Climate Change
The Curious Case of EPA’s Mercury Cost-Benefit Decision
What, exactly, is EPA up to by changing the underlying analysis of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard (known as the MATS rule), as it announced yesterday? Is it the first step in gutting the use of cost-benefit analysis to support strong environmental regulations? Is it a gift to Murray Energy in its lawsuit seeking …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Change and Public Opinion
Public views of climate change are shifting, even among Republicans. But there’s a lot of confusion left about the causes and remedies for climate change. What do we know about the state of public opinion? And what should we do next? Is climate change happening? A recent poll by Monmouth University shows a significant shift in …
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CONTINUE READINGStreamlining Permitting and Regulatory Processes for Sustainable Freight Projects
New Berkeley Law report for the Governor’s Office details policies to speed up the transition to sustainable freight in California
A new report from UC Berkeley School of Law, Streamlining Sustainability, outlines a set of policy reforms and other measures California leaders can enact at the state and local level to increase the sustainability and efficiency of the state’s freight system. Freight is responsible for hundreds of thousands of jobs in California and feeds commerce …
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CONTINUE READINGAre Buses the Silver Bullet to Reduce Declines in Transit Ridership?
Reversing plummeting transit ridership is key to counteracting rising VMT
In my first deep dive into strategies to reduce vehicle miles travelled (VMT), I’m looking at declining transit ridership using Los Angeles as a case study since its ridership numbers drive the overall statewide trends. Investing in public transit is one of the most time-tested strategies for reducing personal VMT, since every car-owner we can …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat’s the Best Way to Motivate Climate Action?
Answers reside deep in the heart of Texas
Texans have a few things to teach policy advocates about the way to incite and bolster political will for climate action at the local level. This is not a claim based on a lack of climate action, but rather because of a new surge of it. The majority of Texans have begun to recognize the …
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CONTINUE READINGOn the present improbability and future necessity of carbon pricing
Mapping a politically feasible roadmap towards a future, rigorous carbon pricing system
Carbon pricing is in the news right now—and not in a good way. Whether it is French protests over gas taxes, political challenges to Canada’s new federal carbon price system, voter rejection of a carbon price in Washington state, or (yet another) Australian government falling because of disputes over carbon pricing, the political challenges of …
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CONTINUE READINGOn magical, mythical, market unicorn fairies
Or how we can get effective climate policy without government intervention
I don’t usually respond to op-ed columns, but the column by Bret Stephens in the New York Times on climate policy yesterday is so …. foolish that I think it needs a response. And more to the point, the foolishness in the column can help illuminate some of the major problems that have developed as …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Negotiations Start in Poland: Setting the Stage
Much at Stake in COP-24, Including Negotiation of Paris Rulebook to Implement 2015 Commitments
This week and next, negotiators are meeting in Poland for the big annual international climate-change meeting. This meeting, formally, is the 24th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the 1992 treaty that provides the foundation for all official international action on climate change, and informally is called “COP-24.” It …
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CONTINUE READINGWe’re Never Going to Meet Our GHG Transportation Goals Unless We Radically Rethink Our Cities
Introducing an ongoing series focused on reducing vehicle miles traveled as a crucial climate mitigation strategy
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about vehicle miles traveled, or VMT. Specifically, why is it so hard to get people to think seriously about reducing VMT as a climate mitigation strategy? Building on my earlier ode to electric scooters, this post begins a semi-regular series on different aspects of VMT reduction strategies, beginning with …
CONTINUE READINGRecommendations For Governor-Elect Newsom To Address Wildfire, Water, & Climate and Transportation Threats
New CLEE and Resources Legacy Fund report based on three expert convenings
Climate change exacerbates the droughts, floods, and wildfires that Californians now regularly experience, making them even more extreme and unpredictable. Gavin Newsom, California’s next governor, faces the urgent challenge of simultaneously preparing for inevitable disaster, improving the quality of life for residents, and minimizing the greenhouse gas emissions of a society of nearly 40 million …
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