greenhouse gases

Guest Blogger Ken Alex: California’s Building Energy Efficiency Mandate

Post #3 in a Series on California Climate Policy by Ken Alex, Senior Policy Advisor to Gov. Jerry Brown

[This is the third post in a series expressing my view of why California’s actions on climate change are so important and how they will change the world. The introductory post provides an overview and some general context.] Energy usage associated with buildings is substantial. There are different ways to calculate it, but the California …

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Guest Blogger Ken Alex: California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard

Post #2 in a Series on California Climate Policy by Ken Alex, Senior Policy Advisor to Gov. Jerry Brown

[This is the second post in a series expressing my view of why California’s actions on climate change are so important and how they will change the world.  The introductory post provides an overview and some general context.] SB 350 (2015) requires that California’s investor and municipal owned utilities provide 50% of their customer’s electricity …

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Guest Blogger Ken Alex: California’s Vision on Climate Change

Post #1 in a Series on California Climate Policy by Ken Alex, Senior Policy Advisor to Gov. Jerry Brown

California accounts for about one percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. As the Brown Administration enters its final year, I want to set out my view of why California’s actions on climate change are so important and how they will change the world.  I thank the faculty at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy, …

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U.C. Davis to Host Conference Commemorating California Air Resources Board’s 50th Anniversary

CA Governor Jerry Brown, former USEPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, CARB Chair Mary Nichols Featured

On Friday, January 19, 2018, the University of California, Davis, will host a major conference commemorating the California Air Resources Board’s 50th anniversary.  The conference represents a three-way partnership between UCD School of Law’s California Environmental Law and Policy Center, UCD’s Institute for Transportation Studies and CARB. Since its creation in 1967, CARB has been …

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Thoughts on AB 398

New bill to extend state’s cap-and-trade program is a compromise worth making

The Governor and state legislative leaders announced a deal on a bill to extend the state’s cap-and-trade program to control greenhouse gas emissions through 2030, along with companion legislation to increase emissions reductions for conventional pollutants from major stationary industrial sources (a key point for environmental justice groups).  Some leading business groups have endorsed the …

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A Case of Administrative Bad Faith

The D.C. Circuit slaps down an abuse of power by Trump’s EPA.

On Monday, the D.C. Circuit dealt a setback to Scott Pruitt’s deregulation efforts in Clean Air Council v. EPA. The case involved a tricky procedural issue. But the substance was simple: EPA, under Pruitt, had abused a reconsideration procedure under the Clean Air Act to stay a regulation for 90 days, when it had no …

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Does Scalia’s Opinion in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA Help Protect the ACA?

The UARG majority opinion says the context and overall structure of a statute help determine the meaning of statutory terms

The tax subsidies provided under the Affordable Care Act to pay for health insurance are, of course, the subject of significant press coverage since dueling federal appeals courts came to different conclusions about who receives them this week.   The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held, in a 2-1 decision called Harbig v. Burwell, that an …

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PART IV – EPA’s Proposed 111(d) Rule: Some Insights & Open Legal Questions

The fourth and final post in a series offering some initial insights and observations, and posing several open legal questions related to EPA’s proposed 111(d) rule.

This is the fourth and final post in a series offering some initial insights and observations, and posing several open legal questions related to EPA’s proposed 111(d) rule.  (See Parts I, II, & III.) Over the course of this series, I welcome our knowledgeable and insightful LegalPlanet audience to join the dialogue in the comments. …

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PART III – EPA’s Proposed 111(d) Rule: Some Insights & Open Legal Questions

The third in a series of posts offering some initial insights and observations, and posing several open legal questions for conversation

This is the third in a series of posts offering some initial insights and observations, and posing several open legal questions related to EPA’s proposed 111(d) rule.  (See the first and second posts.) Over the course of this series, I welcome our knowledgeable and insightful LegalPlanet audience to join the dialogue in the comments. What …

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PART II – EPA’s Proposed 111(d) Rule: Some Insights & Open Legal Questions

The second in a series of posts offering some initial insights and observations, and posing several open legal questions for conversation

This post is the second in a series of posts offering some initial insights and observations, and posing several open legal questions related to EPA’s proposed 111(d) rule.  (See the first post here.) Over the course of this series of posts, I welcome our knowledgeable and insightful LegalPlanet audience to join the dialogue in the …

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