Pollution & Health Archives

Pollution & Health

New This Thanksgiving: Toxic Turkey

Losing the farm to PFAS, or losing PFAS on the farm?

As Americans gather to celebrate the harvest’s bounty, there are few revelations about our food supply more distressing than the 2024 news that sewage-derived fertilizer has contaminated millions of acres of U.S. cropland with toxic PFAS chemicals. Marketed as “biosolids” that enhance soil productivity, the voluminous outputs from wastewater treatment plants have poisoned productive lands …

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This Big Oil Sponsorship Just Got Dirtier

The Dodgers do business with a company that’s been polluting LA neighborhoods — and the climate — for years. Now, Phillips 66 faces federal charges of illegal wastewater dumping.

The Los Angeles Dodgers’ most prominent sponsor — Phillips 66, which owns 76 gas — was just indicted for violating the Clean Water Act by allegedly dumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of industrial wastewater from its Carson oil refinery into the LA County sewer system. The details are spelled out in a six-count indictment …

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Six Sleeper Proposals in Project 2025

Project 2025 isn’t just its headline proposals. It’s a thorough, detailed attack on environmental protection.

Project 2025’s proposals involve reduced protection for endangered species, eliminating energy efficiency rules, blocking new transmission lines, changing electricity regulation to favor fossil fuels, weakening air pollution rules, and encouraging sale of gas guzzlers. There’s some pious talk about protecting the environment, but every proposal calls for weakening environmental protections.

We Need a Circular Economy for EV Batteries

California got close to making suppliers ensure EV batteries are managed responsibly at end of life. Here’s why 2025 should be the year California creates a circular economy for EV batteries.

California continues to make significant headway toward its target to eliminate in-state sales of new internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035. About one in five new cars sold in California are battery-powered. And it’s not just California: Battery-powered car sales are up globally, with projections showing 17 million will be sold worldwide in 2024. As …

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The Dirty Truth Behind a Feel-Good Energy Story

The San Francisco 49ers just became the first NFL team to buy sustainable aviation fuel. But that move is overshadowed by Big Oil sponsorships in sports.

Did you see the story about a new ‘NFL first’? The San Francisco 49ers announced that it was the first NFL franchise to buy sustainable aviation fuel or SAF —enough to fly from San Francisco to LA for their Sunday game against the LA Rams. The story generated headlines, the way any “first” tends to. …

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Oil and Gas Sponsorships in Major League Sports

A survey of sponsorships across six major league sports leagues in the U.S. reveals more than 60 deals with high-polluting companies.

If California Attorney General Rob Bonta attends a home game to cheer on his local NBA team—the Sacramento Kings—he may encounter sponsorship ads promoting not one but two of the oil companies he’s suing for allegedly deceiving the public about climate change. Then again, Attorney General Bonta, a former soccer player and self-described soccer dad, …

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“Salt Lakes in Crisis: Legal Responses to Ecological Catastrophes”

Upcoming U.C. Davis Law Review Symposium To Provide Interdisciplinary Focus On Threatened Western U.S. Lakes

On Friday, September 20th, the student-run U.C. Davis Law Review will host a most timely conference examining an environmental crisis facing many of the American West’s iconic “terminal lakes.” That term refers to lakes that have no natural outlet. For many years, protracted droughts and human diversions from freshwater rivers and streams feeding those lakes …

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Losing Chevron: What Does It Mean for California?

The Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright will not necessarily impact how California courts review our state agency determinations. But we’ll feel it in other ways.

A question I’ve been getting a lot since the Supreme Court overturned the Chevron doctrine is: “What does this decision mean for California?” Here are three takeaways about how the Golden State is likely—or not—to be impacted at first blush. First, the decision does have the potential to impact California directly in some pending litigation. …

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Major League Soccer’s LAFC Has a Big Oil Problem Too

The Dodgers are not the only LA sports team sullying their brand by taking oil money. Beloved soccer club LAFC recently renewed a partnership with Chevron.

BMO Stadium, the home of Los Angeles Football Club, is revered as one of the best places to watch soccer in the U.S., thanks to forward-thinking design and good vibes among their famously devout fans. BMO has even been called the future of stadium design. So, it’s all the more jarring that LAFC allows Big …

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Counting the Climate Costs of Warfare

There are calls for nations to disclose their military-related greenhouse gas emissions as researchers try to tally the climate impacts of war in Ukraine and Gaza.

What if I told you that nations around the world were ignoring a significant amount of their greenhouse gas emissions by omitting an entire dirty sector from their tally? Would you be horrified? Would you want to close that loophole so that parties to international agreements are required to report these hidden emissions as part …

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Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.

New This Thanksgiving: Toxic Turkey

Losing the farm to PFAS, or losing PFAS on the farm?

CPUC Should Set a Date for Closing Aliso Canyon

A proposed decision on the gas facility gives too much deference to SoCalGas regarding the future of gas demand and misses an opportunity to set a clear mandate.

NEPA and Loper Deference

The CEQ regulations will continue to receive deference. The question is how much.

A To-Do List For Biden

The clock is ticking, but there’s still time for a few important last things.

Trump-Proofing Time at the California Legislature?

Governor Newsom has called a special session for December 2nd. How can California lawmakers ensure California’s climate and environmental progress in the years ahead?

NEPA in the Supreme Court (Part III)

Our guide to understanding how causation applies for NEPA reviews.

This Big Oil Sponsorship Just Got Dirtier

The Dodgers do business with a company that’s been polluting LA neighborhoods — and the climate — for years. Now, Phillips 66 faces federal charges of illegal wastewater dumping.

Pollution & Health

Losing the farm to PFAS, or losing PFAS on the farm?

The Dodgers do business with a company that’s been polluting LA neighborhoods — and the climate — for years. Now, Phillips 66 faces federal charges of illegal wastewater dumping.

Project 2025 isn’t just its headline proposals. It’s a thorough, detailed attack on environmental protection.

California got close to making suppliers ensure EV batteries are managed responsibly at end of life. Here’s why 2025 should be the year California creates a circular economy for EV batteries.

The San Francisco 49ers just became the first NFL team to buy sustainable aviation fuel. But that move is overshadowed by Big Oil sponsorships in sports.

A survey of sponsorships across six major league sports leagues in the U.S. reveals more than 60 deals with high-polluting companies.

Upcoming U.C. Davis Law Review Symposium To Provide Interdisciplinary Focus On Threatened Western U.S. Lakes

The Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright will not necessarily impact how California courts review our state agency determinations. But we’ll feel it in other ways.

The Dodgers are not the only LA sports team sullying their brand by taking oil money. Beloved soccer club LAFC recently renewed a partnership with Chevron.

There are calls for nations to disclose their military-related greenhouse gas emissions as researchers try to tally the climate impacts of war in Ukraine and Gaza.

Join Our Mailing List

Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.

TRENDING

Some thoughts about how the Court should define some limits on indirect effects.

Lawmakers can use climate policies to alleviate some cost burdens. They should also resist the narrative that climate progress is driving affordability concerns.

Expect a lot of the same, but there could be some new twists.

The doctrine has been hailed by conservatives. But it may come back to bite them.

More than 500 Rights of Nature laws and policies have been passed globally. Here’s how to make sense of this nascent movement — or movements.

Guest contributor Justin Pidot outlines what losing CEQ’s NEPA authority means for interagency coordination and efficiency.

Contrary to myth, Congress has actually passed laws relating directly to climate change.

Representational sovereignty, Indigenous rights, and ecocide are all key to the climate obligations of states, write guest contributors Mollie Cueva-Dabkoski, Julia Phượng Nguyễn, and Molly-Mae Whitmey.

Losing the farm to PFAS, or losing PFAS on the farm?

The outcome of this year’s U.N. climate conference was depressing. But there was some notable news regarding global methane emissions commitments.

Losing the farm to PFAS, or losing PFAS on the farm?

A proposed decision on the gas facility gives too much deference to SoCalGas regarding the future of gas demand and misses an opportunity to set a clear mandate.

The CEQ regulations will continue to receive deference. The question is how much.

The clock is ticking, but there’s still time for a few important last things.

Governor Newsom has called a special session for December 2nd. How can California lawmakers ensure California’s climate and environmental progress in the years ahead?

Our guide to understanding how causation applies for NEPA reviews.

The Dodgers do business with a company that’s been polluting LA neighborhoods — and the climate — for years. Now, Phillips 66 faces federal charges of illegal wastewater dumping.

The election was largely a disaster. But we’ve also seen some positive developments.

Slower, less certain, and less equitable–with a new focus on local leadership

More than 500 Rights of Nature laws and policies have been passed globally. Here’s how to make sense of this nascent movement — or movements.