Environmental Law

Earth Day Green -- The Color of Money

Posted on April 22, 2008
On Earth Day, attention naturally turns to all things green – as in money.Pocketbook issues are at the center of a number of new reports that assess the impact of efforts to combat climate change and promote the development of renewable sources of energy...

In Other News (April 22)

Posted on April 22, 2008
The federal government is moving to increase motor vehicle fuel efficiency standards, even as Chinese leaders pressure that country's auto industry to do the same thing, according to the New York Times.  State mandates, such as those in California, that utilities boost the amount of renewable power they supply are fueling a demand for wind, solar and biomass, the Washington Post reports...

FERC Approves Request Related to West Coast Renewable Transmission Project

Posted on April 21, 2008
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has partially approved Pacific Gas and Electric Company's request that allows the company to recover from customers at least some of the costs related to a 1,000-mile transmission project intended to deliver power from renewable sources...

In Other News (April 21)

Posted on April 21, 2008
Widespread concerns are surfacing that Africa, despite being less culpable for climate change than other regions, could be among the worst affected, reports Voice of America. Industrial companies fear that European efforts to combat climate change could drive them from doing business there, Reuters discloses in a story in the International Herald Tribune...

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Feds Want More Time to Study Polar Bear Listing; Enviros Say It's All About the Oil

Posted on April 18, 2008
Attorneys for the Interior Department have asked a federal judge to give officials until June 30 to make a final decision on whether to protect the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act because of climate change.Environmentalists immediately accused government bureaucrats of dragging their feet to avoid any interference with oil explorations planned for the bears’ habitat...

In Other News (April 18)

Posted on April 18, 2008
The San Francisco Chronicle's urban design writer examines the effect climate change is having on the thinking of government planners, as they look ahead to a future where ocean front property is a lot further inland. The Chronicle's politics blog reports on the political odd couple of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Republican, getting together to shoot a TV commercial urging leaders to take immediate action on climate change...

California Incentives Boost Solar Installations, Regulators Report

Posted on April 17, 2008
A new report published by the California Public Utilities Commission suggests a robust beginning for a state program to provide incentives for residential and commercial solar projects.The document, issued this week, reported that the California Solar Initiative, launched in January 2007, has received more than 10,000 applications...

In Other News (April 17)

Posted on April 17, 2008
Congressional Quarterly writes about a new package of tax incentives, including some for energy programs, sponsored by Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. The statement from Baucus and Grassley notes the package includes extending credits for renewable electricity and refined coal production (see text here)...

Bush Weighs in on Greenhouse Gas Reductions, Critics Rip Effort

Posted on April 16, 2008
President Bush Wednesday set a goal of halting the increase in the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, a significantly less ambitious objective than that established by some of the states, including California.But in a speech in the White House Rose Garden, Bush also opened the door to a binding international agreement on cutting emissions...

In Other News (April 16)

Posted on April 16, 2008
John Doerr, Silicon Valley venture capitalist, explains why cleantech is "the biggest economic opportunity of the century" and his four steps for solving global warming. China is ramping up polysilicon production, but will remain a small player for some time, according to THT Research...

EPA Issues Final Inventory of Greenhouse Emissions, Still Shows Reductions

Posted on April 16, 2008
Greenhouse gas emissions in the United States dropped by a somewhat lower fraction than earlier reported, according to final estimates released this week by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.However, the annual Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks still showed a 1...

Legislative Response to Brown A Win for Attorney General, Thelen Lawyer Writes

Posted on April 15, 2008
A California lawyer who has closely followed California's energy regulation, and once was part of it, has concluded that state lawmakers handed Attorney General Jerry Brown a victory last year when they passed a new law in reaction to his controversial greenhouse gas litigation...

'Values Clashes' Seen as Challenge to Renewables, Other Climate Efforts

Posted on April 14, 2008
Global warming is bad, and developing renewable energy to help solve the problem is good, right? While that might be a popular view, the reality is a bit more complicated, as experts in the field have begun noting with some frequency lately.Talk of what UCLA School of Law Professor Ann Carlson (pictured) calls “localized environmental values clashes” over renewable projects was in the air at a recent conference at the University of California-Berkeley’s law school, Boalt Hall...

California Utility Regulators OK $600M Customer-funded GHG Research Effort

Posted on April 11, 2008
California utility regulators have voted to commit more than a half-billion dollars – paid for by the ratepayers of the state’s privately owned utilities -- to a research and development effort devoted to finding new technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and getting them to market...

Senate Passes Extensions for Renewable Incentives; House Future Uncertain

Posted on April 10, 2008
The U.S. Senate Thursday moved forward with its version of an extension of tax credits for renewable energy. But it did so without identifying how to pay for the estimated $6 billion in incentives for wind, solar and other projects.Introduced by Sens...

IPCC Expert Sees Need, As Do Others, for Government Backing of Energy Research

Posted on April 09, 2008
A key member of the international body that has done much to warn the world of the dangers of climate change says that a needed part of the solution – government support for research into new technologies – is falling ominously short...

British Columbia Moves Toward Cap-and-Trade Amid Larger Auction Debates

Posted on April 08, 2008
British Columbia is moving forward with a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gases, laying the groundwork for the province's involvement in a Western North American regional trading system.The development occurs as one new report strikes a cautionary note about how to establish a market, warning that free allocation of emissions credits has helped produce large windfall profits in Europe (see full document here)...

Ethanol Takes a Media Hit, Industry Punches Back; Algae, Wind, Solar Soar

Posted on April 07, 2008
By any measure, it’s been a tough few weeks in the spotlight for biofuels such as corn-based ethanol and other alternative sources for transportation energy, including hydrogen.A Time Magazine cover story not-so-subtly titled: “The Clean Energy Scam,” set the tone for the criticism...

Lawmakers Take Aim at EPA Greenhouse Delay, California Auto Decision

Posted on April 03, 2008
At least U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson, presumably, still has friends in the executive branch. Because he’s facing some opposition in the other two arenas of government.The EPA, which this week landed in court action because of Johnson’s decision to take his time to study whether to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, could find itself getting new marching orders from Congress...

Senators Introduce New Renewable, Energy Efficiency Tax Credit Bill

Posted on April 03, 2008
Legislation extending tax credits for renewable energy including wind, geothermal and solar for at least a year was introduced Thursday in the U.S. Senate by a bipartisan group of lawmakers. The move drew immediate praise from the solar industry...

States, Environmental Groups Sue EPA to Trigger Greenhouse Regs

Posted on April 02, 2008
A legal action led by Massachusetts and supported by 17 other states and nearly a dozen environmental organizations was launched Wednesday to force the Environmental Protection Agency to issue a critical document that would trigger nationwide regulation of greenhouse gases...

States, Enviros to Take Legal Action Against EPA over Greenhouse Delay

Posted on April 01, 2008
No surprise in this, except perhaps for the quick timing, but last week’s decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to go slow on regulating greenhouse gases looks like it's landing the agency back in court.California Attorney General Jerry Brown, along with attorneys representing the state of Massachusetts, the Sierra Club and others are expected to announce Wednesday new legal action to force the EPA to move forward...

Seal Listing Could Draw Fed Fisheries Agency Closer to Global Warming Issue

Posted on March 31, 2008
An attorney for one environmental group that has actively sought to bring the tools of endangered species protections into the fight against global warming says the tactic could have multiple effects.Brendan Cummings, a lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity, suggested in an interview with Climate Law Update that the organization’s recent success in getting the National Marine Fisheries Service to examine climate-related endangered species protection for several species of seals could produce impacts both locally and much broader in scope...

Federal Officials Begin Complying With Greenhouse Emissions Ruling For Vehicles

Posted on March 28, 2008
U.S. Transportation Department officials Friday formally took steps to begin complying with a federal appellate court ruling last year that, among other things, required the agency to consider global warming when setting fuel economy standards for certain motor vehicles...

Manufacturers Agree with EPA Go-Slow Approach

Posted on March 28, 2008
Stephen L. Johnson, the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, might be feeling a bit besieged after the reaction to his decision to go slow on regulating greenhouse gases. But he’s still got friends in the industrial community and elsewhere...

EPA Avoids 'Rush to Judgment' on Greenhouse Gases, Sparks Court Threats

Posted on March 27, 2008
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson, declaring that he wanted to avoid “rushing to judgment on a single issue,” informed lawmakers Thursday he'll be taking additional time to study the critical issue of whether to regulate greenhouse gas emissions...

Law, Water, Earthquakes, Sun and Wind -- Barriers to Nuclear Plants in California

Posted on March 26, 2008
This Commentary was written by Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner attorneys Peter V. Allen and Richard M. Shapiro:With the recent increase in concern about global warming and energy security, supporters of nuclear power are arguing that it is now time to restart the construction of nuclear power plants in the US...

Coal Wars Heat Up: Kansas, Utah Become Battlegrounds

Posted on March 25, 2008
The coal war, it seems, is heating up by the day. And the battlegrounds are not always in places commonly associated with aggressive environmentalismTake Kansas and Utah, for instance.The Kansas City star reports that lawmakers are trying to revive a modified version of a bill vetoed last week by Kansas Gov...

Power Plant CO2 Emissions Rise; Utility Carbon Cost Estimates Questioned

Posted on March 24, 2008
Despite all the talk about greenhouse gas reductions and the means to achieve them, including establishing new trading schemes for carbon, a pair of new studies suggests the nation has a ways to go.One of the documents, in which a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official has parsed the latest government data, shows that carbon dioxide emissions from power plants appear to be back on the rise (see press release and report and appendices)...

Western States Take New Steps on Greenhouse Gas, Vehicle Miles and Renewables

Posted on March 21, 2008
Led by Washington state, where the governor just signed a new law charting a path to reduced greenhouse gas emissions, Western states have made several recent moves on the climate change and renewable energy fronts.Oregon and South Dakota put in place new laws to boost the renewable energy industry...

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