legislation
Yes, Virginia, There ARE Federal Climate Laws.
Contrary to myth, Congress has actually passed laws relating directly to climate change.
It’s a common misconception that Congress has never passed any climate change legislation. But Congresshas passed at least laws regulating two powerful greenhouse gases, as well as a series of other laws stretching back almost forty years. The story begins under President Nixon and extends into the Biden years with the multi-billion dollar Inflation Reduction Act.
CONTINUE READINGNo More ‘House of Horrors’ Thanks to These New Laws
Several California laws prohibiting dangerous chemicals from household products go into effect on or after January 1, 2025.
Halloween is the one time when we welcome ghouls, ghosts, and goblins coming to our homes (and, if your neighborhood is anything like mine, a variety of tiny superheroes). This season, however, the Legislature is dealing with a different kind of house of horrors: dangerous chemicals in everyday products that affect millions of Californians’ health. …
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CONTINUE READINGHalftime Report: Environmental Bills Moving Forward
The UCLA Emmett Institute is tracking California environmental bills. In a year of tough budget choices, here are the notable bills that cleared Sacramento’s first big legislative deadline.
Legislators reached the first deadline of the 2023-2024 legislative season last week—passage of bills out of their house of origin. As the name implies, this refers to Assembly bills working their way through the Assembly, and Senate bills moving through the Senate, culminating with floor votes which concluded last Friday, May 24th. This period is …
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CONTINUE READINGMore Unforced Errors in the 2023 NEPA Amendments
Bluntly speaking, the statute is a mess.
When the 2023 amendments to NEPA passed as part of the debt ceiling bill, I wrote a series of blog posts about the drafting errors. It turns out that I missed some, as I discovered when working on the new edition of my environmental law casebook. They really aren’t all that subtle, and it’s hard …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Year Ahead in California Climate Laws
Facing a $37.9 billion deficit, California’s 2024 legislative session is likely to be about minor fixes, cleanup bills, and the ballot box. Plus: Will 2023’s disclosure bills get funded?
Though I do not have a crystal ball — wish I did! — there are some clear markers we can evaluate to foresee environmental priorities, and possibilities, as we start another exciting year in the California Legislature. The California Legislature kicked off the 2024 session on January 3 with notable changes in leadership. Robert Rivas, who …
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CONTINUE READINGAn Important Groundwater Bill Lands on the Governor’s Desk
Guest Contributors Gabi Rosenfeld, Owen McAleer, and Adrianne Davies say AB 779, a bill they worked on with State Assemblymember Lori Wilson, will address inequities in groundwater adjudications.
Earlier this month, California’s Legislature passed a slate of bills that cover a range of environmental and climate issues. Among those was Assemblymember Lori Wilson’s AB 779, a bill we helped create to improve the groundwater adjudication process for all water users. Adjudications legally determine groundwater rights but can take years and cost millions of …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Passes Landmark Corporate Climate Transparency Bills
SB 253 and SB 261 would be first-in-the-nation laws meant to pull back the curtain on emissions and climate risks.
After a hard-fought battle, the California Legislature passed the second of two nation-leading corporate climate accountability bills yesterday afternoon. The bills, SB 253 and SB 261, are important transparency measures that would, for the first time, allow Californians to meaningfully assess the carbon footprint of thousands of companies—and what those companies plan to do about …
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CONTINUE READING“Fully Protected” No More?
Newsom’s infrastructure package makes a big change for California species protection
Last week, the Newsom administration announced a budget trailer bill package it said was designed to facilitate the deployment of historic federal infrastructure funding for climate-friendly projects. The package consists of 11 separate trailer bills, dealing with a variety of topics ranging from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to state contracting rules. Unsurprisingly, the …
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CONTINUE READING200 Days and Counting: Legislation
What are the prospects for major environmental legislation in the near future?
From the perspective of environmental law, one of the most important questions is whether full Republican control of Congress and the White House would lead to fundamental changes to significant environmental laws. These are the kinds of changes that would be most important over the long-run, from a legal perspective. Laws are hard to pass …
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CONTINUE READINGFeds Argue California’s Shark Fin Ban Is Preempted in Third-Party Litigation
In 2011, the State of California enacted a ban on the sale, possession and trade of shark fins. California’s ban follows similar laws passed by Hawaii, Washington and Oregon over the past few years. The legislation, codified as California Fish & Game Code sections 2021 and 2021.5, followed years of advocacy by marine conservation groups, …
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