Litigation

NEPA in the Supreme Court (Part I)

A pending case could mean radical retrenchment of a foundational environmental law.

In what could turn out to be another loss for environmental protection in the Supreme Court, the Court is about to decide a major case about the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). The case, Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, has important implications for issues such as whether NEPA covers climate change impacts.

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President-Elect Trump vs. California: What Lies Ahead?

Credit: Freepik

Will It Be Environmental Law & Policy Deja Vu All Over Again? Or Even Worse?

Californians who care about the environment likely–and justifiably–feel whipsawed this week.  Former President Trump (#45) has re-emerged as President-elect Trump (#47), interrupted by the intervening four years of the Biden-Harris presidential administration.  (Actually, this presidential whipsaw has been going on for decades: think Bush Sr.-Clinton-Bush Jr.-Obama-Trump-Biden-Trump redux.) In general, California’s progressive environmental laws and policies …

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The Morning After

Given Trump’s victory, what can be done to save the planet?

wice before in this century, enemies of environmental protection have taken the helm.  After taking office, Bush embraced fossil fuels, opposed climate action, and weakened environmental regulations. Trump’s first term made Bush seem like a tree hugger, and his second term may be even worse.  The strategies we’ve used in the past are still applicable, though circumstances have changed. 

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The Yankees Already Beat the Dodgers at One Thing

A collage of photos in Dodger Stadium with the 76 logo prominently displayed

The Yankees recently dropped Hess Oil from their outfield scoreboard. But in LA, the Dodgers’ Big Oil sponsorship with 76 gas is on full display in the 2024 World Series.

The Dodgers and the Yankees in the World Series. That’s the zenith of baseball rivalries and I’m rooting for the home team.  Which is why I hate to say it, but the Yankees have already beaten the boys in blue at one thing: their climate commitment. As of this season, the Yankees dropped their most …

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Grid Experts Weigh in on EPA’s Power Plant Emissions Rule

An electric tower with solar panel in view.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied an emergency stay in West Virginia v. EPA, a challenge to EPA’s rule. Our UCLA Law clinic submitted a brief on behalf of grid experts in the case at the D.C. Circuit.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized emissions standards for greenhouse gases from power plants under Clean Air Act, Section 111(d). The rule sets pollution limits for existing coal plants and some new gas plants based on carbon capture and sequestration. In West Virginia v. EPA, a spate of states and industry parties …

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Why You Should Read CA’s ExxonMobil Plastic Lawsuit

Plastic pollution choking an LA County waterway

California’s lawsuit against ExxonMobil for lying about plastic recycling is the latest example of the state using old-fashioned legal tools to address more modern harms.

The media have moved on (understandably) from California’s recent lawsuit against Exxon over plastic recycling to other environmental stories like Hurricane Helene’s catastrophic damage and Hurricane Milton’s terrifying, rapid intensification. But anyone interested in the problem of plastic pollution—which should, frankly, be everyone—will appreciate digging deeper than the Day One headlines to read California’s 147-page …

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A New Energy Project at UCLA Law

The Emmett Clean Energy Law & Leadership project will build a bridge between the existing expertise of UCLA’s energy law scholars and policymakers.

You don’t have to look beyond the front pages of newspapers, or beyond rooftops in your neighborhood to know that we are in the midst of a clean energy revolution, with renewable energy technologies dramatically decreasing in price and increasing in availability. These technologies promise to reduce energy cost burdens for households, as well as …

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The Case that Wouldn’t Die

The Juliana plaintiffs make a final effort to resurrect their case.

The district judge contemplates a wide-ranging trial about broad climate and energy policies, after which she would opine on their legality. The Supreme Court will likely think that putting an  immense swathe of government policy on trial also violates the separation of powers — especially in a case where they are  deeply skeptical of the underlying constitutional claim.

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Environmental Lawyering Today

If you’d like to defend the environment as a lawyer, you should take a broad view of what that means.

To law students: The Earth not only needs a good lawyer, it needs many kinds of good lawyers doing many kinds of work.  Whatever area of law interests you most, there’s no reason why you can’t be one of them.

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Clean Air and the Turbocharged Shadow Docket

Guest Contributors Sean Donahue & Megan Herzog write that coal advocates offer troubling new grounds for the Supreme Court to stay EPA’s carbon pollution standards.

The Supreme Court is currently considering eight emergency (or “shadow docket”) requests from coal advocates (coal-mining companies, coal-burning electricity generators, and allied State attorneys general led by West Virginia) to bar implementation of new EPA rules limiting carbon pollution from coal- and gas-burning power plants while legal challenges to the rules proceed—what is known as …

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