Regulation

Is Cap and Trade Unfair?

I should probably start by putting my cards on the table.  I’m not really an advocate of cap and   trade as compared with other forms of regulation.  What I care about is getting effective carbon restrictions in place, whether they take the form of cap and trade, a carbon tax, industry-wide regulations, or something …

CONTINUE READING

A Judicial Win for PACE Clean Energy Financing

Finally, some good news from the courts for advocates of PACE financing for energy efficiency and renewables.  Federal Judge Claudia Wilken in the Northern District of California issued a ruling late Friday on the Federal Housing Finance Authority’s (FHFA) motion to dismiss a challenge from the Sierra Club, Placer and Sonoma Counties, Palm Desert, and …

CONTINUE READING

Libertarians for Environmental Red Tape!

  Libertarians have long castigated environmental review statutes, such as NEPA and CEQA, for trampling private property rights, the theory being that they make developing property so difficult and expensive that they are tantamount to disrupting those right. That’s why it was so odd to see the Pacific Legal Foundation advocating for more prolix environmental …

CONTINUE READING

UCLA Emmett Center Assessment of California’s Cap and Trade Regulations

In the wake of the financial market meltdown and liquidity crisis of 2008,  some opponents of a cap and trade program to regulate greenhouse gas emissions have argued that such a system could lead to the kind of market manipulation that led to the 2008 crash.  The UCLA School of Law Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment today released …

CONTINUE READING

“Please Don’t Murder Me”

Musical accompaniment to Justin’s post below.  “I cut my deck to the Queen of Spades, but the cards were all the same”: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhqyg_dTaTg]   More information here.

CONTINUE READING

More on California Environmental Leader & Coastal Advocate Peter Douglas

Legal Planet colleague Jonathan Zasloff has previously written about the recently-announced retirement of long-time California Coastal Commission Executive Director Peter Douglas.  I’d like to add a few additional comments about Peter, my long-time mentor, client and friend. Peter Douglas has devoted the past four decades of his incredibly rich and active life to the cause of …

CONTINUE READING

The Tea Party Embraces Local Energy Efficiency Financing?

It looks like we’ve finally found an environmental issue that can attract strong bipartisan support. The PACE program allows municipal bond financing to pay for energy efficiency retrofits and solar panels, among other environmentally benign building improvements, to be repaid through property tax assessments. But the Federal Housing Finance Administration (FHFA) essentially squashed the residential …

CONTINUE READING

The War Against the Environment

Using the pretext of saving jobs, the GOP has embarked on the biggest campaign against the environment in modern history.

CONTINUE READING

Some Thoughts About Environmental Disasters

In an environmental disaster, a disaster causes environmental harm, environmental change causes an acute risk to humans, or both take place.  Examples include the BP Oil Spill, the London killer for of 1952, the 2003 European heat wave, and the 2011 Japanese tsunami. Climate change will intensify the connection between disaster issues and the environment. …

CONTINUE READING

EPA to Continue Emissions Trading in Place of Clean Air Interstate Rule

With the success of the 1990 cap and trade program for sulfur dioxide (the major cause of acid rain), cap and trade  has become one of the dominant regulatory means to control air pollution in the U.S.  And, of course, cap and trade remains one of the central mechanisms to control greenhouse gases in those …

CONTINUE READING

TRENDING