natural gas

Climate, Energy, and Environment on the Ballot

Ballot measures in Washington and California are especially important but others are worth noting.

The two biggest state initiatives are a $10 billion green bond proposal in California and a proposed rollback of Washington State’s new cap-and-trade program.  The outcomes of these and other initiatives will provide a barometer of public sentiment on environmental issues.

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Oil and Gas Sponsorships in Major League Sports

A survey of sponsorships across six major league sports leagues in the U.S. reveals more than 60 deals with high-polluting companies.

If California Attorney General Rob Bonta attends a home game to cheer on his local NBA team—the Sacramento Kings—he may encounter sponsorship ads promoting not one but two of the oil companies he’s suing for allegedly deceiving the public about climate change.  Then again, Attorney General Bonta, a former soccer player and self-described soccer dad, …

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Filling in the Picture: The Latest From Kennedy about Climate

Here’s what Kennedy says about his campaign, its effect on the race, and climate change.

Some of RFK Jr.’s views about climate change may be what you expected. Others may surprise you, like his embrace of natural gas as a fuel and his reservations about regulating emissions.

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The Utility Response to EPA’s Climate Rules

The power industry apparently shares some progressive doubts about CCS and hydrogen

There are three big takeaways from the utility industry’s comments on EPA’s proposed new climate rules. First, the industry seems to share progressive concerns about whether we can count on hydrogen and CCS (carbon capture and sequestration). Second, the industry doesn’t invoke the major question doctrine, making it clear that it does not view such …

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UCLA Law Clinic Files Amicus Brief Seeking Review of Decision in Berkeley Gas Case

Photo of a gas water heater

The Environmental Law Clinic joins other local, state, and federal governments, as well as NGOs, in urging the Ninth Circuit to take a second look at the case.

Yesterday, the UCLA Environmental Law Clinic filed a brief in the California Restaurant Association v. Berkeley case on behalf of seven law professors: our own William Boyd, Dan Farber and Sharon Jacobs at UC Berkeley, Jim Rossi at Vanderbilt, David Spence at UT Austin, Shelley Welton at UPenn, and Hannah Wiseman at Penn State. (The …

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What’s Next in the Fight over Berkeley’s Natural Gas Ordinance

The Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center, where the Mayor's Office and City Council are located

In a petition seeking review of the decision, the City of Berkeley says that the opinion from a Ninth Circuit panel takes federal preemption too far.

The City of Berkeley just filed a petition for en banc review in its long-running litigation in defense of an ordinance it passed that restricts natural-gas infrastructure in new construction. This litigation has been watched by many in the climate-policy world because of the popularity of laws like Berkeley’s; it took on new relevance for local-authority …

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Can Sunshine Lower Sky-high Gas Prices?

A Shell station display of gas prices.

Gov. Newsom and lawmakers think transparency can lower gas prices at the pump. What about transparency for the price of natural gas?

Calls are growing for more transparency in California’s energy markets. Gov. Gavin Newsom just signed his bill shining a light on gas prices at the pump. But when it comes to the recent surge in natural gas prices that jolted electricity and gas bills this winter, the next step is murkier. Regulators at the California …

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Emissions by the Big Utilities: Where They Are, What They’re Aiming For

Almost all the top ten utilities are big emitters today but looking to cut back.

There’s a lot of discussion of how the private sector is supporting renewable energy, but it’s almost all about power consumers like Apple and Walmart. But what about the companies who are selling the power? As a first step to getting a better sense of where the utility industry is going, we accumulated some basic …

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Pipelines, Emissions and FERC

From now on, carbon emissions from new pipelines will be one of FERC’s key concerns.

On Friday there were two seismic shocks in the world of gas pipeline regulation. FERC has spent years resisting pressure to change the way it licenses new gas pipelines. A whole point of a natural gas pipeline is to deliver the gas to users who will burn it, thereby releasing CO2 into the atmosphere. FERC …

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Ways of Price Making, Inflation, and Energy Price Shocks

Ras Laffan LNG terminal in Qatar

This post was originally published on the Law and Political Economy blog as part of a symposium on inflation. Energy prices have been much in the news over the past several months, occupying a prominent place in mainstream discussions of inflation. Higher prices for oil, natural gas, coal, and electricity are all pushing up inflation across …

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