California
California Takes a Stab at Climate and Energy Costs
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
It’s remarkable that with everything else that’s raging, climate and energy bills still managed to dominate the legislative session that just wrapped in Sacramento. After all, the reason lawmakers were still at work this past Saturday — the day after the legislative session was supposed to end — was that negotiations on climate bills pushed …
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CONTINUE READINGCertainty for the California Compliance Carbon Market
California’s signature climate program receives formal legislative extension through 2045.
As the California legislative session came to an end last week, Assembly and Senate leaders released a last-minute deal on formally extending California’s Cap-and-Trade Program for the next two decades through Assembly Bill (AB) 1207. The bill received the required supermajority vote on Saturday, September 13, and now moves to Governor Newsom’s desk for signature. …
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CONTINUE READINGBread and Circuses and Journalism
How to get readers interested in housing and land use? Bring in reality stars!
If you want to get a good sense of the travails of the modern press, look no further than Politico’s recent writeup of SB 79, Senator Scott Wiener’s new bill to mandate upzoning around transit stops. Importantly, this isn’t because it’s a bad article but precisely because it’s a good article (and not just because …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Must Invest in Climate and Communities to Drive Climate Progress
The state has pioneered an approach—what’s worked, and what’s next?
As solar and other climate infrastructure construction accelerates, and with Californians concerned both about the cost of living and about seeing local opportunities result from climate projects, the conversation about community benefits (commitments to hiring and other local investments made by developers in connection with new projects) has grown increasingly animated in California and even …
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CONTINUE READINGClean up on aisle 131
Legislature should fix flaws in AB 131
As this year’s legislative session comes to a close, I want to highlight legislative action that I hope happens in the next session. I noted earlier that AB 130 and AB 131 both were important steps to advance infill housing in California by creating exemptions for infill housing from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). …
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CONTINUE READINGYoung Climate Plaintiffs Won Big in Montana. Can They Again?
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
One of the biggest climate victories to date belongs to 19-year-old Eva Lighthiser and the other Montana youth climate plaintiffs who won their landmark case against state officials and saw it upheld in the state Supreme Court. Now, some of those same young people — Lighthiser included — are headed back to court next week …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Issues the First State Guidance for Corporate Climate Risk Disclosure
CARB takes an important step in an emerging field of climate policy
The California Air Resources Board this week released draft guidance for corporate climate-related financial risk disclosure, providing some insight into what large companies will be required to report beginning in January 2026. This is a quiet but fairly monumental step in climate risk disclosure in the US, and a reminder of the power of state …
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CONTINUE READINGWhy are California’s Zero-Emission Truck Standards Under Attack?
They are highly effective, as CLEE’s new Factsheet series on Zero-Emission Trucks documents.
The world of zero-emission trucks is at a pivotal moment. On one hand, the technology is rapidly advancing, and manufacturers are producing a growing number of zero-emission truck models in Europe, China, and here in California. Yet on the other hand, this clean transition is facing significant political and legal challenges from the U.S. federal …
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CONTINUE READINGCan California Try Again with Vehicle Pollution Limits?
A new Sixth Circuit decision provides encouragement.
In May, Congress effectively killed the most recent efforts by California to clean up its vehicle fleet. Although many people seem to have assumed the contrary, this may not be the end of the road for California regulators. A new court of appeals decision is an encouraging signal that California may be able try again when the political forces in DC are less militantly anti-environmental.
CONTINUE READINGLeveraging Cap-And-Trade Proceeds for Long-Term Utility Bill Savings and Pollution Reduction
State leaders have an opportunity to expand the benefits with cap-and-trade reauthorization.
California’s decades-long role as a climate action pioneer is facing serious headwinds. While the Trump administration and its allies have launched a full-scale attack on clean technologies, state leaders are also wrestling with an electorate now more focused on lowering prices than environmental protection. Energy costs stand in the middle. This dynamic is playing out …
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