This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
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.
In choosing the top environmental laws, I wanted to focus on those with the largest impacts on the environment, not just those that are most important to environmental lawyers or best known. I included all laws passed in the U.S., not just federal regulatory laws, and some of my selections may not be what you expected.
Last week, the Federal Highway Administration finalized an important regulation–the greenhouse gas performance measure. Currently, only 24 states and the District of Columbia have laws requiring them to set targets and track their greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. They just need to put them together.
In June 2024, UCLA School of Law’s Promise Institute Europe hosted its first inaugural conference, The Promise of International Law in the Face of Ecological Crises , shortly after the issuance of a highly anticipated advisory opinion from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).
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.
In preparing to teach a course on climate law, I was really struck by how broad and rich the field has become. Back in the day, it was nearly all international law, but nowadays there’s a huge amount of U.S. domestic law. and international law. and international law. climate policy. Here goes: I. Cross-cutting A.
Yesterday and today the European Parliament approved of the central backbone legislation of the European Green Deal, the so called European Climate Law. This blog entry takes a look at the main points of the proposed European Climate Law, the European Parliament`s take on it and the likely prospects of the law.
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.
A stream of data about methanea potent greenhouse gasis now constantly being beamed down from space. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in a 20-year timespan. New methane satellites provide a powerful data capability for governments who want to demonstrate leadership in climate policy.
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.
Aviation is a significant and growing source of greenhouse gas emissions. Opponents will undoubtedly argue that such state-based initiatives conflict with federal law. But the federal government in the United States has failed to address it so far.
Once enacted by the Governor, these two bills will set a new national standard for greenhouse gas emissions reporting and for disclosure of climate-related financial risks consistent with the framework established by the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD).
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.
greenhouse gas emissions and 0.1% The eighty-mile stretch of track in question would connect the Uinta Basin with the national rail network. The main purpose is to provide a way to get a lot more oil and possibly some minerals to market. The Basin’s oil production would represent up to 0.8% of global emissions.
On October 30, 2023, the New York Supreme Court, New York County dismissed a significant legal challenge to New York City’s building emissions law, Local Law 97 of 2019. The decision provides clarity to the NYC real estate community that Local Law 97 is valid, enforceable, and constitutional.
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.
On Friday, a Minnesota administrative law judge ruled the state can proceed with finalizing new clean car standards that will give Minnesotans more control over air quality improvements and progress toward the state’s greenhouse gas reduction goals, as well as increase vehicle model choices for Minnesota car buyers and save drivers money at the pump. (..)
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. The court holds that the CLCPA does not preempt Local Law 97.
And in all likelihood, they are not breaking any current law or regulation. That the firm’s activity is probably not breaking any laws is closely related to its tiny scale. Multiple domestic laws and international treaties are “relevant” to the activity, but it does not fall under their specific concrete controls.
There are quite a number of areas of climate law that the Supreme Court has left untouched. Here’s the EPA authority the Court hasn’t touched: EPA’s jurisdiction over greenhouse gases. EPA , which gave EPA authority to regulate greenhouses gases. In short, federal climate law seems to be alive and reasonably healthy.
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.
To identify which fuels should be promoted, CARB calculates the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions from transportation fuels. In these “carbon intensity” calculations, CARB is not allowed to count reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that are already required by law. Agricultural operations are almost uniquely unregulated.
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.
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. The government’s choice to enshrine in law a prioritization of nuclear power is also troubling.
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)
The IRA was passed into law to propel our nation’s clean energy transition forward. For C&G facilities, eligibility for the 45Y/48E tax credit hinges on calculation of a net greenhouse gas emissions rate, meaning the structure of, and implementation choices around, the underlying lifecycle analysis (LCA) are of central importance.
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.”
In 2022, the Labor coalition passed a law mandating that Australia cut greenhouse gas emissions 43% below 2005 levels by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050. This March, Australia adopted a follow-up law to implement these targets. The law built on the Safeguard Mechanisms. This seems like Trumpian hyperbole.
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.
The Climate Act requires that the scoping plan “inform the state energy planning board’s adoption of a state energy plan,” and the State’s energy law requires that all state entities must make “any energy-related action[s] or decision[s] … reasonably consistent with the. state energy] plan.”.
But the trip was drama-free, in large part because of recent investments in electric vehicle charging infrastructure made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. It was a reminder of how the EV user experience continues to improve, seemingly every month. What made the trip so easy?
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.
Today, the New York City Department of Buildings announced a new Local Law 97 GreenHOUSE Fund to provide much-needed resources for electrification upgrades in affordable housing.
The scoping process has been key to California’s success in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The State of New York most recently adopted the scoping process as part of an aggressive new scheme to cut greenhouse gas emissions. b) The range of projected air pollution reductions that result from the measure.
A friend asked me if a discussion paper published on Statistics Norway’s website, ‘ To what extent are temperature levels changing due to greenhouse gas emissions? ’, was purposely timed for the next climate summit ( COP28 ). I don’t know the answer to his question. But this discussion paper is problematic for sure.
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. The story of the five law students was, if anything, more surprising.
“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. Kearney’s group argues that would ultimately cut the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. markets some other way.
Today, climate change is the central, though by no means the only, concern in environmental law. Westlaw searches for “global warming” and “greenhouse effect” pick up only a handful of citations before 1985. The most notable was by an administrative law professor at Harvard, one Stephen Breyer.
Last week, the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled that an initiative measure that would have imposed severe restrictions on oil and gas development in Monterey County is preempted by state law and therefore invalid. The decision came in the case of Chevron U.S.A., County of Monterey.
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.
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.
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.
Moreover, even a delay in the implementation of the standards delays cleaning up our air and cutting greenhouse gasses. There is no excuse to enact laws that will take us backward. Decades of public health improvements, business investments and clean air progress could be wiped out unless Governor Newsom exercises his veto power.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 12,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content