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The Supreme Court tends to get all the attention, but for every Supreme Court opinion on environmental law there are probably fifty opinions in the lower federal courts. Collectively, the lower courts have done fat least as much to shape the law than the Supreme Courts occasional interventions. Any top ten list is a bit arbitrary.
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 next week has the potential to bring important developments for international governance of marine carbon dioxide removal (CDR). But in-ocean research could implicate various international and domestic laws that might affect whether, when, where, and how projects take place. seaweed) for carbon storage.
A stream of data about methanea potent greenhouse gasis now constantly being beamed down from space. New methane satellites provide a powerful data capability for governments who want to demonstrate leadership in climate policy. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in a 20-year timespan.
Energy law used to be an obscure niche subject. Energy law is a hot topic. Law students are thronging to the field, seeing an opportunity to combine social relevance with good-paying jobs. Top law schools are responding by competing for faculty. Energy use accounts for the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions.
Monterey County Oil Field (credit: Monterey County Weekly) For the first two decades of this century, and under the able leadership of former Chief Justices Ronald George and Tani Cantil-Sakauye, the California Supreme Court was quite active in interpreting and shaping California environmental law. Well, break’s over.
Aviation is a significant and growing source of greenhouse gas emissions. But the federal government in the United States has failed to address it so far. Opponents will undoubtedly argue that such state-based initiatives conflict with federal law.
greenhouse gas emissions and 0.1% In addition, the impact statement was governed by the 1970 version of NEPA and the 1978 White House NEPA regulations. The eighty-mile stretch of track in question would connect the Uinta Basin with the national rail network. The Basin’s oil production would represent up to 0.8% of global emissions.
OTTAWA/TRADITIONAL, UNCEDED TERRITORY OF THE ALGONQUIN ANISHNAABEG PEOPLE — Ecojustice and Environmental Defence have uncovered that greenhouse gas emissions from Canada’s exported oil, gas, and coal ballooned to record levels in 2023.
As of 2021, 30 emissions trading systems were in force globally, covering 16 – 17 % of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As a compromise, California law (AB 398) has limited offsets to 4% of compliance obligations for the 2021-2025 period and capped the offsets without in-state benefits that can be utilized for compliance. .
That organization represents young people around the nation whose future–and present–is severely compromised by the country’s continued dependence on a carbon-based economy whose greenhouse gas emissions are dramatically changing our environment. Critically, the Juliana case relied on federal law. United States.
The prospect of climate interventions, particularly SAI, might offer large reductions in climate-change risks that are not possible through emissions cuts, adaptations, or atmospheric removals alone, but also raise serious new uncertainties, risks, and governance challenges. This may be on the cusp of changing, but it hasn’t yet.).
The sector—including personal transportation like passenger cars, as well as air, marine, and surface goods and people movement—is the largest source of greenhouse gasses in the U.S.: But, as our panelist Beth Osborne has argued , greenhouse-gas reductions will also depend on reducing the amount of driving we do in general.
This law is a clear setback for open and accountable energy planning and will mean Ontarians are left in the dark about how critical decisions regarding our energy system are made. By concentrating this much power in the hands of one office, the province’s energy planning will happen in backrooms, likely to the benefit of government insiders.
City of New York , a 2022 lawsuit brought by a group of cooperative apartment and other building owners seeking to invalidate Local Law 97 of 2019 , New York City’s building performance standard to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the City’s largest buildings. But it also offers a broader primer to local governments elsewhere.
In the past two years, however, the things have started trending upward after years of inaction by conservative governments. As in the US, Australia’s climate policy was long a victim of a lengthy period of divided government and political upheaval. As in the United States, state governments made some effort to pick up the slack.
Glen Oaks – a 2022 lawsuit brought by a group of cooperative apartment owners – sought to invalidate Local Law 97 of 2019 , New York City’s building performance standard aimed at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the City’s largest buildings.
The California Legislature recently enacted, and Governor Gavin Newsom last week signed into law, two major housing reform measures. SB 9 and SB 10 represent California’s most transformative new housing laws in decades, and are a belated but welcome legislative response to the state’s longstanding housing crisis.
UCLA Professor of Law William Boyd. William Boyd is Professor of Law and Michael J. Klein Chair in Law at UCLA Law, with a joint appointment as Professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability ; Alex Wang is Professor of Law at UCLA Law. UCLA Professor of Law Alex Wang.
Three decades earlier, a class project by five law students had led to a major win on standing, though a loss on the merits. No one really thought that Mendelsohn could win when he petitioned EPA to regulate greenhouse gases from new cars and trucks. In the end, however, they came on board, along with several state governments.
Yesterday, Massachusetts Climate Chief Melissa Hoffer issued a report detailing how “to implement the Healey-Driscoll Administration’s whole-of-government approach to addressing the climate crisis.” Publish an annual report card on the Commonwealth’s progress to achieve mandated greenhouse gas emission reductions.
The scoping process has been key to California’s success in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The process requires the government to assess past progress, project future emissions, and come up with a strategy to meet its climate goals. b) The range of projected air pollution reductions that result from the measure.
It is 33 years now since the IPCC in its first report in 1990 concluded that it is “certain” that greenhouse gas emissions from human activities “will enhance the greenhouse effect, resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth’s surface.”
The Vanuatu-led effort, which was initiated several years ago by law students at the University of the South Pacific, is now coming to fruition. If successful, the vote will invite the ICJ to issue an advisory opinion to clarify how existing international laws can be applied to strengthen action on climate change.
Last month, the federal government amended the IAA – and the changes mean that major projects can no longer be rejected based on their climate impacts. A strong project review process is the only way governments can assess the environmental and social impacts of major projects like pipelines, mines, transmission lines and dams.
The UNGA requested the ICJ render an opinion on the following questions: (a) What are the obligations of States under international law to ensure the protection of the climate system and other parts of the environment from anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHG) for States and for present and future generations? (b)
Earlier this month, the US Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service hosted a public hearing on their recent proposed rules governing implementation of the Section 45Y Clean Electricity Production Credit and the Section 48E Clean Electricity Investment Credit. My testimony is copied below.
It would seem that the Grinch has once again made off with a ramshackle sleigh full of wind turbines and solar panels and they aren’t likely to return from their shop, not unless the heart of the ole ‘Grinchy-Claus’ (aka the Alberta Government) has an unexpected growth spurt. Stay tuned.
A new wave of cases differs from traditional environmental lawsuits by highlighting the connections between preserving the Amazon and the climate, the grave risk of greenhouse gas emissions caused by deforestation, and the critical role of the forest as a major global carbon sink. The timing of these climate disputes is not accidental.
When the a law is focused on one impact of coal, attempts to take into account other harms can get mired in controversies about considering “co-benefits” and direct versus indirect or cumulative impacts. The existence of these laws is a testament to the environmental harms of the activity. Combustion of fuels is an even bigger problem.
As more local governments in California and around the country develop robust climate action plans–and as federal action to reduce emissions remains unpredictable as ever–it is increasingly clear that local strategies will be a key driver of decarbonization and resilience. . 30), which voters statewide rejected.
As cases multiply, they increasingly depend on rigorous, interdisciplinary research to provide the evidence needed to hold governments, corporations, and other actors accountable for their role in the climate crisis, and to inform meaningful climate action. Climate litigation is rapidly expanding.
The core of our work at Ecojustice is making sure that governments and industry adhere to laws and regulations that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, prevent people in Canada from being. The post How does Ecojustice help enforce strong environmental laws? appeared first on Ecojustice.
The federal government is now supporting that role with federal funding for states. A key provision (IRA § 60114) appropriates $250 million to support emission reduction planning by state governments. It’s not just the direct funding for state governments that makes me think this. States have played a critical role in U.S.
Part 1 focused on discussions on applicable law, and the no-harm rule. Vanuatu and the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) asserted that these legal consequences are governed by the general law of State responsibility. Part 3 focuses on the legal consequences of causing significant harm and reparations.
Green , and James Bee On 18 December 2023, the UK government announced a proposal for a new carbon border adjustment mechanism (UK CBAM). The UK ETS puts a price on greenhouse gases emitted by domestic producers, through a “cap-and-trade” system, in which total carbon emissions and allowances under the scheme are capped.
National governments are the most important systemic actors in the governance of climate action, primarily because they are the only actors with the ability to adopt economy-wide decarbonization measures. Over 80 government framework cases have been filed around the world, using a wide variety of legal and factual arguments.
The Michigan Public Service Commission is best known as the government body that decides whether gas and electric utilities can raise their rates. We need to start treating climate as the expensive problem that it is,” said Margrethe Kearney, a senior attorney with the Environmental Law and Policy Center. markets some other way.
Planning law has proven to be a useful tool for climate activists seeking to block or challenge new fossil fuel developments. Ireland has been a particular victim of this latter problem, with developers citing concerns over current planning laws as a reason for delays in constructing onshore wind farms, among other facilities.
The same is true in environmental law. Was it a fundamental paradigm shift, re-centering the law on new values? With all this in mind, here are the cases that I see as making up the canon and anti-canons of environmental law. The Court then held that greenhouse gases are covered by the Clean Air Act as a type of air pollutant.
its district, appellate , and supreme courts decided in favor of Urgenda, an upstart environmental organization, ordering the government to more aggressively reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Environmental Protection Agency (2007) forced the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Everyone produces greenhouse gases.
If governments bypass or undermine science and public comments in policy making, our health could be in jeopardy from increased pollution, cases of foodborne illnesses, politically-driven medicine approvals or disapprovals, and more. This is a major federal law that governs if a chemical will be regulated, limited, or even banned.
This year, many on the far-right are attempting to rebrand Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing as “woke capitalism.” In fact, the Board of Directors’ response states that “reducing Chevron’s absolute Scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is not in stockholders’ interests, nor should it be Chevron’s responsibility.”
After all, we live in a constitutional democracy and the voices of the governed must be part of the decisionmaking process. The US government is merely aligning incentives both financial and in intellectual property. It’s a political compromise with some simple changes to gun laws and some new investment in mental health services. .
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