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California likes to portray itself as an environmental leader, and in many ways it is. But in the context of one of the most important areas of environmental law – protecting endangered species – California is on the verge of eliminating most of its protections for the habitat of endangered species. That is the result
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times — this week, like most weeks. The UN Environment Programme’s new report, “Limiting Overshoot: Navigating exceedance of 1.5°C and pathways toward return” was simultaneously big news and yet met with stony silence in many quarters of the media. The report narrates what
It’s September, and that means another legislative session has come to an end here in California. With it came some welcome news for those of us who have been following California’s efforts to avoid wasteful spending on new natural gas infrastructure. Two important bills, AB 2313 (Berman) and SB 1359 (Stern), both pass
U.S. oil is seeing a future of declining U.S. and global demand for gasoline and diesel, with U.S. production also remaining stagnant. The future for natural gas production is looking rosier given increasing energy demand and possible growth in U.S. exports. From the perspective of the oil industry, this is probably an
There are 16,000 satellites circling the Earth right now, and a growing share of them capture images of our planet in unprecedented detail at every moment of the day. One of the many things they measure, monitor, and observe are forests. Being able to measure forests is the foundation for protecting them and for decade
Remember rolling blackouts in California? At least at this point, they appear to be a thing of the past. Earlier today, I noticed a tweet from Cody Hill, who refers to himself as a “batteries and clean energy infrastructure developer,” pointing to a rather stunning development. Despite a massive heat wave that has put
I’ve written a lot on the Cal Chamber sponsored initiative to dramatically change CEQA, BACA, which is Proposition 45 on this year’s ballot. Here are some key takeaways from what I’ve written, as well as links to the relevant blog posts. First, BACA will not just apply to CEQA. It broadly expands vested rights and … Co
According to the Department of Energy, decrepit coal-fired power plants had to be kept open to avoid “unacceptable reliability risks within five years” unless something changed. You could be forgiven for thinking that calling this hypothetical situation an emergency was something of a stretch. The legality of the order
A lot of the debates over BACA, the Cal Chamber supported initiative to fundamentally change CEQA (Proposition 45 on the ballot) focus on the initiative’s impacts on CEQA. But from a local government and planning perspective, I would argue that far more important are the sweeping vested rights provisions in the initiat
A key issue in the debate over the Cal Chamber of Commerce CEQA initiative (BACA, or Proposition 45 on the ballot) is whether it includes data centers as the types of projects that are eligible for the CEQA exemptions and vested rights provisions in the initiative. I’ve written about why they may well fall within … Con
You might expect the Wall Street Journal to take a dim view of electric vehicles, given the paper’s conservative slant. You’d be wrong. The Journal’s news coverage, which is less ideological than the opinion page, tells us something important. In a newspaper designed for businesspeople, electric vehicles are taken very
The Supreme Court hears oral arguments on October 5, 2026 in Suncor Energy v. County Commissioners of Boulder County. The plaintiffs in this case are local governmental entities in the State of Colorado that face substantial and rising costs to mitigate the impacts of climate change in the form of heat waves, wildfires
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