Energy
UCLA Law Clinic Files Brief Supporting DC’s Clean Buildings Act in DC Circuit
Energy law experts explain local governments’ longstanding primary authority over local gas distribution and use.
Last Friday, UCLA’s Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic filed a DC Circuit brief in support of the District of Columbia’s Clean Buildings Act on behalf of 11 leading energy and environmental law professors: UCLA’s own William Boyd, Lincoln Davies at the University of Utah, Dan Farber and Sharon Jacobs at UC Berkeley, Alexandra Klass …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Sting in the Tail of the Clean Air Act
Weakening restrictions on polluters can trigger different restrictions.
Some of Trump’s most important anti-environmental moves involve unleashing air polluters. There’s a problem with this strategy, however. Doing so raises air pollution levels, which can bring states into collision with other Clean Air Act (CAA) requirements. Thus, the effect could be much tighter restrictions on other sources to compensate for looser standards on some. Worse, this effect isn’t limited to the most directly affected states. They may turn around and demand that upwind states reduce their own emissions to help the downstream states meet federal standards. Even when this isn’t true, and where the state that suffers may be Democratic-leaning and thus of no concern to Trump, there could be economic repercussions in other states.
Two notable examples of this problem involve coal generators and vehicle regulation. The first example involves coal. Trump has exempted coal-fired power plants from pollution limits to allow them to remain open longer. According to E&E News, “Air pollution from coal-fired power plants spiked in 2025, a striking reversal of long-term progress in air quality as the Trump administration boosted coal use. The emission increases were among the largest in at least a quarter-century, on a percentage basis, as the bulk of about 210 power plants registered increased sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions,” Power plant sulfur-dioxide emissions were up 18% and nitrogen oxides were up 12%. This is contrary to a strong long-term declining trend.
The second example involves vehicle emissions. Under the CAA, state laws regulating vehicle emissions are generally preempted, but California can apply for a preemption waiver if it needs stricter regulations, and other states can piggyback on California’s standards. California’s ability to seek a waiver has been more limited since, at Trump’s instigation, Congress overturned EPA’s approval of several California waiver requests. The Trump Administration has independently taken the view that California can’t require manufacturers to sell more EVs as a way to meet standards. Although Republicans were mostly targeting California’s standards for greenhouse gases, they have also hampered California’s ability to get waivers for smog and particulates.
The problem arises because stopping a state from regulating some polluters may legally require it to tighten other regulations. Under CAA section 110, states must have state implementation plans that will achieve national air quality standards set by EPA. If one type of source pollutes more, other sources must offset the increased pollution by polluting less. Other CAA provisions put the screws on states that exceed the national standards. As a result, if the Feds exempt one source of nitrogen oxides (perhaps by repealing California waiver), states that had adopted the California standard will need to tighten regulations of other sources. Thus, exempting nitrogen oxides from trucks or cars, or from coal power plants, might require stricter controls on other sources such as natural gas power plants. Moreover, if a state is unable to achieve the national air quality standard, the so-called “Good Neighbor” provision allows it to demand emission reductions from upwind states.
In other words, exempting some sources increases the regulatory burden on others. The exemption may even increase the total regulatory burden, if pollution from those other sources is more expensive to control than pollution from the exempted sources. Here’s why.
CONTINUE READINGRenewable Energy Policy After the Federal Retreat
Which states are stepping up to fill the void?
With little resistance from Congress, the Trump administration is doing what it can to discourage the further development of renewable energy resources, showing a special lack of affection towards solar and wind. Through various executive orders and through direct payouts to some potential developers, the administration has worked to block and reverse permits on federal …
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CONTINUE READINGWhich way is the wind blowing in wind energy litigation?
The latest court decisions and legal challenges are shaping the future of wind energy development across the United States
Guest contributor Adelaide Duckett, Legal Fellow at the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center at NYU School of Law Across the country, wind developers and state governments are successfully navigating new legal challenges facing wind energy, fighting to keep projects moving forward despite mounting obstacles. Hostility to wind development has manifested in various ways …
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CONTINUE READINGShould we be data center YIMBYs?
Photo by Geoffrey Moffett on Unsplash
Nobody likes data centers. Still, banning them in blue states alone may be a bad idea.
Monterey Park is not often called the New York of California, but the city resembles New York—the state, that is—in one big way: Both have passed moratoria on data center development. When Monterey Park passed its ban in 2025, it was the first municipality in California to do so. Nationwide, however, hundreds of localities have …
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CONTINUE READINGBring Back “Trump Classic”
The original version of Trump was bad. The current version is much worse.
Trump has succeeded in his second term in making every past President including even himself look better. We’re now almost a year and a half into Trump’s second term. From almost every point of view, it’s worse than his first term. It reminds me of the “New Coke” that Coca Cola once introduced, which was a disaster that led to the reintroduction of what was then dubbed “Coke Classic.” Trump Classic was committed to fossil fuels and eliminating environmental protections. But in almost every respect, his policies were less radical and his methods were less drastic.
Ninth Circuit Upholds South Coast Zero-NOx Emission Standard for Appliances
The Ninth Circuit limiting EPCA preemption is a huge and important win for clean air.
Last fall I wrote about a strangely important case about boilers, in which the Ninth Circuit would decide whether a challenged zero-NOx air emission standard adopted by LA’s air regulator was lawful. The case is important because it had the potential to significantly constrain the ability of air pollution regulators to do their jobs and …
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CONTINUE READING86ing Natural Gas in New Buildings
A new Second Circuit opinions empowers bans on fossil fuels in new buildings.
Three years ago, the Ninth Circuit struck down a Berkeley ordinance banning natural gas hookups for new buildings. The court said that the ordinance was preempted by a federal law regulating appliance efficiency. The Second Circuit has now reached the opposite conclusion about an NYC ordinance that basically bans fossil fuels in new buildings. The Second Circuit opinion zoomed in on the language of the federal law, which seems more in line with Supreme Court’s current approach to statutory interpretation.
CONTINUE READINGA Tariff on Data Centers Could Help Them Pay Their Fair Share
chaddavis.photography via flickr
The first in our new “Energy Corner” series, this post looks at how California could design a rate structure for large load customers to join the electric grid without burdening ratepayers.
A flurry of new comments was filed last month in Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E) proposal to implement a new electric tariff bill, one specific to large-load customers (read: data centers). Such tariffs determine the electricity rates a utility can charge each class of customer, and the conditions under which it must provide service. PG&E’s …
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CONTINUE READINGPlug-In Solar Bills are Taking State Legislatures By Storm
Chances are your state legislature is considering a bill to authorize plug-in solar panels for your balcony or backyard.
It’s worth taking notice when any clean energy legislation is passing with bipartisan support in all kinds of states. Bills on balcony solar, also called plug-in solar, have been signed or moved forward in so many states around the country that it’s probably easier to name the 16 or 17 states that are NOT working …
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