Legal Planet

OCTOBER 21, 2024

UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, & Environment (CLEE) is sponsoring a series of papers evaluating aspects of Project 2025, The Heritage Foundation publication, entitled “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” which has received attention in the Presidential election campaign. Political loyalists would take their place.

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Enviromental Defense

NOVEMBER 13, 2024

While lawmakers of all political stripes have for years said they support mid-rise housing, zoning enacted under the Planning Act still prohibits buildings of five storeys or higher on almost all of Ontario’s existing residential lots. To deliver 1.5 million new homes the province will need by 2031.

Politics 145

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Legal Planet

DECEMBER 23, 2021

In a recent post , I analyzed the California Legislature’s recent passage and Governor Gavin Newsom’s signing into law of two important bills–SB 9 and SB 10–designed to confront California’s well-documented housing crisis. Davis School of Law faculty colleagues Chris Elmendorf and Darien Shanske.).

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Legal Planet

OCTOBER 13, 2022

First, the article very briefly glosses over the politics of carbon pricing – as the article puts it, “the political reality that taxes are a hard sell.” I think these political constraints are a key reason economists focused so long – too long – on carbon pricing. Politics is central in policy.

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Legal Planet

AUGUST 18, 2022

One option, a tax on carbon dioxide emissions, gets the most attention but seems politically impossible. The closest we’ve ever come to a carbon tax is a limited fee on methane emissions under the new IRA law. If a carbon tax were politically feasible, there would be a lot to be said in its favor.

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Legal Planet

SEPTEMBER 19, 2021

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.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

JANUARY 14, 2025

Merners research and expertise has informed climate litigation across the globe, as she connects legal teams with technical experts and leads trainings for scientists working at the intersection of climate science and law. That intersection between science and law is what makes this work so fascinating and impactful.

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PA Environment Daily

OCTOBER 12, 2024

Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming) announced plans to introduce legislation to prohibit municipalities from receiving Act 13 drilling impact fees if they set more protective standards on the development of natural gas than required in state or federal law and while a challenge to local restrictions is being litigated. 16 [PaEN] -- EPA Files $4.2

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Legal Planet

AUGUST 21, 2024

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. In the fall of 2014, the Legislature enacted and Governor Brown signed into law the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).

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Legal Planet

MARCH 16, 2023

A special focus of the Commission’s deliberations will be whether and to what extent California’s most important and overarching environmental law is impeding efforts by the Legislature and Governor Newsom to address the state’s chronic and well-documented housing crisis. Enter CEQA.

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Legal Planet

MAY 16, 2023

As in the US, Australia’s climate policy was long a victim of a lengthy period of divided government and political upheaval. 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. The law built on the Safeguard Mechanisms.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

OCTOBER 20, 2023

We hear a lot of encouraging rhetoric from our political leaders about wanting to preserve an existing international order based on the rule of law. If our governments are currently incapable of doing this, then civil society must step into the breach and take on an essential responsibility our political leaders are neglecting.

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Enviromental Defense

DECEMBER 3, 2024

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.

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Legal Planet

JULY 29, 2021

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.

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Law Climate Change Carbon Dioxide Deforestation 246

Enviromental Defense

OCTOBER 30, 2023

The partial release reveals the chaotic, developer-led process that did an end-run around the normal planning approval process and was driven by political staff in the Minister’s office. ECOJUSTICE uses the power of the law to defend nature, combat climate change, and fight for a healthy environment.

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Government Politics 2022 Law 145

Law Columbia

MARCH 10, 2025

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?

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Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 18, 2025

The Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law put our nation on a much better track to lead the world toward a cleaner, energy efficient, and cost-effective freight system. We have an opportunity to lead the world toward a more sustainable way of doing business, which we shouldnt squander for the sake of politics.

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Legal Planet

AUGUST 6, 2023

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. But the good news is that this goal can still be achieved through other legal and political strategies.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

JULY 3, 2022

The petitioners who brought this case include state-level political officials and coal companies who are single-mindedly determined to block climate action and perpetuate fossil fuel dependence to serve their narrow political or business interests.

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Law and Environment

JUNE 16, 2021

The post TCI Update: Final Model Rule Addresses EJ, but Political Will May Be Lacking first appeared on Law and the Environment.

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Politics Carbon Emissions Clean Energy Greenhouse 130

Legal Planet

JANUARY 2, 2023

As a second benefit, they claim to be engaged in political symbolism, trying to disrupt a stuck debate over effective climate responses and get people to talk about solar geoengineering – of which stratospheric aerosol injection is the most promising method being discussed. This activity cannot have any significant global climate effect.

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New Scientist

SEPTEMBER 20, 2023

After years of political wrangling, wide-ranging online rules are about to become UK law - but complying with and enforcing the regulations won't be easy

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Law Politics Regulations 110

Union of Concerned Scientists

FEBRUARY 29, 2024

Their omnipresent influence on national politics and international negotiations has trapped consumers in a fossil fuel-dependent system and threatens to delay climate action even further, with the most severe consequences for those already in the most vulnerable situations. What role does science play in climate advisory opinions?

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Climate Change Fossil Fuels Law Government 287

Legal Planet

JULY 11, 2022

A: The Court doesn’t address this question directly, but the major questions doctrine doesn’t seem to be a rule of constitutional law. . Q: When does an issue have “major political significance”? . A: “Political significance” seems to have a narrow meaning. . And not just because end-of-life care is very expensive.

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Politics Regulations Law Climate Change 264

Legal Planet

MARCH 20, 2023

We seem to be dealing with opinions rather than statements that are provably false, so libel law shouldn’t apply in the first place. In fact, one of the useful things I teach is libel law. The industry’s lawyers might have avoided filing such a defective case if they had only taken my class as beginning law students.

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Legal Planet

OCTOBER 29, 2021

Photo credit Alexandra Gay, member of the UCLA Law delegation that year. Under international law, only countries can be parties to these instruments, not U.S. They are often left to deal with climate effects on the ground, from wildfires to sea level rise to drought, and they can provide a political bulwark of sorts even as U.S.

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Legal Planet

AUGUST 7, 2023

That brings us to the second argument that companies could make, that any deception claims relate to speech intended to influence the political process and that political speech is exempt from liability even if it is false. Are the lawsuits preempted by federal law? The arguments come in two forms.

Clean Air Act 246

Clean Air Act Climate Change Sea Level Politics 246

Union of Concerned Scientists

APRIL 10, 2024

This victory sets a precedent for future climate litigation, affirming that climate action is a legal duty of states under human rights law. At the Science Hub for Climate Litigation , we stand at the nexus of science and the law. C, a threshold beyond which the dangers to humanity grow sharply.

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Legal Planet

JUNE 20, 2022

Second, there are political and legal problems with equity weighting. The political problem is that equity weighting is progressive and therefore is likely to get a hostile reaction from conservatives (including conservative judges).

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Regulations Politics Conservation Law 246

Law and Environment

NOVEMBER 12, 2021

Earlier this week, Greenwire (subscription required) had an interesting story about the role that EPA’s estimate of the cost to comply with the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rule played in the politics and judicial review of the rule. first appeared on Law and the Environment. Unfortunately, the $9.6

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Regulations Politics Law Climate Change 244

Circle of Blue

NOVEMBER 1, 2021

In the Nile River basin last week, a political power shift in Sudan could turn up the heat on a long-simmering dispute over a major dam in the region. The proposed amendment is a brief but powerful statement of principle, according to John Dernbach, a law professor at Widener University Commonwealth Law School.

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2021 Electricity Environmental Protection Politics 278

Union of Concerned Scientists

SEPTEMBER 26, 2023

Whether you call it updating, modernizing, or reforming, changes to the water rights system have long been considered a political third rail —the electric kind you don’t touch. This year, one of those water rights bills, Senate Bill 389 (SB 389) made it through the gauntlet of the legislature and will become law if Governor Newsom signs it.

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Legal Planet

OCTOBER 25, 2021

A: A few laws explicitly require cost-benefit analysis or at least something along those lines. Those laws are a minority. There are a few laws that actually prohibit agencies from considering costs, but agencies do cost-benefit analysis when implementing those laws for informational purposes.

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Carbon Monoxide Regulations Law Conservation 306

Legal Planet

OCTOBER 26, 2023

In these “carbon intensity” calculations, CARB is not allowed to count reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that are already required by law. At the federal level, agricultural operations are exempt from laws intended to prevent pollution to water and to the air. To CARB, installing digesters is a win-win.

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Regulations Greenhouse Clean Air Act Politics 312

Union of Concerned Scientists

APRIL 16, 2024

Texas went first in 2005, with a law called SB 20. The law authorized the creation of new transmission to serve “renewable energy zones” and a process to identify and select such zones. Nevada adopted a law called SB 448 in 2021, directing utilities to build transmission that meets state goals.

Electricity 292

Electricity Renewable Energy Clean Energy Law 292

Circle of Blue

JULY 14, 2022

4) Drought Is Political. The right to use water in the western states is subject to arcane laws, court decrees, and precedents, some of which date to the era of colonial settlement. A relatively recent development is the political muscle of the region’s Indian tribes. Their plan is due next month.

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Atmosphere Regulations Politics Electricity 352

Legal Planet

JULY 12, 2021

Around the same time as Washington’s order, Jefferson served on a Virginia legislative committee that wrote a law safeguarding the ability of doctors to engage in the practice. Those anti-Enlightenment — and therefore anti-Founder — attitudes are also key to the rejection of climate science from the same political quarter.

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Politics Law Environmental Science 264