Climate Change
So Much for California’s Anti-Sprawl Law, Ctd.
My post on the shortcomings of SB 375, California’s anti-sprawl law, generated a swift response from NRDC’s Amanda Eaken and TransForm’s Stuart Cohen, two smart growth advocates for whom I hold a lot of admiration and respect. In their detailed post, which is largely a critique of the San Diego Association of Government’s (SANDAG) sustainable …
Continue reading “So Much for California’s Anti-Sprawl Law, Ctd.”
CONTINUE READINGBolstering Public Transit in California: A New White Paper from UCLA / Berkeley Law
Public transit in California, while historically underfunded compared to roads and freeways, has suffered even worse as the state’s economy has tanked and Sacramento legislators have raided transit funds to pay their general fund bills. But the buses and trains that comprise the state’s transit system provide badly needed economic benefits for Californians. These benefits …
CONTINUE READINGA Nation of Frogs?
It is said that, if you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, it immediately jumps out and is saved. But if you put a frog in a pot of cold water and gradually warm it, you can boil the frog without it ever realizing that it’s being cooked. It’s not hard to …
Continue reading “A Nation of Frogs?”
CONTINUE READINGSo Much for California’s Anti-Sprawl Law
When California passed SB 375 in 2008, the national media swooned and smart growth advocates issued glossy brochures about the law. SB 375 was intended to curb sprawl, promote more compact and walkable communities served by transit, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, all through a regional planning process that would coordinate land use plans with …
Continue reading “So Much for California’s Anti-Sprawl Law”
CONTINUE READINGCourt upholds polar bear “threatened” status
The first big opinion in the polar bear listing case is out. Score two for the Fish and Wildlife Service: the agency’s decision to list the bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act prevailed against challenges from the Center for Biological Diversity on one side and the state of Alaska and hunting groups on …
Continue reading “Court upholds polar bear “threatened” status”
CONTINUE READINGThe Supreme Court on Climate Torts — A Second Look
Let’s begin with the bad news. The plaintiffs lost, eliminating one possible tool in combating climate change. That doesn’t seem like a big loss to me, because I’ve always thought that the defendants’ best argument was that the federal common law is displaced by the Clean Air Act. It’s an easy argument to make based …
Continue reading “The Supreme Court on Climate Torts — A Second Look”
CONTINUE READINGAdd these to your reading list
Here’s some summer reading for environmental law and policy nerds. Okay, it’s not exactly beach material, but it will keep you up to date on some important issues. Elizabeth L. Bennett, Another Inconvenient Truth: The Failure of Enforcement Systems to Save Charismatic Species, Oryx (subscription required). Dr. Bennett, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, argues that …
Continue reading “Add these to your reading list”
CONTINUE READINGCourt allows California to continue developing cap and trade program pending appeal
This just in: Late today, a California appellate court granted the State’s request to stay (in other words, lift), pending appeal, the injunction issued by the lower court in Ass’n of Irritated Residents vs. CARB, the environmental justice community challenge to California’s work so far under its Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32). Absent any …
CONTINUE READINGSea-Level Rise Rockets Ahead Due to Climate Change
Here’s a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: An international research team has shown that the rate of sea-level rise along the U.S. Atlantic coast is greater now than at any time in the past 2,000 years and has shown a consistent link between changes in global mean surface temperature …
Continue reading “Sea-Level Rise Rockets Ahead Due to Climate Change”
CONTINUE READINGBrown Administration’s View of Renewable Energy in California by 2020
Governor Brown entered office in January with an ambitious agenda for renewable energy, calling for 20,000 megawatts from renewable sources by 2020, including 12,000 of localized or distributed generation and 8,000 from large-scale development. So how will this vision become a reality? UCLA and Berkeley Law gathered key leaders in California to discuss this issue …
Continue reading “Brown Administration’s View of Renewable Energy in California by 2020”
CONTINUE READING