Climate Change

UCLA Law Symposium: Perspectives on Climate Change

Please join us at UCLA Law School on April 15th for the 2011 Environmental Law Symposium, Perspectives on Climate Change, Pollution and the Clean Air Act. The keynote speaker will be Gina McCarthy, Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation. Please RSVP. You can also check out the program for more information. Panel …

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Pandering to the Right, Or, “That Was Then, This Is Now.”

PAWLENTY: Well, anybody who’s going to run for this office who’s been in an executive position, or may run, has got some clunkers in their record. Laura, mine I think are fewer and less severe than most. As to climate change, or more specifically cap-and-trade, I’ve just come out and admitted it — look, it …

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U.S. House of Representatives v. Modern Science

Nature, one of the two leading scientific journals in the world, has a strongly worded editorial about the recent House hearings on climate change: At a subcommittee hearing on 14 March, anger and distrust were directed at scientists and respected scientific societies. Misinformation was presented as fact, truth was twisted and nobody showed any inclination …

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The recent court decision blocking California’s scoping plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: One-stop shopping for recent Legal Planet commentary

Several of the bloggers on Legal Planet have been commenting extensively on the recent California court decision that will block the California Air Resources Board from moving forward with its AB 32 Scoping Plan and related regulations.  I’ve provided links below to a series of our posts on this decision. The court, ruling on a …

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The Melting of Mount Everest

A spectacular and frightening graphic from Christina Larson over at James Fallows’ Atlantic blog: Larson posts a photograph that allows you to compare a picture of Mount Everest from 1921 with one from today.  Don’t look if you don’t want to see something sad; as Larson notes, the glacier atop Everest has lost 320 vertical …

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Might recent events allow Governor Brown to consider a new direction for AB 32 implementation?

My colleague Jonathan Zasloff suggests that environmental justice groups are using litigation to try to get leverage for some sort of compensation or other measures, rather than to actually stop the state’s cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gases. I doubt that.  But what I do wonder — with no evidence, but I can speculate wildly on …

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Can the Air Resources Board continue to implement measures to reduce greenhouse gases?

One interesting feature of the court decision preventing the state from moving forward with AB 32 is that the court’s decision seems to halt implementation of the entire scoping plan.  As I’ll explain, this is an odd result, and one that may be legally required but doesn’t make practical sense. The legal flaw the court …

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Two Cheers for Environmental Justice Cynicism

Ann is a little puzzled  about what the environmental justice community hopes to achieve by suing the state over cap-and-trade: why would a carbon tax be better? she asks.  Sean says that we need to understand that the EJ community is deeply committed to a series of process-oriented goals, and believe that these goals have …

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Reflections on environmental justice and AB 32’s emissions trading program

I have a few thoughts on environmental justice and the new court decision halting implementation of the AB 32 scoping plan, inspired by my colleague Ann Carlson’s post, and the comments on that post.  Reflecting on the environmental justice community’s successful (at least temporarily) attack on greenhouse gas emissions trading in California – and on the …

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California Dump Trucks v. CARB

The California Dump Truck Owners Association (“CDTOA”) filed suit in February 2011 against the California Air Resources Board (“CARB”).  The suit alleges that CARB’s Truck and Bus Regulation, which is part of the suite of regulations under AB 32 to address greenhouse gas emissions, is unconstitutional. CARB’s Truck and Bus Regulation sets stricter emissions standards for …

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