Environmental Justice
California’s Environmental Justice Policies Should Serve as A Model for the Biden-Harris Administration
AB 617’s Program to Reduce Hot Spot Pollution, Port Programs, Zero Emission Trucks Could Go National
No Presidential ticket has come into office more committed to environmental issues than President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Appropriately, climate change is at the top of their agenda. They are also committed to advancing environmental justice by addressing the disproportionate environmental harms many low income communities of color face. California is often …
CONTINUE READINGReinventing Cost-Benefit Analysis
If the goal is to give decision makers the tools to make better decision, a single-dimensional metric isn’t the way to go.
One key issue facing Biden on January 20 will be the role of the the White House regulatory czar. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) is a tiny White House agency that is virtually unknown to the public. Yet it exercises outsized influence. OIRA is charged with screening all proposed government regulations using a strict …
Continue reading “Reinventing Cost-Benefit Analysis”
CONTINUE READINGAdvancing Park Equity in Los Angeles
Investing in urban green space can improve public health and environmental conditions in Los Angeles’ underserved communities, while strengthening the environmental movement by inspiring people to become environmental stewards.
UCLA Law launched its first-ever Public Service Challenge this week, and the Emmett Institute is sponsoring two of the Challenge’s projects: a local garden cleanup with the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust and phone banking with the Environmental Voter Project. Both projects provide the UCLA Law Community with the opportunity to support organizations that are …
Continue reading “Advancing Park Equity in Los Angeles”
CONTINUE READINGRed Paint Would Curb Public Access to Palos Verdes Nature Preserve, One of Los Angeles County’s Most Significant Open Spaces
Rancho Palos Verdes City Council votes to restrict public street parking near Portuguese Bend Reserve
See a full set of photos illustrating parking restrictions at Portuguese Bend Reserve on the Emmett Institute Flickr page. At its Sept. 1 meeting, the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council responded to public concern about its new parking restrictions by voting unanimously to move away from a full parking prohibition and remove a limited …
CONTINUE READINGFighting for Clean Air in Imperial County, California
UCLA Emmett faculty team up with environmental justice group to file amicus brief in Clean Air Act case.
Air pollution has devastating health effects in many of California’s inland communities. That’s the case for rural Imperial County, where one in five children suffer from asthma, double the state rate, due to high levels of air pollution from highway traffic, farming and livestock operations, desert dust, and industry in Mexicali, a large city just …
Continue reading “Fighting for Clean Air in Imperial County, California”
CONTINUE READINGGuest Contributor Naomi Wheeler: States and Cities Should Prioritize Equity While Building Grid Resilience
Learning from Grid Resilience Threats and Opportunities in California and New York
Electrical grids across the country face a complex series of overlapping threats to grid resilience in 2020. Wildfires and hurricanes have become the new normal as climate change intensifies the magnitude of extreme weather events. These destructive events create widespread systemic shocks for electrical grids already facing several underlying vulnerabilities. In a recent research report, …
CONTINUE READINGBeat the Heat
As Angelenos swelter in historic heatwave, city and county governments seek to cool vulnerable residents
Wildfires sparked by dry lightning storms across California this week are an ominous cap to the state’s historic heat emergency, adding hazardous air quality and evacuation orders to the burdens of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis. Fire risk aside, the heat wave is now entering its most deadly phase. Nationwide, heat kills more Americans …
Continue reading “Beat the Heat”
CONTINUE READINGWhat Will Harris’s Nomination Mean for the Environment?
She’s been outspoken on climate and EJ issues, but her core interests may be elsewhere.
Kamala Harris has taken some strong positions on climate change and environmental justice. Her nomination signals the extent to which the Democratic party now embraces those issues. However, to the extent one can judge from her public record, her highest priority interests have been elsewhere during her time in the Senate. While campaigning for the …
Continue reading “What Will Harris’s Nomination Mean for the Environment?”
CONTINUE READINGEV Battery Supply Chain Sustainability & Mining
Register for forthcoming report launch webinar on Thursday, July 23rd, from 9-10am PT
The adoption of millions of electric vehicles needed to combat climate change will mark a major shift in mining activities across the world. To get the needed lithium, cobalt and other minerals for the batteries, countries and companies are turning to deep-sea mining, lithium deposits in Nevada and California’s Salton Sea, and further exploiting resources …
Continue reading “EV Battery Supply Chain Sustainability & Mining”
CONTINUE READINGJuly Fourth at Mt. Rushmore: What about the “unalienable rights” of the Lakota?
In the limbo game of the 45th presidency: no matter how far the bar descends, Trump clears it by going under. Just two weeks after political furor over a planned Juneteenth support rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma—site of the 1921 Race Massacre, in which white mobs killed up to 300 Black people in 48 hours, and …
Continue reading “July Fourth at Mt. Rushmore: What about the “unalienable rights” of the Lakota?”
CONTINUE READING