the number of electric vehicles on California roads was pretty close to zero.  At the end of this year, it will …

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Lots of Rhetoric, Not Much New in Obama’s Climate Plan

The Obama Administration just released a “Climate Action Plan” to accompany the speech the President will give this morning at Georgetown University.  I applaud the President for delivering a speech devoted exclusively to climate change.  But for all the hooplah surrounding the President’s speech as “major,”  the measures he’s proposed in the new plan  to …

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City of Los Angeles will promote widespread adoption of “cool roof” technology, citing benefits documented in Emmett Center report

One of the core goals of our environmental law programs at UCLA Law is to influence and inform public policy with our research.  I’m proud to say that our Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment is doing exactly that.  The City of Los Angeles, influenced by the Emmett Center’s work, is moving forward …

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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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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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New journal issue on using the Clean Air Act to address greenhouse gas emissions

UCLA’s Journal of Environmental Law and Policy has just published its current issue, Volume 30, with all its content available free online in pdf format.  This volume is a special symposium issue, featuring articles relating to the use of the Clean Air Act to address greenhouse gas emissions.  Several of the articles’ authors were speakers …

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4 degrees warming here we come!

With the Durban COP17 negotiations concluded, there seem to be two lines of thought in the environmental community: Wow, that was better than expected. Our climate is really screwed. In this case, I think both (1) and (2) can be simultaneously true.  For some summaries of what went down at Durban, check out CleanTechnica, Climate …

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