Regulatory Policy
Former Massey Energy CEO Sentenced to Prison for Actions Leading to 2010 Coal Mine Disaster
What Broader Environmental and Worker Safety Enforcement Lessons Can Be Learned Here?
A federal district judge on Wednesday sentenced Don Blankenship, the former Chief Executive of Massey Energy, to serve one year in federal prison–the maximum term allowed by law–and to personally pay a criminal penalty of $250,000 for Blankenship’s acts of omission and commission that led to the notorious 2010 coal mining disaster at Massey’s Upper …
CONTINUE READINGUCLA Files Amicus Brief on Behalf of Electric Grid Experts in “Clean Power Plan” Case
Supporting EPA’s regulation of power-sector carbon emissions
Today, several of us at UCLA Law School’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment—me, Cara Horowitz, Sarah Duffy, & Ann Carlson—together with Professor William Boyd of University of Colorado Law School, filed an amici curiae brief on behalf of five electric grid experts in support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “Clean Power Plan” …
CONTINUE READINGSolving The Energy Efficiency Puzzle
New report recommends ways that California can encourage more private financing of energy efficiency retrofits
Much of our efforts to reduce carbon emissions involves fairly complicated and advanced technologies. Whether it’s solar panels, batteries, flywheels, or fuel cells, these technologies have typically required public support to bring them to scale at a reasonable price, along with significant regulatory or legal reforms to accommodate these new ways of doing old things, …
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CONTINUE READINGMitigating the Climate Impacts of Aliso Canyon
Staff from California Air Resources Board released the Draft Aliso Canyon Methane Leak Climate Impacts Mitigation Program last week. While the program has yet to gain approval by the Board, the final version will probably not change much. Overall, the Draft Program signals ARB’s desire to take full advantage of the political will and financial …
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CONTINUE READINGLabor Mobility and Environmental Regulation
Net job loss is small, but the effects of regulation might leave some workers stranded.
Regulators should give some thought to issues of labor mobility, which may be smaller than economists have assumed. Recent studies show that people who lost manufacturing jobs due to competition from China often failed to get new jobs in other places or sectors of the economy. Regulation can also cause some individual to lose their …
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CONTINUE READINGGuest Blogger David Spence: Why Some Electricity Markets Will Struggle With Decarbonization
David Spence is Professor of Law, Politics & Regulation at the University of Texas at Austin
Recently the New York Times published an article chronicling the financial problems experienced by one of the world’s premier developers of concentrated solar power (CSP) facilities. The financial headwinds facing CSP are a sign of a more fundamental problem electricity markets face: namely, capturing all of the important values we attach to electricity production. Most …
CONTINUE READINGCreating An Exit Strategy for Our Use of Natural Gas
To meet long-term greenhouse gas reduction goals, all fossil fuels have to go, even natural gas.
Coal is the climate’s Public Enemy #1. The use of natural gas has helped to ensure that the coal problem has not become even worse. Without natural gas, we would use more coal for space heating and for many more industrial processes than is currently the practice. Without natural gas, our reliance on coal for …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Supreme Court Vacancy and EPA’s Mercury Rule
The rule limiting toxic pollution from coal plants now has a rosier future.
Among the many ramifications of the current vacancy on the bench, its effect on the EPA’s mercury rule seems to have escaped much attention. It may already have helped EPA defeat an effort by states to get a stay from Chief Justice Roberts. But it has much broader significance. Some background: The Supreme Court, in a …
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CONTINUE READINGSan Jose’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance Dodges Supreme Court Bullet
Justices Deny Review of California Supreme Court Decision Upholding San Jose Measure
Advocates of the City of San Jose’s controversial inclusionary housing ordinance, which was upheld in a 2015 California Supreme Court decision, are breathing a sigh of relief this week. That’s because the U.S. Supreme Court has denied the California Building Industry Association’s petition for certiorari in the case. But the available evidence suggests that the High Court …
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CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Enforcement in the Age of Trump
Is it time for a retributive turn in environmental law?
Many thought that the BP Oil Spill would lead to new environmental legislation, as happened after past environmental disasters. That didn’t happen. But something else did happen: BP paid $24 billion in civil and criminal penalties. In an era where any effort at government regulation is immediately denounced as a dire threat to liberty, …
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