Environmental Justice
Delivering Workforce Benefits in an Emerging Industry
Observations on the workforce development provisions in the California Energy Commission (CEC) draft Offshore Wind Strategic Plan
California’s offshore wind (OSW) industry is transitioning from planning to implementation in a statewide effort to deliver 2-5 GW clean energy by 2030. In support of this goal, the California Energy Commission (CEC) released a draft of its Assembly Bill 525 Offshore Wind Strategic Plan (the Plan). In a nascent industry with complex community interests …
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CONTINUE READINGA New Strategic Plan for California Offshore Wind
The California Energy Commission has published a draft including strategies for impacted communities, but CBAs deserve more emphasis.
For those following offshore wind development in California, January 19, 2024, marked an important moment—the release of the long-awaited Draft Assembly Bill 525 Offshore Wind Strategic Plan from the California Energy Commission (CEC). Some important foundations for offshore wind, a new but growing industry in California, had already been laid. Assembly Bill 525 (AB 525, …
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CONTINUE READINGEmmett Institute Symposium: Powering the Future
This is a critical moment in the energy transition for plotting the course of mineral extraction, with communities and the environment in mind.
If you ever find yourself passing through southwest Montana, go visit the Berkeley Pit and contemplate resource extraction. You pay a couple bucks to a guy in a trailer; walk under some razor wire and through a long, disorienting white tunnel; then stand and stare out at the most beautiful turquoise sea of toxic …
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CONTINUE READING7 Reasons California Should Get Tougher on Methane from Dairies
California lawmakers should rethink the role of dairy digesters in the state’s dairy and livestock mitigation strategy.
Even though California aims to decrease the emissions of methane, dairy operations are rewarded for creating, and capturing, more and more of the planet-warming super pollutant in the form of manure-derived biogas. Today, California lawmakers declined to correct that perverse incentive, but they still have opportunities to rethink the state’s embrace of digesters as its …
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CONTINUE READINGHow Can Cities Ensure EV Charging Accessibility for Lower-Income Drivers?
Watsonville, California as a Case Study for Policymakers
California’s ambitious goal to end the sale of internal combustion engine passenger vehicles by 2035 will require addressing the challenges faced by lower- and moderate-income drivers in accessing battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs). Chief among these concerns is their need to have a convenient and affordable place to charge the vehicles. Currently these residents too often …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Justice, Climate Finance and Pragmatism for Tropical Jurisdictions at COP28
Exploring the urgency of subnational climate action: insights from COP28 on financing tropical forest conservation, indigenous empowerment, and sustainable livelihoods by the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force network.
The Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF Task Force) engaged in the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Dubai, marking a pivotal moment in the global climate dialogue. This significant international forum serves as a crucial platform where nations, subnational entities, and …
CONTINUE READINGDr. King, Community, and Climate
Climate policy turns on an issue highlighted by Dr. King: Whose suffering counts?
“A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.” Those words are from a 1967 speech delivered at Riverside Church by Dr. …
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CONTINUE READINGSaving 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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