Climate Change
Right-wing populist environmentalism?
The future of environmentalism may include a right-wing, populist strain that is heavily NIMBY
While there is a lot of focus on left-wing NIMBYs in public discourse, there’s also a lot of right-wing NIMBY mobilization too. For instance, the conservative California city of Huntington Beach is leading the resistance to state efforts to require upzoning to facilitate housing. Conservative rural communities are often the locus of opposition to both …
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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 …
CONTINUE READINGThe Woeful Economics of a Misguided Rollback
The costs of Trump’s rollback of key climate rules far outweigh any benefits.
Trump’s rollback of regulations limiting emissions from power plants is an economic disaster. According to economists, health damages far exceed savings from lower compliance costs. Just considering health impacts alone, the net cost of the rollback will be $129 billion through 2050. Climate damages add another $148 billion in costs.
CONTINUE READINGDear 2025 1L:
Avoiding a climate disaster isn’t something today’s students can plan on tackling “over the course of their careers.” The most critical time will be the next fifteen years, which means you’ll need to get to work quickly.What we do together between now and 2035 will determine what your lives look like in 2050 and 2080, and what your children and grandchildren will see in the next century. So grab your books, get yourselves ready, and be prepared to head for the trenches when you graduate. No time to waste!
CONTINUE READINGHow Trump’s War on Research Hurts the US Economy
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The economic evidence confirms the huge benefits of government support for research.
One of the victims of the Trump Administration has been scientific research, notably including research on the environment, clean technologies, and even public wealth. The government’s own research capacity is under attack from agencies from EPA to NIH, grants to universities have been cancelled, and future funding from agencies like NIH and NSF is in peril. Yet the Administration has given little though about how this effects competitiveness in a high-tech world.
CONTINUE READINGThe Animal Agriculture Industry Undermines Climate Action
Photo by MRC Témiscamingue
Guest Contributor Alexander Wood, a UCLA Law student, writes that lessons learned from Big Oil can be applied to animal agriculture.
The case for decarbonization to address climate change is often, understandably, directed toward the fossil fuel industry. Public opinion toward the oil and gas industry has shifted in recent years, driven in part by public protests and litigation. Why hasn’t there been more movement against greenhouse gas emissions caused by animal agriculture? Emissions from Animal …
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CONTINUE READINGListing Trump’s Environment and Energy Executive Orders
I’m counting 35 so far. But I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that I’d missed something.
I’ve put together a list of all the Trump 2.0 executive orders that I could identify dealing with environment or energy. Just to keep you reading, I should tell you that the most important ones are near the end. Whatever you might say about Trump, no one can question his zeal for eliminating environmental protections.
CONTINUE READINGWhy Repeal the Endangerment Finding?
The aims may be overturning Mass v. EPA and avoiding new rulemakings.
Much will be said about the weakness of the various justifications EPA and the Department of Energy offered yesterday about why greenhouse gases do not endanger public health and welfare under the Clean Air Act. Those justifications are, indeed, remarkably weak. For example, DOE’s argument that economic damages appear to be lower than economists estimate …
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CONTINUE READINGWorld’s Biggest Court Opinion on Climate
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
For more than 24 hours last week, my social media feeds were a wall of jubilant reaction to the World Court’s big climate opinion. People who work on, and care about, the climate crisis needed some good news, clearly. That begs the question, is the advisory opinion really as big a deal as people wanted …
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CONTINUE READINGDoes Federal Law Still Preempt State Standards Relating to Fuel Efficiency?
The answer may depend on what being “in effect” means.
If a tree falls in the forest but no one hears it, does it still make a sound? If a law hasn’t been formally repealed but can be violated with complete impunity, is it still in effect? This matters because federal law preempts state fuel efficiency standards if, but only if, a federal standard is “in effect.” Congress just eliminated any penalty for violating the federqal standards. Which means at best they have only a kind of ghostly existence, but no substance to speak of.
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