Academia

Fifteen Years of Legal Planet

5700 blog posts later, we’re still speaking — if not “truth to power”— then our best approximation of truth, to anyone who’ll listen.

A decade and a half ago, the law school here announced the launch of a new environmental law blog by Berkeley and UCLA. The March 11, 2009 press release began: “The University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Berkeley Law) and UCLA School of Law today announced the launch of a new blog, Legal Planet, …

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Saving the Planet, One Case at a Time

These 50 law school clinics are doing vital work on environmental issues across the country.

Law school clinics are where the proverbial rubber meets the road. They  introduce students to the realities of lawyering. Often, they are a law school’s most important form of public service.  Environmental law clinics have blossomed across the country. Today’s post provides a directory to the clinics. There are several sites that promise comprehensive lists …

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Yes, It’s That Time of Year Again

If you read Legal Planet, you know how much the work we do matters. Now is the time to support it.

Like everyone else, I’m sure you find fundraising appeals annoying. That’s why we only do them two days a year on Legal Planet.  But there couldn’t be a more important time for the work we do. This has been the hottest year on record. It’s really now or never to address climate change. That means …

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A Guide to Environmental Law Centers

There are twenty and the list is growing.

Many law schools consider public service a key part of their missions. More than most people appreciate, they play an important role in public policy in areas as diverse as intellectual property, criminal justice, and environmental law. Research centers are an increasingly common institutional setting for that work. With that in mind, I’ve tried to …

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Recharge net metering (ReNeM) provides win-win-win for groundwater agency, landowners, & sustainable groundwater management

Nature Water publication showcases the economics of a novel groundwater recharge incentive structure

By Molly Bruce, Luke Sherman, Ellen Bruno, Andrew T. Fisher, & Michael Kiparsky An insidious issue has been growing along the Central Coast and throughout the state of California for decades: groundwater overdraft. In response to this growing threat and 2014 legislation designed to put an end to chronic overdraft, many basins have identified managed …

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No, There’s No Scientific Conspiracy About Climate Change

Anyone who thinks otherwise has never met a real live academic.  We can barely conspire about where to eat lunch.

Among the host of conspiracy theories out there, a perennial one depicts climate science as a global hoax perpetuated by scientists. There are thousands of climate scientists around the world, which is an awful lot of people for a secret conspiracy. But even if there were only forty or fifty, a successful conspiracy of any …

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Another Supply Chain Issue

Less exotic than rare earths but also needed: energy law teachers.

To make the energy transition work, we’ll need a lot more energy lawyers. That means a lot of energy law profs to teach them — many more than we have today.  Law schools are waking up to the need to hire in the area. So if you’re thinking of law teaching, it could be worthwhile …

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A decade of unraveling the effects of regulation on water innovation 

By Michael Kiparsky, with Dave Smith, Nell Green Nylen, Luke Sherman, Alida Cantor, Anita Milman, Felicia Marcus, David Sedlak, Bernhard Truffer, Christian Binz, Sasha Harris-Lovett, Jeff Lape, Justin Mattingly, Dave Owen, Lars Tummers, Buzz Thompson

In a recent post, my colleagues and I reported on our most recent research output in a long series of projects examining the effect of regulation on water innovation. The post describes a new framework for understanding and, ultimately, improving relationships between regulators and wastewater utility managers who are seeking to implement novel technical solutions, …

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The Philanthropy Gap

Spending relating to climate change is far too low given the urgency of the situation.

Larry Kramer, who heads the Hewlett Foundation, pointed out in a speech five years ago that climate change accounted for less than 2% of foundation spending. He called upon “anyone who cares about our children’s and grandchildren’s futures to step forward.” The situation has gotten only a bit better since 2017. In 2020, according to a McKinsey …

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Does Upzoning Reduce Housing Prices?

A recent careful study says no, but it suffers from unavoidable data and conceptual problems.

A new study on upzoning is out from the highly-respected Urban Institute, and it doesn’t have great news for YIMBYs: We find that reforms that loosen restrictions are associated with a statistically significant 0.8 percent increase in housing supply within three to nine years of reform passage, accounting for new and existing stock. This increase …

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