Oceans
California Offshore Wind Auction Results in Five Provisional Winners
First Lease Auction Held in the Pacific
Katherine Hoff, CLEE Research Fellow, also contributed to this post. On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced the provisional winners of the first offshore wind energy lease auction in the Pacific. The five leases—three off of Morro Bay and two off of Humboldt—fetched more than $757 million …
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CONTINUE READINGHappy 50th Anniversary, Federal Clean Water Act
One of America’s Foundational Environmental Laws Has Proven Transformational, But Requires Updating a Half-Century Later
The Clean Water Act (CWA), one of the nation’s most important environmental laws, is 50 years old today. It’s proven to be one of the most successful of America’s bedrock federal environmental statutes. But the CWA is far from perfect, needs some important updating, and will probably never fully achieve the aspirational goals Congress proclaimed …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Adopts Nation-Leading Legislation to Cut Plastic Pollution
Extended producer responsibility law will reduce single-use waste and shift responsibility to industry
In a welcome reprieve from news coming out of the Supreme Court, here’s an uplifting story from the Golden State: On Thursday, Governor Newsom signed SB 54, a comprehensive piece of legislation aimed at significantly reducing single-use waste. The law will affect just about every type of plastic packaging you see walking down the supermarket …
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CONTINUE READINGDesalination: An Essential Part of California’s Water Future
Coastal Commission’s Recent Rejection of Huntington Beach Desalination Project Misguided
Let me begin this commentary with a disclaimer: I was an early and strong proponent of Proposition 20, the successful 1972 California voter initiative measure that enacted the Coastal Act and created the California Coastal Commission (albeit temporarily). I supported with equal enthusiasm the state Legislature’s 1976 enactment of legislation making both the Coastal Act …
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CONTINUE READINGEveryday Christmas: The Gift of the Commons
Clean air. Clean water. We receive these public goods every day without payment
One of the Christmas classics is the Jimmy Stewart movie, It’s a Wonderful Life. Stewart is despondent about his life but then learns how much he has unknowingly helped others and how grateful they are. There’s a flip side to that story: the need to remember how much others have contributed to our own lives. …
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CONTINUE READINGDownstream Emissions
A new court ruling could doom the Trump Administration’s ANWR plan.
A Ninth Circuit ruling yesterday overturned approval of offshore drilling in the Arctic. The ruling may directly impact the Trump Administration’s plans for oil leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). By requiring agencies to consider emissions when fossil fuels are ultimately burned, the Court of Appeal’s decision may also change the way that …
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CONTINUE READINGWhen Republicans Supported the Environment: Bush 41
The GOP wasn’t always the sworn enemy of environmental protection.
Younger people today probably know about George Herbert Walker Bush (R) as the father of George W. Bush and (perhaps) as the architect of the first Iraq War. But he also had some notable environmental achievements to his credit. Here are some of his accomplishments: Air Pollution Law. The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments were …
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CONTINUE READINGTime to Get Serious about Climate Change and Oceans
Science can unlock powerful tools to fight climate change and ocean acidification, but only if we fund research and govern it well.
In the Before Time, I spoke with a few ocean scientists on climate issues, and I heard a common refrain. Climate change receives little attention or funding, considering the magnitude of the problem; climate impacts on oceans get even less; and marine carbon removal gets almost none at all. Humans are short-lived terrestrial creatures. …
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CONTINUE READINGToday is World Oceans Day
Our oceans need and deserve more sustained attention
Today, June 8, 2020, marks World Oceans Day. The official UN site carries the theme “Innovation for a Sustainable Ocean.” The oceans give our blue planet its character. More than 70% of the earth’s surface lies under oceans. They hold 99% of the planet’s habitable space. Yet they have often been effectively invisible. Much less …
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CONTINUE READINGTrump says he will allow commercial fishing in national monument
An Antiquities Act edition of “can he do that”?
On June 5, President Trump issued a “Proclamation on Modifying The Northeast Canyons And Seamounts Marine National Monument.” This Proclamation follows a court defeat for opponents of the National Monument — the DC Circuit last year dismissed a claim by commercial fishing interests that the National Monument was unlawfully designated. Trump’s Proclamation purports to modify …
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