Regulation Archives - Legal Planet

Regulation

Worthwhile Canadian Initiative! Really!

McGill University’s Sustainability Academic Network provides a useful — and potentially crucial — new platform.

About a week ago I got an email from McGill University’s Juan Serpa, asking me to join a new platform — the Sustainability Academic Network (SUSAN) — that contains literally thousands of datasets, academic papers, conferences, jobs, grants, local events, and institutes all devoted to sustainability. Great. Happy to do it (especially since they found …

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Modernizing Air Permitting in California

Guest Contributor Craig Segall writes that SB 318 would help clean up factories and other big industrial sources by pulling permitting practices into this century.

Almost every major industrial and power facility in California needs an air permit when it’s built or renovated. That’s a huge opportunity to rapidly advance the zero and near-zero technologies that Congress invested in in the Inflation Reduction Act, and that we urgently need to meet ever-more-pressing air quality challenges, especially as attacks from the …

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The Chutzpah is Stunning

The Trump Administration is suing to block state climate lawsuits based on Clean Air Act Preemption.

If nothing else, you have to give credit to the Trump Administration for incredible gall. Yesterday, the Department of Justice filed suit against Michigan and Hawaii seeking to stop those states from filing lawsuits against fossil fuel companies for climate damages. The fact that DOJ is seeking to prevent even the filing of the lawsuits …

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Getting Creative on Vehicle Emissions

UCLA Law set to host a symposium on April 9 on ways to charge ahead on cutting emissions.

These are tough times for lovers of zero emission vehicles–and clean air. I probably don’t need to recite the threats to both, but here’s a sampling: the Trump Administration has pledged to roll back federal air quality standards and mobile source emissions standards; is gutting funding for EV charging networks (and is even, maddeningly, shutting …

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Just How Endangered is Clean Energy?

The Trump administration wants to slow the U.S. clean energy transition. Will it put energy investments in a deep freeze or a temporary chill?

Business investment decisions rely on stability. And stability is in short supply so far in this Trump administration. Instead, we’ve seen an erratic blitzkrieg of activity on tariffs, federal funding, and deregulation that has spooked all sorts of industries. That’s partly why Heatmap News has declared Trump “Degrowth Donald,” and why my Legal Planet colleague …

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Transmission Tangle, Transmission Tango

A new report maps out recent federal actions to improve planning for future electric transmission

On the macro level, just about everyone is a big fan of a rapid, aggressive build-out of new long-distance electric transmission lines – to help meet the anticipated rapid growth in demand for electricity due to the electrification of transportation and energy use in buildings, and the growth of AI. In addition, new big bulk …

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Regulatory Rollbacks: What to Expect

A replay of 2017? Or maybe something more radical? You can probably guess the answer.

Repealing and replacing existing environmental regulations will have a lower priority in this iteration of the Trump presidency – it will often be easier to just ignore the existing regulations or eliminate the regulators rather than the regulations. When it does rollback regulations, the administration will probably take more extreme legal positions and will be more likely to make constitutional arguments against environmental regulation.

Dissecting the Attacks on the Endangerment Finding

EPA has identified four different arguments against the endangerment finding. None have merit.

In late 2009, EPA made a formal finding — often called the Endangerment Finding —that greenhouse gases may endanger human health and welfare. Undaunted by the overwhelming scientific evidence in favor of that finding, the Trump EPA plans to reconsider that finding. Few independent observers believe EPA will succeed, but the issue is important enough to warrant a close look. Here’s a deep dive.

Legal Safeguards Against Deregulation

Congress was aware that there could be a backlash against environmental standards. It took precautions.

If it could, no doubt the current Administration would be happy to have the same polluted air and water–and energy-wasting appliances)– that we had fifty years ago. Thanks to the anti-backsliding aspects of environmental law, however, they can’t really achieve that. The best they can generally do is to get rid of recent regulations that haven’t gone into effect yet.

Make America’s Environment Filthy Again

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has launched a full-scale attack on climate, air and water pollution.

In what is one of the most mind-boggling press releases ever to come out of the Environmental Protection Agency, Administrator Lee Zeldin today declared that he wants to make America’s air and water dirty again and to make the planet still warmer. He announced 31 actions that will obliterate protections for cleaner air, cleaner water, …

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

The Politics of Geoengineering Are Getting Stranger

Of all the pollution threats out there, why are state lawmakers and U.S. EPA targeting solar geoengineering?

Does Deregulation Hypercharge the Economy?

If the economics effects are that huge, you’d expect the unemployment rate reflect major regulatory or deregulatory moves. It doesn’t.

The $133 Million Bat Tunnel

Here’s what permitting reform in the United Kingdom can teach the United States about building and abundance.

Worthwhile Canadian Initiative! Really!

McGill University’s Sustainability Academic Network provides a useful — and potentially crucial — new platform.

DOJ vs. C&T

What Trump’s new lawsuits against two states may mean for California’s cap-and-trade program.

Defunding the Energy Transition

The President Proposes Deep Cuts to Climate and Clean Energy Spending for FY 2026

California Lawmakers Vote on Energy Affordability Soon

Senate Bill 254 is the most ambitious energy affordability legislation proposed in recent years.

Permitting Reform as Policy Stability

Compromise Congressional legislation could dampen the swings of Presidential regulatory policy

Fix Our Forests, version 2

A revised bipartisan proposal in the Senate is a step forward in the right direction

If Dodgers Don’t Quit Big Oil, the Olympics May Make Them

The Olympic Committee’s ban on most advertising could finally force the Dodgers to drop the 76 sponsorship from Dodger Stadium, which is now an LA 2028 venue.

Regulation

McGill University’s Sustainability Academic Network provides a useful — and potentially crucial — new platform.

Guest Contributor Craig Segall writes that SB 318 would help clean up factories and other big industrial sources by pulling permitting practices into this century.

The Trump Administration is suing to block state climate lawsuits based on Clean Air Act Preemption.

UCLA Law set to host a symposium on April 9 on ways to charge ahead on cutting emissions.

The Trump administration wants to slow the U.S. clean energy transition. Will it put energy investments in a deep freeze or a temporary chill?

A new report maps out recent federal actions to improve planning for future electric transmission

A replay of 2017? Or maybe something more radical? You can probably guess the answer.

EPA has identified four different arguments against the endangerment finding. None have merit.

Congress was aware that there could be a backlash against environmental standards. It took precautions.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has launched a full-scale attack on climate, air and water pollution.

Join Our Mailing List

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

TRENDING

The Administration is devoted to destroying urban life: that puts it with many of history’s worst regimes

The Drain is a weekly roundup of climate and environmental news from Legal Planet.

Congress wanted greater energy efficiency over time and banned rollbacks.

Here’s what permitting reform in the United Kingdom can teach the United States about building and abundance.

You can’t accuse EPA of hiding the ball. It has announced its new mission: promoting fossil fuels.

McGill University’s Sustainability Academic Network provides a useful — and potentially crucial — new platform.

What Trump’s new lawsuits against two states may mean for California’s cap-and-trade program.

Students with UCLA’s Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic are giving testimony before the California Coastal Commission on a critical issue.

A new emissions trading system is a major step for Brazilian climate policy.

Proposal from House Natural Resources Committee would effectively repeal NEPA

Of all the pollution threats out there, why are state lawmakers and U.S. EPA targeting solar geoengineering?

If the economics effects are that huge, you’d expect the unemployment rate reflect major regulatory or deregulatory moves. It doesn’t.

Here’s what permitting reform in the United Kingdom can teach the United States about building and abundance.

McGill University’s Sustainability Academic Network provides a useful — and potentially crucial — new platform.

What Trump’s new lawsuits against two states may mean for California’s cap-and-trade program.

The President Proposes Deep Cuts to Climate and Clean Energy Spending for FY 2026

Senate Bill 254 is the most ambitious energy affordability legislation proposed in recent years.

Compromise Congressional legislation could dampen the swings of Presidential regulatory policy

A revised bipartisan proposal in the Senate is a step forward in the right direction

The Olympic Committee’s ban on most advertising could finally force the Dodgers to drop the 76 sponsorship from Dodger Stadium, which is now an LA 2028 venue.