Politics
Obama Administration Winning PR War on Oil Spill?
There’s no question that the gulf oil spill that began more than three months ago threatened to become Obama’s Katrina. Public opinion in June, for example, showed increasing discontent with the President’s handling of the disaster; the media criticized him for vacationing in Maine rather than on the Gulf Coast; and the constant stream of video showing …
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CONTINUE READINGHow About 30/15? Maybe 30/20?
A couple of weeks ago I referenced Mayor Villaraigosa’s 30/10 plan, which seeks to take the $30-40 billion of Proposition R money for LA county transit, bond it, and move MTA’s transit projects faster. This plan would turn 30 year schedule into a 10 year schedule. Thus, 30/10. Get it? I wondered what all the fuss was …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Change, Afghanistan, and the Model Penal Code
It’s hard to look at this week cover of Time and not want to remain in Afghanistan. That was probably the magazine’s intention. But let’s do a quick cost-benefit analysis here. I have argued elsewhere that we could save far more women from repression, violence, and brutality by taking all the money and effort we are …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornians still support action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to new report
California, for better or worse, is still a bellwether state on many public policy issues. Public opinion here matters, not just as a predictor of our state’s future political direction, but also nationally. And California’s residents’ opinions about environmental issues are particularly important, given our state’s leadership on environmental issues. Right now, there is a …
CONTINUE READINGJudge 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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