Environmental Justice
Saving the Planet, One Case at a Time
These 50 law school clinics are doing vital work on environmental issues across the country.
Law school clinics are where the proverbial rubber meets the road. They introduce students to the realities of lawyering. Often, they are a law school’s most important form of public service. Environmental law clinics have blossomed across the country. Today’s post provides a directory to the clinics. There are several sites that promise comprehensive lists …
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CONTINUE READINGInequality Today: Unfinished Work
The first step in addressing the problem is to be clear about the facts.
More than a half century after Martin Luther King’s death, his work is still unfinished. Sadly, despite his efforts and those of many others, inequality remains a reality along multiple, interrelated dimensions: race, income, and geography. Inequality is not merely economic; it involves differences in health and life expectancy — and in exposure to pollution …
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CONTINUE READINGCentering Public Health at the UN Climate Talks
Guest Contributor Meleana Chun-Moy reflects on COP28 and the growing recognition of the intersection between the climate crisis and human health.
The climate crisis is a public health crisis, and it finally seems global leaders have recognized that fact. With the backdrop of the first-ever Health Day at the annual UN climate conference, air quality in Dubai soared, as PM2.5 pollution reached 155 micrograms per cubic unit. The World Health Organization states the annual average concentrations …
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CONTINUE READINGA Big Year on Legal Planet
Here are the 12 most popular topics in environmental law and climate policy on Legal Planet based on our most-read posts from 2023.
It’s an understatement to say that 2023 was a transformative year for the U.S. climate movement. We saw rapid implementation of landmark federal climate laws, a series of big actions on methane emissions, a deal on Colorado River water usage, and bigger-than-expected climate victories in Sacramento. EPA’s control of toxic chemicals was tested, the U.S. …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Year in California Climate Laws
Looking back at California’s 2023 legislative session, our new environmental laws represent a solid step forward—bigger than expected.
If 2022 was a Rivian with all the bells and whistles, this past year was more a Ford Lightning. After a landmark 2022—a record $54 billion committed to climate spending and legislation that codified the state’s goals of carbon neutrality by 2045 and 90 percent clean electricity by 2035—a significantly gloomier budget forecast gave rise …
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CONTINUE READINGA $1 Billion Investment in the ‘New Forest Economy’
A global group of governors just issued a call-to-action for more flexible funding for forest protection. Here’s why that’s important.
On December 5, as the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change continues full swing in Dubai, Governors, Indigenous Peoples, and other partners of the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF Task Force), launched an urgent call-to-action to finance what they are calling the “New Forest …
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CONTINUE READINGAddressing Corruption In Electric Vehicle Battery Supply Chains
New CLEE/NRGI issue brief offers solutions
In the race to scale up a global supply chain for electric vehicle batteries, mining justice advocates have sought to ensure that the ongoing clean technology minerals boom does not exacerbate longstanding negative impacts from the global mining industry. Chief among these are corruption risks. To provide guidance to electric vehicle purchasers (particularly fleets), advocates, …
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CONTINUE READINGWhy There is (Still) a Carrot Boycott in Cuyama Valley
Bolthouse Farms and Grimmway Farms are technically no longer plaintiffs in the lawsuit they launched. But their water war wages on.
Don’t expect to see carrots on Thanksgiving menus in the Cuyama Valley, where residents and small farmers have been boycotting Bolthouse Farms and Grimmway Farms over their outsized water use. They’re still not welcome at the table. Back in September, I wrote about the carrot boycott and the hardball tactics by those big growers that …
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CONTINUE READINGHow to Get to Zero Emissions at the Ports
A new report by UCLA and UC Berkeley examines policy solutions to accelerate deployment of zero-emission cargo handling equipment at the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.
The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are well on their way toward electrification, but the road to zero emissions is a long one. This new report—A Heavy Lift: Policy Solutions to Accelerate Deployment of Zero-Emission Cargo Handling Equipment at the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles and Beyond—surveys the biggest obstacles to …
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CONTINUE READINGLivestock Operations Are Responsible for Over Half of California’s Methane Emissions—Why Won’t CARB Regulate Them?
CARB will have the authority to regulate methane from livestock operations beginning in January but has not initiated rulemaking
At a recent California Air Resources Board (CARB) meeting, a staff member responded to a question about why CARB’s program for reducing emissions from transportation fuels incentivized the capture of methane from landfills so much less than the capture of methane from dairies: “Landfills have a different CI [carbon intensity] score because they are …
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