Politics
Judge orders changes in ballot language for Proposition 23, which would suspend California’s greenhouse gas emissions law
Today, a judge ruled that the state must change the “title and summary” ballot language for Proposition 23, the oil-company-funded proposition that would suspend California’s landmark greenhouse gas emissions law AB 32. (My colleague Ann Carlson wrote about this initiative campaign earlier this summer.) Proposition 23 would render the law unenforceable until California’s unemployment rate …
CONTINUE READINGA “thank you” to legislators who exempted the proposed L.A. football stadium from California’s environmental review law?
Last fall, I wrote about the California Legislature’s effort to exempt the proposed football stadium in the City of Industry from further environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). I didn’t follow up on that post, but the Legislature ultimately approved the exemption in a special session in the fall. Now, Los Angeles Times …
CONTINUE READINGPACE Advocates Keep Piling On FHFA
The hits keep coming. As I’ve been chronicling, the Federal Housing Finance Administration’s decision to effectively destroy the energy efficiency and renewable energy financing program called Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) is inviting serious legal and political blowback. First, California Attorney General Jerry Brown sues the feds, and now Sonoma County, the Sierra Club, and …
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CONTINUE READINGEnergy storage is key to the success of renewables in California
UPDATE: The bill summary linked below from the California Energy Storage Alliance actually summarizes a former version of the bill. The current bill version, linked below and here, is the best source now. The current version imposes no percentage mandate on utilities. Thanks to Ethan Elkind for pointing that out. UCLA Law and Berkeley Law recently …
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CONTINUE READINGSenate Fails to Act So What’s New in the World of Geoengineering?
With the depressing news that the Senate will not go forward on a climate bill, I thought it worth revisiting a question I posed a year and a half ago: is geoengineering inevitable? If we assume that U.S. leadership is crucial to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent over the next forty years, and …
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CONTINUE READINGAdios, Federal Climate Change Legislation
We hardly knew ye (in the Senate, anyway). Reports indicate that Senate Democrats will be scaling back their energy legislation to a bill that addresses oil well leaks and energy efficiency, but nothing on carbon emission more generally. In many ways, the failure of comprehensive energy reform can be traced to two things: 1) health …
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CONTINUE READINGTen Lessons from the Financial Reform Bill
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a bill to get cloture in the Senate. Nevertheless, when something is important enough, the Senate can overcome its paralysis and pass legislation. BUT the legislation will be greatly weakened in the process. Bismarck didn’t go far enough when …
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CONTINUE READINGGOP Will Filibuster the PACE Bill, Unless…
A prediction: the Republicans will filibuster Mike Thompson’s bill concerning PACE once it gets to the Senate. At this point, the Republicans (led by Senator Mitch McConnell, pictured right) are simply uninterested in principles or policy. That’s particular true in the shadow of the upcoming midterms: stopping the bill will simply be another way to …
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CONTINUE READINGIndia Puts US Climate Policy to Shame
While US policymakers — particularly Republicans and those in coal states — are busy complaining about developing countries not capping their carbon emissions, New Delhi is busy actually doing something about climate change. Two weeks ago, India instituted a tax on coal, instituting a form of carbon tax that talented advocates (such as the good …
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CONTINUE READINGTravel Is Broadening–2010 Edition
Having just returned from a trip to Northern Europe, a couple of experiences resonate with me that, I hope, are worthy of sharing here. The first relates to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, British Petroleum, and the distinct ways in which BP’s role and responsibility for the spill are viewed, depending on one’s geographical roots. …
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