Federal Climate Policy
Being Thankful for Environmental Progress
Environmentalists do a lot worrying, seasoned by dashes of anger and despair. Here are some things to feel good about instead.
Environmentalists have a tendency to focus on the environmental harm we haven’t been able to prevent and the frustrations of making further progress. Once in a while, though, it’s good to look at the progress we’ve made. Take a few minutes this holiday weekend to be thankful for some of this year’s steps forward on …
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CONTINUE READINGHow Cities Can Optimize Federal and State Funding Opportunities for Local Climate Action
Part Three of CLEE’s analysis for funding and financing municipal climate action
As my colleagues Katie Segal and Ted Lamm have covered here and here, last week our team at CLEE released an analysis detailing how San Francisco can fund its ambitious Climate Action Plan. Katie provided an overview of the city’s Climate Action Plan (CAP), describing how San Francisco will need to secure tens of billions …
CONTINUE READINGAre carbon taxes a thing of the past?
What is the role for carbon pricing in the future of decarbonization policy?
That’s the question implicitly raised by this article in the New York Times from late August. The article surveys a range of criticisms of the use of carbon taxes as a tool to address greenhouse gas emissions, and criticisms of the focus of many economists on carbon taxes as the primary tool to address climate …
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CONTINUE READINGScenarios and Uncertainty
Imagining different futures can be the best way to think through options when we don’t know the odds.
In environmental law, we’re often operating at the limits of knowledge about the natural world and human behavior. Climate change is well understood in some ways, but it will set off a chain of reactions that we only partly understand. It’s also difficult to predict the future of ecosystems, future energy prices, technological changes, and …
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CONTINUE READINGCost-Benefit Analysis and Deep Uncertainty
How should agencies take into account “the things we know we don’t know”?
Since 1981, cost-benefit analysis (CBA) has been at the core of the rule making process. OIRA, the so-called “regulatory czar” in the White House, must approve every significant regulation based on a review of its CBA. But CBA has had a major blind spot. It embodies techniques for analyzing possible harmful outcomes when the probability …
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CONTINUE READINGTwo Months from Election Day
Who will get control of the Senate? And why does that matter for the environment?
We’re now two months from election day. This is a challenging electoral cycle for the Democrats, given inflation, the continuing effects of COVID, the economic impact of the war in Ukraine, and other woes. With turnout possibly boosted by the overruling of Roe v. Wade and other developments, Democrats do have a good chance of …
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CONTINUE READINGDoes the New Climate Law Expand Regulatory Authority?
It’s not the game changer some people think, but IRA could help in several ways.
There’s been a lot of recent talk about whether the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) indirectly overrides West Virginia v. EPA. The answer to that is probably “no.” However, some IRA provisions will help lawyers defend certain regulatory actions. IRA may also have an important framing effect when courts are considering the reasonableness of agency actions. …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Inflation Reduction Act and California Offshore Wind
There May Be Workarounds for Delays in Offshore Wind Created by IRA Section 50265
Various measures in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signed into law on August 16, 2022, create new momentum for offshore wind in California. However, as with all things in life, it’s never that simple. In this case, the IRA ties offshore wind (OSW) leases to offshore oil and gas auctions and prevents OSW leases from …
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CONTINUE READINGA Three-Prong Attack on Carbon Emissions
A trio of new laws will power the energy transition.
Passage of IRA was clearly a big deal, with nearly $380 billion devoted to climate and other environmental issues. But IRA is only one of the three big climate bills passed in the ten months. The three represent a concerted effort to accelerate the energy transition. The earliest was the Infrastructure Act last November. In …
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CONTINUE READINGIRA’s Impact
The new law is a Big Deal. Or more precisely, a REALLY Big Deal.
IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act, is clearly the biggest climate legislation ever passed in the United States. The law will provide $379 billion in subsidies to clean energy in the form of direct payments and tax credits. Subsidies aren’t the ideal way to cut emissions, because it’s impossible to target them to the precise behavioral …
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