California

Climate Policy Canadian-Style

Canada is setting a great example to its southern neighbor.

Despite our geographic proximity and close economic ties, Canada doesn’t get a lot of press attention in the U.S. But unknown to many, Canada has been taking aggressive steps forward in climate policy. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected Trump’s decision in no uncertain terms: We are deeply disappointed that the United States federal government has …

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New Report: How To Boost EV Charging Infrastructure

UCLA Law hosts free report release lunch event at noon, with live webcast & keynote by Energy Commissioner Janea Scott

Electric vehicles (EVs) represent one of the most promising clean technologies, in terms of their potential benefits for the electricity grid, local air pollution, and reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. Not to mention they’re fun to drive. The good news is that as EV prices have dropped by nearly half the …

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Breaking News: California Supreme Court Refuses To Hear Appeal On Industry Challenge To Cap-And-Trade Auction

Industry once again loses leverage over shaping the program post 2020

The California Chamber of Commerce has just lost its case against the state’s cap-and-trade auction, with the news from the Los Angeles Times that the California Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from the state appellate court. This means the auction mechanism in the cap-and-trade program is valid at least through 2020. As …

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Boosting Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure To Meet Demand

Free luncheon and report release event at UCLA Law on Thursday, June 29th, with keynote by Energy Commissioner Janea Scott

Few clean technologies are as central for meeting climate change goals as electric vehicles.  Yet in places like California, which leads the U.S. with approximately 300,000 EVs on the road, the needed charging infrastructure is lagging.  Analysts estimate that the state will need as many as 220,000 publicly accessible EV charging ports by 2020 to …

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California Members of Congress Seek to Eviscerate State Water & Environmental Laws

H.R. 23 Would Preempt California State Water Law & Supersede Federal, State Environmental Statutes

Quite understandably, the attention of the media, environmental organizations and the general public has been focused on the myriad misadventures of the Trump Administration, now rumbling and stumbling through its fifth month.  And, as recounted on Legal Planet since mid-January, those contretemps include a great deal of environmental mischief emanating from the Executive Branch. But it …

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Planning for Utility-Scale Solar PV in the San Joaquin Valley

Free evening panel discussion in downtown San Francisco on Tuesday June 6th, 5:30 – 7pm

California aims to generate 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, and a new bill now in the legislature seeks to get to 100% renewables by 2045. A significant amount of this energy will come from solar photovoltaic (PV) installations, with much of the deployment likely to occur in California’s San Joaquin …

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A Bitter Pill

Will Trump’s Actions Unravel the Paris Agreement? It’s complicated.

It’s official: President Trump has decided to pull the U.S. out of the Paris agreement. So far as I c an, there’s little support for his decision from anyone who is not beholden to the coal industry. Sadly, this decision is only one way in which this President has dashed the hopes of the world. …

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UCLA Law Conference Webcast Today: State Climate Policy in the Trump Era

Symposium Features Sessions on California, Federal, and Multistate Greenhouse Gas Reduction Policy

UCLA Law’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment is hosting a full day event today on the timely topic of State Climate Policy in the Trump Era on Monday, May 22, 2017. There will be a live webcast for those who cannot join the event in person. Full details are linked here. And here’s …

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Guest Blogger Alex Jackson: The Way Forward on Cap-and-Trade

Incorporate Elements of SB 775 and AB 378 to Build on a Proven Program

California is in the process of defining the next chapter of its world-renowned climate leadership. Having pioneered a set of policies over the past decade that have put the state on course to meet its greenhouse gas emissions limit in 2020, lawmakers now face the question of what role the state’s cap-and-trade program should play …

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Look Out Below!

U.S. Supreme Court Signals Interest in Key Environmental Law/Federal Preemption Case From California

The U.S. Supreme Court today signaled that it is seriously considering whether to review an important environmental law case from California–one in which the California Supreme Court previously ruled that California’s ban on environmentally-damaging suction dredging in state rivers is not preempted by federal law. The case is People v. Rinehart, U.S. Supreme Court No. 16-970. …

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