Politics
California Enacts Nation’s First Comprehensive Fracking Law—And Everyone’s Unhappy
Controversial But Promising, SB 4 Constitutes Tangible Progress on the Fracking Front
Late last month the California Legislature passed, and Governor Jerry Brown signed into law, the nation’s first comprehensive system of regulating hydraulic fracturing, the oil and gas drilling technique more commonly known as “fracking.” It turns out that no one–the oil and gas industry, surface landowners or environmentalists–is particularly happy with the new law. And …
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Review of Free Trade Agreements
Why aren’t we talking about climate change?
Last week, the period for public comment on an interim environmental review of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement closed, marking perhaps the last significant opportunity for public input on the environmental impacts of the proposed agreement. The review was conducted to identify potential environmental effects of the TPP, as required by an Executive Order …
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CONTINUE READINGNew Chemical Regulations Go Live in California
Making Prevention Real?
Today, after years of discussions and drafts, California’s new Safer Consumer Product regulations take effect. They create a comprehensive chemicals regulatory scheme having three steps: identification and prioritization of consumer products containing chemicals of greatest concern (“product-chemical combinations”); performance of “alternative analyses” by the manufacturers of those high priority product-chemical combinations; and selection of regulatory responses …
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CONTINUE READINGA New Climate Threat: “Academic Freedom” Laws
The other day I suggested that climate advocates ought to start working in school board elections as a way of building long term political support for vigorous climate action. Well, it looks like they will need to start playing defense as well. October’s Scientific American reports that climate deniers are now pushing the Orwellian “academic …
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CONTINUE READINGBreaking News: Ninth Circuit Upholds California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard
Does California’s life cycle analysis of the carbon intensity of transportation fuel facially discriminates against out-of-state ethanol?
In a sweeping victory for the California Air Resources Board, the Ninth Circuit today issued an opinion in Rocky Mountain Farmers Union v. Corey upholding the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) and reversing a lower court ruling that the LCFS facially discriminated against interstate commerce in violation of the U.S. Constitution. The court also vacated the …
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CONTINUE READINGShould Climate Advocates Fight School Board Elections?
Climate advocates might take a lesson from one of the most significant political movements of the last four decades: evangelical Christians.
Why have climate advocates failed in creating political support for significant climate policy? Amy Luers thinks she knows. In her recent piece, Rethinking US Climate Advocacy, her abstract states: It is time to reassess climate advocacy. To develop a strategy for philanthropy to strengthen climate engagement, I interviewed over 40 climate advocates, more than a dozen representatives …
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CONTINUE READINGLies, Damned Lies, and Climate Denial
One key question is whether these statements amounted to factual accusations that Mann had engaged in scientific misconduct.
A D.C. trial judge recently refused to dismiss climate scientist Michael Mann’s libel lawsuits against the National Review and the Competitiveness Institute. There are some serious constitutional barriers against such libel suits, which are designed to provide ample breathing room for free speech. Is this one of the rare cases that can jump the hurdles?
CONTINUE READINGCEQA Reform 2013: Long-Overdue Changes for Infill and the Environment
It looks like State Senate pro Tem Darrell Steinberg might finally be putting the “E” back in “CEQA,” at least when it comes to how California’s premiere environmental law treats traffic impacts. His bill SB 731 to reform the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), previously discussed by Eric, is taking aim at the law’s perverse …
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CONTINUE READINGA Farewell to August: Tax Private Jets!
For Dan, Labor Day means thinking about Labor. For me, it means thinking about the horrific traffic that Cape Cod summer residents face on their way back to wherever. Or rather, it means thinking about the ridiculous mode of transportation the some friends of mine used to avoid that traffic. My friends work for a …
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CONTINUE READINGFeds Argue California’s Shark Fin Ban Is Preempted in Third-Party Litigation
In 2011, the State of California enacted a ban on the sale, possession and trade of shark fins. California’s ban follows similar laws passed by Hawaii, Washington and Oregon over the past few years. The legislation, codified as California Fish & Game Code sections 2021 and 2021.5, followed years of advocacy by marine conservation groups, …
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