The Imperious Presidency - Legal Planet
Trump's executive orders exude disdain for expertise, antagonism toward his opponents, and a relish for power.| Legal Planet
It sounds cliché, but when you face a crisis, it helps to remember times that you’ve overcome adversity. That’s the power of history. And it’s one of the reasons I think the new PBS documentary “Clearing the Air: The War on Smog” is crucial to share right now. In the 1940s, dark, smoky clouds crept … Continue reading "How to Dissent? Learn American History"| Legal Planet
The world of zero-emission trucks is at a pivotal moment. On one hand, the technology is rapidly advancing, and manufacturers are producing a growing number of zero-emission truck models in Europe, China, and here in California. Yet on the other hand, this clean transition is facing significant political and legal challenges from the U.S. federal … Continue reading "Why are California’s Zero-Emission Truck Standards Under Attack?"| Legal Planet
In May, Congress effectively killed the most recent efforts by California to clean up its vehicle fleet. Although many people seem to have assumed the contrary, this may not be the end of the road for California regulators. A new court of appeals decision is an encouraging signal that California may be able try again when the political forces in DC are less militantly anti-environmental.| Legal Planet
While there is a lot of focus on left-wing NIMBYs in public discourse, there’s also a lot of right-wing NIMBY mobilization too. For instance, the conservative California city of Huntington Beach is leading the resistance to state efforts to require upzoning to facilitate housing. Conservative rural communities are often the locus of opposition to both … Continue reading "Right-wing populist environmentalism?"| Legal Planet
In a prior blog post, I criticized a recent NEPA study from the Breakthrough Institute for some key methodological limitations. Two more studies of NEPA have since come out from Resources for the Future that I want to highlight because I think they have stronger methodological foundations. There are still important limits on what these … Continue reading "Two more recent NEPA studies"| Legal Planet
California’s decades-long role as a climate action pioneer is facing serious headwinds. While the Trump administration and its allies have launched a full-scale attack on clean technologies, state leaders are also wrestling with an electorate now more focused on lowering prices than environmental protection. Energy costs stand in the middle. This dynamic is playing out … Continue reading "Leveraging Cap-And-Trade Proceeds for Long-Term Utility Bill Savings and Pollution Reduction"| Legal Planet
Environmental law is still relatively new and keeps changing all the time. After all, the field of environmental law didn’t really exist in the U.S. until pollution fears in the 1950s and ’60s spurred political activism. From 1970 to 1978, Congress passed more than a dozen of the most important environmental laws by overwhelming bipartisan majorities. … Continue reading "How We Teach Environmental Law is Changing"| Legal Planet
A few years back, a colleague of mine, who I very much wanted to remain at UCLA, approached me because he was contemplating accepting an offer at a Washington, D.C. law school. He feared remaining in Los Angeles, even though he wanted to stay, because he didn’t want his young daughter exposed to the southland’s … Continue reading "Watch “Clearing the Air: The War on Smog”"| Legal Planet
Trump's executive orders exude disdain for expertise, antagonism toward his opponents, and a relish for power.| Legal Planet
I have a new piece out in The Urban Lawyer about the Owens Valley that might be of interest to Legal Planet readers. Here is an abstract: Everyone knows that Los Angeles stole its water from the Owens Valley, creating environmental devastation and a legacy of rapacity. It is such a commonplace that it needs … Continue reading "Owens Valley Redux: Los Angeles was Right"| Legal Planet
New Analysis: The Trump Administration’s proposed rollback of Biden’s standards for fossil fuel generators will cost American dearly.| Legal Planet
Dear 1L: It’s no secret that this is a dark time for people who care about the environment. All the more reason you'll be needed!| Legal Planet
Lessons learned from Big Oil can be applied to animal agriculture, writes Guest Contributor Alexander Wood, a UCLA Law student.| Legal Planet
Guest Contributor Sharmila L. Murthy explains how the AGs of a dozen states are acting as important counterweights to the federal government.| Legal Planet
A UCLA Law student reflects on the current administration’s attack on civil servants and the cancellation of summer internships.| Legal Planet
Representational sovereignty, Indigenous rights, and ecocide are key to the climate obligations of states, our guest contributors write.| Legal Planet
Trump 2.0 is pushing alternative science: The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.| Legal Planet
The CPUC heard an earful about neighborhood decarbonization. Here's the input from Californians who support climate action.| Legal Planet
With the Trump Administration attacks on climate science, renewable energy, research, power plan emissions standards, EVs, national monuments, and pretty much anything that smacks of environmental protection, it is not surprising that most responses from the environmental community and the Democratic party have been to defend the status quo. The defensive posture has resulted in … Continue reading "Time for a Positive Vision of America’s Environment"| Legal Planet
The state’s largest gas utilities are trying to delay priority zones for decarbonization and to block public access to important data.| Legal Planet
Multistate compacts might be a critical way to help replace lost federal capacity - but we need more details.| Legal Planet
Insight & Analysis: Environmental Law and Policy| Legal Planet
We are likely to learn next week if the Trump Administration will eviscerate the most important climate regulations the Biden Administration issued over the last four years. Under Trump’s “Unleashing American Energy” Executive Order, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is supposed to recommend by February 19 whether to reverse the central basis for much of the … Continue reading "What Happens If EPA Revokes the Endangerment Finding?"| Legal Planet
The U.S. has faced true energy emergencies.. This is not one of them. Trump's executive order is totally unjustified,.| Legal Planet
The debates over community solar program design are fascinating sites of struggle over which values should drive decision-making.| Legal Planet
Trump and Republicans are trying to ‘flood the zone’ when it comes to wrongly blaming California environmental regulations for the LA fires.| Legal Planet
This is the second of three posts on proposed legislation to address the fire crisis on federal lands (the first post is here). Last post, I talked about why this legislation is essential, and the strengths of the bill that the House passed last Congress. In this post, I’ll talk about the parts of the … Continue reading "Fire and Permitting Reform"| Legal Planet
The Manchin-Barrasso energy permitting bill that I’ve posted about is not the only permitting reform bill that died with the last Congress. The House had passed the “Fix Our Forests Act,” legislation sponsored by Rep. Bruce Westerman, a Republican from Arkansas, with a focus on trying to reduce fire risks on federal (and other) lands. … Continue reading "The Urgent Need to Address Fire Risk"| Legal Planet
My UCLA colleagues Ted Parson, JP Escudero and I just returned from Baku. Most of our work there related to side talks on advancing methane regulation (and our UCLA project on that topic), but we also got a sense of how the central negotiations were unfolding. As the New York Times and others are reporting, … Continue reading "What’s Making this COP Especially Difficult?"| Legal Planet
As California continues, and even accelerates, on its path to 100% renewable energy, it must grapple with the costs and burdens on electricity ratepayers. Among the largest rate impacts is the cost of new transmission carrying renewable power to customers. We need new approaches to transmission financing that avoid rate shocks and ratepayer backlash. With … Continue reading "How Do We Reduce Cost and Time to Build Transmission Lines?"| Legal Planet
The GOP has gained working class and Latino voters, while college grads and affluent voters have shifted to the Democrats. This will change the politics surrounding climate change.| Legal Planet
New principles for ethical and responsible geoengineering research offer hope of reducing controversy in this polarized field| Legal Planet
"Unacceptable risks." Developing countries at UNEA-6 lost patience with a Northern led, narrowly scientific, approach to solar geoengineering| Legal Planet
The US and Africa fought over how, and even whether, to assess the risks of solar geoengineering at the UN Environment Assembly| Legal Planet
A new report recommends urgent action to prevent triggering climate tipping points, but warns against relying on speculative geoengineering| Legal Planet
Late last month, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2427, which represents a modest step in the effort to ensure all Californians have access to convenient electric vehicle (EV) charging, not just those who own their homes and have garages, by supporting efforts to invest in curbside EV charging. As CLEE described in a report issued … Continue reading "A Small Win for Curbside EV Charging in California"| Legal Planet
New data insights from a community choice aggregator elevate the role of Level 1 charging in an equitable (and rapid) EV transition| Legal Planet
Achieving climate goals requires significant investments in clean energy, transportation, and other climate technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and remove carbon from the atmosphere. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act have resulted in historic levels of public investment to transform existing energy and transportation systems and lay the foundation for emerging climate … Continue reading "A Framework for Equitable Climate Infrastructure Investments"| Legal Planet
This is the third in a series of posts detailing CLEE’s new set of resources on Equitable Climate Infrastructure Investment. Communities and local and state governments are increasingly turning to community benefits tools to support an equitable climate transition, catalyze substantive long-term investments in community priorities, and achieve effective, durable projects. CLEE’s new report, Community Benefits Tools and California … Continue reading "Community Benefits Tools and Poli...| Legal Planet
Allan Marks is a partner at Milbank LLP and a lecturer at UC Berkeley School of Law and UCLA School of Law. This article was originally published in Forbes, for which he is a contributor, on November 7, 2024. When Donald Trump returns to the Oval Office in January 2025, his second presidency will have … Continue reading "U.S. Energy Industry Trends To Watch In A 2025 Trump Presidency"| Legal Planet
Under NEPA, effects that are overly speculative, beyond the technical capabilities of the agency to analyze, too complex to assess, or are otherwise intractable for an agency to assess need not be documented in an environmental impact statement.| Legal Planet
The same groups that succeeded in gutting federal wetlands jurisdiction a few years ago are hoping to do the same thing to environmental impact statements.| Legal Planet
In the ABC debate, both candidates were asked directly, “What would you do to fight climate change?” Fracking got a lot of the focus.| Legal Planet
James Salzman is the Donald Bren Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law with joint appointments at the UCLA School of Law and at the Bren School of the Environment at UC Santa Barbara. He formerly held joint appointments at Duke University as the Samuel F. Mordecai Professor of Law and Nicholas Institute Professor of Environmental Policy. In more than eight books and eighty articles and book chapters, his broad-ranging scholarship has addressed topics spanning drinking water, trade an...| Legal Planet
The Supreme Court decision in Loper Bright will not likely impact how California courts review state agency determinations. But we’ll still feel it.| Legal Planet
Headlines about today’s decision in Loper v Raimondo overturning the 40 year-old decision in Chevron v NRDC that granted agencies deference in their interpretation of ambiguous statutes focus on the “massive power grab,” the decision’s “sweeping” nature and call it a “blow” to the administrative state. My view may be idiosyncratic but I don’t view … Continue reading "Is Loper v. Raimondo Really the Power Grab Commentators Assume?"| Legal Planet
The Palsgraf case is a classic that every law student studies in torts class. Surprisingly, its legacy also looms large in environmental law.| Legal Planet
Previous cases decided under Chevron are still good law. Overruling Chevron will matter only for regs that haven't gone through the courts yet.| Legal Planet
Here's a recap of the UCLA Emmett Institute panel on the climate implications of the 2024 election from the state, national, and international perspective.| Legal Planet
There's a direct line of descent from the Contract with America, signed 30 years ago, and today's Republican party.| Legal Planet
Too many people have been taken in by the myth that environmental regulation causes big job losses. It just isn't so.| Legal Planet
California regulators had an opportunity this year to be a global leader on requiring airplanes to use low-carbon jet fuel. But the Air Resources Board announced earlier this month that it will back off from its earlier proposal to require jet fuel providers to decarbonize, through the agency’s landmark low carbon fuel standard program. Why … Continue reading "California Pulls Back On Sustainable Aviation Fuels"| Legal Planet
Children will be roaming the streets tonight dressed as Superheroes, Princesses, and Evil Villains. But really, these invented figures can’t hold a candle to the real ones in our world. Here are some new custumes, suitable for a world facing a climate crisis.| Legal Planet
This elections seemunusually weighty in its policy implications. In terms of energy and climate policy, the two parties parties are far apart — Republicans favor energy dominance through massive fossil fuel production, Demorats favor clean energy. To the immense frustration of people on both sides, things haven’t moved much since September, when I last wrote … Continue reading "With a Week to Go, Where Do the Elections Stand?"| Legal Planet
A Trump victory would increase the odds that we'll ultimately need to start blocking sunlight as a last resort to limit climate change.| Legal Planet
The report’s significance is precisely that it goes beyond a few headline proposals to set a comprehensive agenda for a second Trump Administration. There are dozens of significant proposals relating to energy and the environment.| Legal Planet
You can’t blame people for thinking the bureaucracy is faceless when they never see a face to put with the name.There would be some real benefits to appointing a governor or a well-known member of Congress to head EPA.| Legal Planet
Elon Musk wants to slash government and regulations for a Trump administration—even though California regulations helped build his companies.| Legal Planet
The global transformation to an economy fueled by clean energy can't be stopped. Trump could slow down U.S. progress though.| Legal Planet
California will need a significant build-out of new high-voltage transmission lines to meet state goals for renewable energy deployment and a decarbonized grid by 2045, which requires quadrupling its current in-state solar and wind capacity. But if this new infrastructure is paid for solely through electricity rates, it could increase them significantly, when they have … Continue reading "Reducing Financing Costs for New Transmission in California"| Legal Planet
Back in August 2015, I blogged on a then newly-filed federal lawsuit in which a coalition of children and their legal guardians sued the federal government to challenge the government’s proposed approval of a controversial liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal proposed to be located on the Oregon coast. That lawsuit contends that approval of the project would … Continue reading "Trump Administration Seeks Ninth Circuit Review in Pioneering “Atmospheric Trust” Case"| Legal Planet
Late last week, attorneys representing children from around the nation filed a provocative new lawsuit in federal court, arguing that the Obama Administration is violating the children’s constitutional rights by not taking far more dramatic steps to curb greenhouse gas emissions and address climate change concerns. The newly-filed complaint in the lawsuit, Juliana ex rel. … Continue reading "And a Child Shall Sue Them: Ambitious New Climate Lawsuit Filed Against Obama Administration"| Legal Planet
Polls show that Americans strongly favor renewable energy and moving to carbon neutrality. But, alas, it's not a priority issue for most.| Legal Planet
Trump has shifted from Project 2025 to the America First Agenda, the blueprint for his transition team. Turns out to be pretty much the same thing.| Legal Planet
Coal advocates offer troubling new grounds for the Supreme Court to stay EPA’s carbon pollution standards.| Legal Planet
We should set aside a day for people to think about climate change, how it will affect them, and what to do. Aug. 23 is the day the greenhouse effect was discovered.| Legal Planet
California has groundbreaking goals to require automakers to sell, and large fleets to purchase, zero-emission trucks and buses in increasing percentages, starting this year. But these goals will only be achievable if the state has sufficient charging infrastructure to fuel the vehicles, along with available financing to help truck owners purchase or lease them. To … Continue reading "New Report: Charging and Financing Electric Trucks"| Legal Planet
A decade ago, California stood out–and not in a good way–as the only Western state without comprehensive state laws monitoring and regulating groundwater pumping and use. But in 2014, following years of severe and protracted California drought, and both agricultural and urban water users compensating for depleted surface water flows by pumping groundwater in unprecedented … Continue reading "Assessing the First Decade of California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act"| Legal Planet
Climate and energy are one of the big dividing lines in U.S. politics. The party platforms leave little doubt: one side cares about climate change, the other loves oil.| Legal Planet
