Environmental Justice
Happy 50th Anniversary, Federal Clean Water Act
One of America’s Foundational Environmental Laws Has Proven Transformational, But Requires Updating a Half-Century Later
The Clean Water Act (CWA), one of the nation’s most important environmental laws, is 50 years old today. It’s proven to be one of the most successful of America’s bedrock federal environmental statutes. But the CWA is far from perfect, needs some important updating, and will probably never fully achieve the aspirational goals Congress proclaimed …
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CONTINUE READINGAddressing Livestock Methane in California
New CLEE/UCLA report identifies policy solutions to reduce emissions | Webinar Nov. 10
Methane is a climate super-pollutant that is 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Given its potency and short life, experts believe that reducing methane emissions is the highest-yield action that governments and businesses can take to curb near-term warming. In the US, livestock are responsible for over one third of …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Adopts Nation-Leading Legislation to Cut Plastic Pollution
Extended producer responsibility law will reduce single-use waste and shift responsibility to industry
In a welcome reprieve from news coming out of the Supreme Court, here’s an uplifting story from the Golden State: On Thursday, Governor Newsom signed SB 54, a comprehensive piece of legislation aimed at significantly reducing single-use waste. The law will affect just about every type of plastic packaging you see walking down the supermarket …
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CONTINUE READINGGuest Contributors Jasmine Robinson and Jessica Vived: Proposed Extreme Heat and Air Quality Protections for Agricultural Workers Advance in California Legislature
AB 2243 resulted from a partnership between law students in UCLA Law’s California Environmental Legislation and Policy Clinic, UCLA’s Food Law and Policy Clinic, and Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia
We are students in UCLA Law’s California Environmental Legislation and Policy Clinic, a course in which students work with legislative staff in the California State Legislature to advance environmental policy goals. In Fall 2021, working with staff for State Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, we developed recommendations for stronger heat and air quality protections for agricultural workers. California’s …
CONTINUE READINGNew Paper Addresses California Air District Authority to End NOx Pollution from Household Appliances
Most household appliances, like furnaces and water heaters, are powered by fossil fuels and emit nitrogen oxides (NOx)—toxic and highly reactive gases that endanger human health and the environment. To address this problem, air districts have adopted policies to reduce NOx pollution from appliances, and others across California are considering similar proposals. In a new …
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Justice, Truck Pollution, and the Biden EPA
How will EPA integrate EJ into its rule making? The answer remains murky.
EPA recently released a notice of proposed rulemaking for pollution from new heavy-duty vehicles. I was interested to see how environmental justice figured into the analysis, looking for clues about how the Biden Administration plans to make EJ part of decision making. What I found wasn’t very enlightening. Perhaps they’re still trying to come up …
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CONTINUE READINGRegistration Is Open for the 2022 California Water Law Symposium
California’s Most Important Annual Water Law Conference–Law Student Organized!–Set for April 9th
Registration is now open for California’s 2022 Water Law Symposium, scheduled for Saturday, April 9th. U.C. Davis School of Law has the honor of hosting this year’s Symposium, which is an extraordinary event in two respects: first, it is organized entirely by law students (rather than law firms, water organizations, law professors or commercial vendors). …
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CONTINUE READINGIt’s Not All CEQA’s Fault
Public process can actually be pretty important.
I first wrote a version of this post way back in July 2021, when Ezra Klein dropped a couple of lines knocking the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) into one of the op-eds The New York Times loves to perennially run about how California is actually the worst (I’m sorry it can’t be 80 degrees …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Legislators Call for More Stringent Requirements for Oil and Gas
Students in UCLA’s California Environmental Legislation and Policy Clinic partner with State Senator Sydney Kamlager to draft letter to CalGEM on proposed public health rule
This post is co-authored by Julia Stein and Beth Kent. Neighborhood oil and gas extraction poses serious public health and environmental risks to communities across California – and campaigns by local advocates and political leaders over the last decade have pressed state agencies and local governments, including the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles …
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CONTINUE READINGAir Quality as Environmental Justice
National air quality standards may be among the most powerful levers for environmental justice.
The environmental justice movement began with a focus on neighborhood struggles against toxic waste facilities and other local pollution sources. The EJ focus now includes other measures to ensure that vulnerable communities get the benefit of climate regulations. The most powerful tool for assisting those communities, however, may be the National Ambient Air Quality Standards …
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