Land Use
Can California handle high-speed rail?
Count me in as a high speed rail enthusiast. Who wouldn’t want to sit in a train car, sipping an ice-cold ginger ale, while traveling at speeds of up to 220 mph through the Central Valley? As Rick described last month, the potential benefits to our quality- and way-of-life, by encouraging more pedestrian-focused neighborhoods and …
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CONTINUE READINGCul de Sacs are a Dead End
Cul de Sacs are a familiar feature of suburbia. They are also coming under increasing attack, according to TNR: So, for instance, one study of the city of Charlotte found that places where the streets weren’t very well connected (thanks, in part, to the heavy use of cul-de-sac) required a lot more fire stations to …
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CONTINUE READINGSingin’ the California Delta Blues (Muddy Waters Ahead?)
But there really is a California Delta, and it’s vitally important to the state’s water supply. It also raises major environmental issues. The struggle to manage the Delta has also given rise to one of the most ambitious experiments in collaborative governance anywhere — an experiment that had some successes but ultimately seemed to hit a brick wall.
CONTINUE READINGA new forest planning rule blog
Sharon Friedman, Director of Strategic Planning for the Rocky Mountain Region, USDA Forest Service, and Martin Nie, Professor of Natural Resource Policy, University of Montana, have launched a blog called A New Century of Forest Planning. It’s intended as a discussion forum for issues around the new forest planning rule, which the Forest Service recently …
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CONTINUE READINGCEQA thresholds of significance for greenhouse gas emissions: a strange but good process
Way back in the old days, before 2006 and AB 32 (California’s landmark law limiting greenhouse gas emissions statewide), the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) was the critical tool to limit greenhouse gas emissions from projects around the state. CEQA is the law that requires state and local agencies to assess the significant environmental impacts …
CONTINUE READINGOil Shale, Greenhouse Gas, and Federal Lands
Back in 2005, a Rand report assessed the merits of pursuing oil shale (a rock formation particularly prevalent in the U.S.) as an option for extracting liquid transportation fuel. The authors said: “Heating oil shale for retorting, whether above ground or in situ, requires significant energy inputs. Over at least the next few decades, this …
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CONTINUE READINGSchwarzenegger’s REAL Test on Climate
Like any Hollywood actor, and like any politician, Arnold Schwarzenegger likes to talk a good game. And on climate, he talks a lot. He loves to promote inconsequential gab-fests like the Governors Global Summit on Climate Change. But when the rubber hits the road, will he actually, you know, do anything about it? Whether a bill …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Legislature may decide L.A. football stadium can go forward, despite allegations of inadequate environmental review
Great minds may disagree about whether a new professional football stadium (or team, for that matter) would be good for Los Angeles. But a new last-minute bill that the California State Senate is considering today, which would eliminate further environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act for a newly-approved stadium complex in the City …
CONTINUE READINGOil Speculators, Land Use Planners, and Those Sticky Tar Sands
Three separate items in the news, this past week, underscore the fact that we still have much work to do before we can claim to have a viable plan for reducing fossil fuel use, and the related environmental damage. Energy Daily reports on a new paper from Rice University’s Baker Center for Public Policy showing …
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CONTINUE READING“Removing the Roadblocks” op-ed
Assemblyman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) and I had an op-ed published in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle that outlined steps to remove the barriers to more sustainable development. The op-ed is based on findings from the report that the environmental law programs at UCLA and UC Berkeley and the California Attorney General’s Office released last week, …
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