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. The post Will We Ever Stop Overestimating the Cost of Complying with Environmental Regulations?

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Regulations Politics Law Climate Change 244

Legal Planet

SEPTEMBER 3, 2024

It also wants to destroy environmental regulation, especially climate law. Thus, the reasons must relate to psychology or political science, not philosophy. This research is suggestive, but my impression is that there is a lot we still don’t know about political psychology. That’s not a coincidence.

Politics 59

Politics Paris Agreement 2025 Environmental Protection 59

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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2025 Politics Natural Resources Climate Change 130

Enviromental Defense

APRIL 30, 2025

Ontarios government is proposing a new law that would give Mayors in 169 small towns and villages Strong Mayor powers. This law could lead to widespread corruption, continued housing shortages, and the destruction of the provinces remaining farmland. This sudden rezoning is now being challenged in court.

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Law Government Politics Regulations 96

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. Read more here. Read more here.

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Natural Gas Fossil Fuels Law 2019 109

Legal Planet

OCTOBER 13, 2022

The article quotes a range of economists and other climate policy experts to the effect that subsidies and regulations are superior to carbon pricing because they can address equity issues, and that they can move investment in decarbonization technology more quickly than carbon pricing. Politics is central in policy.

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Politics Climate Change Technology Technology 246

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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Fossil Fuels Carbon Dioxide Politics Air Pollution 278

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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Cooling Atmosphere Regulations Greenhouse 364

Union of Concerned Scientists

AUGUST 14, 2023

These tactics include regulations on actions directly connected to voting and attempts to limit freedom of speech and academic life on public campuses, both of which can disengage students from the political process. Now these on-campus polling sites could be thwarted by a parking regulation for polls.

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Politics Law Regulations 2018 246

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

JUNE 20, 2022

Equity weighting can make a big difference in assessing regulations that heavily benefit disadvantaged communities. Equity weighting thus has the potential to make regulation much more progressive. Hence, the regulation is likely to be a bad deal for the poor unless the benefit to them is larger than the cost.

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Regulations Politics Conservation Law 246

Legal Planet

OCTOBER 18, 2022

The Clean Water Act (CWA), one of the nation’s most important environmental laws, is 50 years old today. Nevertheless, and with the possible exception of the Clean Air Act, no law enacted as part of the outpouring of federal environmental legislation in the 1970’s has proven more successful and transformational than the CWA.

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Clean Water Act Pollution Control Regulations Clean Air Act 243

Legal Planet

DECEMBER 29, 2022

The Supreme Court heard the Sackler case, which will have a huge impact on federal regulation of wetlands. EPA , which reinvigorated the “Major Question Doctrine,” axed Obama’s Clean Power Plan, and increased barriers to future EPA regulation. The oral argument suggested that the Justices were looking for a middle ground.

Carbon Emissions 246

Carbon Emissions Clean Energy Politics Greenhouse 246

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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Politics Law Government Regulations 277

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 294

Legal Planet

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

Here’s an embarrassing confession: Though I had taught environmental law for 25 years at that point, I had never heard of section 111(d) until it was discussed as possible tool to limit carbon emissions. I would have voted to uphold the regulation as a reasonable if not necessary way to accomplish the statute’s purpose.

Carbon Emissions 246

Carbon Emissions Regulations Politics Law 246

Union of Concerned Scientists

JULY 9, 2024

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. When facilities emit less pollution, their regulations require less specific record-keeping and monitoring.

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Toxic Substances Control Act Air Pollution Regulations Clean Air Act 317

Circle of Blue

OCTOBER 26, 2021

In Pennsylvania, where the constitution already recognizes environmental rights, the state Supreme Court has used the provision to strike down parts of state law. 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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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.

Law 130

Law Fossil Fuels Renewable Energy Regulations 130

Clean Energy Law

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

On 5 February 2024, the European Parliament and Council of the EU announced that they had reached a provisional political agreement on the text of the ESG Ratings Regulation (the Regulation). The agreed text was subsequently published on 14 February 2024. Refer to this Latham blog post for previous commentary on the proposal.

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Regulations 2024 Politics 2023 130

Legal Planet

OCTOBER 20, 2021

A big court ruling in California land-use law happened last month – and it has really large implications for the state’s efforts to address California’s housing crisis. Instead, I want to discuss the question of whether the state can even constrain local government regulation of land-use in California.

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Regulations Government Law Politics 130

Union of Concerned Scientists

JULY 8, 2024

To be clear, under Chevron, judges were advised to defer to agency experts on technical issues if their interpretation of the law was, in a specific judge’s view, “reasonable.” That means virtually every regulation on private action intended to serve the public good will be delayed, delayed, and delayed. Deregulation successful!

Environmental Protection 306

Environmental Protection Regulations Conservation Law 306

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

Circle of Blue

JULY 14, 2022

Utah regulators have identified high numbers of toxin-producing algae in the southern reaches of Utah Lake , a water body notorious for summer algae outbreaks. California regulators passed an emergency order in June that took small steps to address the supply-demand imbalance. 4) Drought Is Political. 3) Cutbacks Are Inevitable.

Atmosphere 352

Atmosphere Regulations Politics Electricity 352

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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Law Government Air Pollution Politics 147

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 114

Legal Planet

JULY 1, 2022

The law will affect just about every type of plastic packaging you see walking down the supermarket aisle in California, and it’s a major step in the fight to reduce plastic waste, over 90 percent of which does not get, and much of which cannot currently be, recycled.

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Recycling Waste Law 2019 283

Union of Concerned Scientists

JULY 3, 2022

Instead, the Court has ruled that, though the agency can still regulate carbon emissions, it must do so narrowly and set standards solely based on options available at individual power plant facilities, such as efficiency measures to improve plant-level heat rates.

Climate Change 310

Climate Change Fossil Fuels Carbon Emissions Nitrogen Oxides 310

Circle of Blue

JULY 19, 2022

In her opinion, Judge Brownlee referenced the omnibus bill, writing that the Florida Legislature holds the power to set environmental policy and preempt county and local laws. No PFAS chemical is currently regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act. 4) Drought Is Political. In other legal news, the U.S.

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2022 Regulations Environmental Protection Politics 297

Legal Planet

FEBRUARY 24, 2025

Although the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) has existing regulations intended to control fugitive dust emissions, outdated dust mitigation measures and inconsistent enforcement have left communities like Sun Valley without adequate protection. We look forward to this bill heading to committee after 30 days.

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Recycling 2006 Technology Technology 130

Clean Energy Law

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

3] In the future, the Commission can introduce further repairability requirements for new products through the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation. Next Steps Once the directive is adopted by the Council and Parliament and published in the EU Official Journal, Member States will have 24 months to transpose it into national law.

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Politics Regulations 2023 Law 130

Union of Concerned Scientists

JANUARY 23, 2023

Do US environmental laws recognize “cumulative risks” and “cumulative impacts” as real and substantial? What policies or laws are possible right now to address cumulative risks and impacts? As quoted in our paper , Dr. Ellen Silbergeld says, “to regulate mixtures, the law must be changed.” How do you regulate complexity?

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Regulations Law Politics Air Pollution 276

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.

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Electricity Renewable Energy Clean Energy Law 297

Legal Planet

MAY 9, 2022

Emissions trading systems are often launched with relatively lenient design features, typically justified as giving the system a chance to “learn-by-doing” and to gain political buy-in for approval of a program. – Continual reform to improve ambition, integrity, and buy-in. Most ETS have fallen on the prices-too-low side.

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Government Politics Climate Change Paris Agreement 241

Legal Planet

AUGUST 26, 2021

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. EPA , the Obama Administration issued a series of regulations dealing with greenhouse gases.

Clean Air Act 246

Clean Air Act Endangered Species Act Regulations Air Pollution 246

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.

2021 274

2021 Electricity Environmental Protection Politics 274

Legal Planet

MAY 9, 2022

Texas and a number of other states have passed laws banning what they call “boycotts of fossil fuel companies.” Besides being fundamentally misguided and difficult to implement, these blacklist laws are incompetently drafted and quite likely unconstitutional. Is this as opposed to a political purpose on the part of the managers?

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Fossil Fuels Law Carbon Emissions Politics 246