California
Modernizing Air Permitting in California
Guest Contributor Craig Segall writes that SB 318 would help clean up factories and other big industrial sources by pulling permitting practices into this century.
Almost every major industrial and power facility in California needs an air permit when it’s built or renovated. That’s a huge opportunity to rapidly advance the zero and near-zero technologies that Congress invested in in the Inflation Reduction Act, and that we urgently need to meet ever-more-pressing air quality challenges, especially as attacks from the …
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CONTINUE READINGGovernor Narcissist
Gavin Newsom’s snub of LA Mayor Karen Bass demonstrates that he cares about only one thing: himself.
Buried deep within Evan’s morose but accurate roundup at The Drain lurked this item, which tells you pretty much everything you need to know about California Governor Gavin Newsom. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is in Sacramento lobbying legislators for relief money in the wake of January’s devastating wildfires. She probably won’t get close to …
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CONTINUE READING100 Days of Fear & Loathing in Climate World
The Drain is a weekly roundup of climate and environmental news from Legal Planet.
Are you tired of the words “100 days”? “In his first 100 days the Trump administration has slashed federal agencies, canceled national reports, and yanked funding from universities,” Grist puts it. “One hundred days of anti-environmental mayhem,” says Dan Farber at Legal Planet. My UCLA colleague Ann Carlson is quoted by the New York Times …
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CONTINUE READINGHousing Abundance Meets California’s Political Realities
A Senate Housing Committee debate last week was a sobering indication.
There’s a lot of talk in certain policy circles these days about abundance, as a strategy to improve people’s lives and lower the cost of living through better governance. Nowhere is “abundance” needed more than in California, where housing costs due to a dire long-term shortage of homes has made the state one of the …
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CONTINUE READINGThe California ESA and habitat protection
How California can fill in for a reduction in federal protection for endangered speciees
Following up on my prior post about the proposed changes to the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) regulations that protect against habitat modification, what might California do to protect the species within its border? California currently has 140 federally listed animal species, and 182 federally listed plant species, 19% of the 1684 species listed under …
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CONTINUE READINGUnsheathing a Weapon for Clean Air: ISRs
New UCLA Law report focuses on how to use Indirect Source Rules to fight pollution from mega facilities.
We don’t have to tell you that air pollution remains a serious threat to communities across California, from Oakland to the Inland Empire. But what if we told you that most air regulators are fighting air pollution with one hand tied behind their back, unnecessarily? It turns out there is a powerful weapon that can …
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CONTINUE READINGDay After Earth Day, the Climate Pope, and the 89%
The Drain is a new weekly roundup of climate and environmental news from Legal Planet.
Environmental journalists everywhere are breathing easier this morning. They made it through Earth Day — one of two insufferable seasons of cliche, inane PR pitches clogging their inboxes. (The other? The 2-week UN Climate Conference each fall.) Environmental advocates are breathing a little easier too, because the White House blinked first in the war of …
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CONTINUE READING“What We Do Matters:” UCLA’s Charging Ahead Symposium
States and cities have a lot of tools to cut vehicle pollution. It’s time to break them out.
Trump is a bump. A nasty one, but a bump nonetheless, because the world is on the road to zero-emission fuels and vehicles no matter what. That was one takeaway from “Charging Ahead,” the UCLA Emmett Institute’s annual symposium held on April 9 — devoted this year to cutting vehicle pollution during the next four …
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CONTINUE READINGAnother CEQA urban residential exemption bill
AB 609 provides a different and promising approach for advancing urban infill, but it could use a map
Following up on my recent post about SB 607, which proposes creating a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) exemption for urban infill housing, a similar bill, AB 609, has also been introduced this session. Like SB 607, AB 609 exempts from CEQA housing projects in urban areas. The main difference with respect to the infill …
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CONTINUE READINGHelp Shape the Bay Area’s Climate Future
Seeking input from local leaders, organizations, and individuals to shape California’s Fifth Climate Assessment for the region
The California Climate Change Assessment is a key initiative to understand and address the state’s climate impacts and build resilience through informed decision-making. California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment included a series of technical reports, regional summaries, and a statewide synthesis covering key issues such as extreme heat, wildfires, and sea level rise—providing critical guidance for …
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