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Biden’s Proposed Power Plant Rule is a Solid First Step
Image via PickPik On May 23, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) proposed emission limits and guidelines for carbon dioxide from fossil fuel-powered plants. To avoid the same fate as the Obama...
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California Supreme Court Rules County Ordinance Limiting Oil & Gas...
Last week, the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a local initiative measure that would have imposed severe restrictions on oil and gas development in Monterey County is preempted by state...
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Spewing Out Mercury
In Ireland, poor people used to burn peat from fuel. Barely a step ahead of that, some American power plants burn semi-fossilized peat (lignite) to run their generators. It turns out that those power...
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Cars, Smog, and EPA
This is part of an occasional series of posts about the evolution of pollution standards. Today’s subject is pollution control for new vehicles, which have been known to cause smog since the 1960s. The...
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Vehicle Regulations on Trial
This week, the D.C. Circuit hears three cases challenging use of federal regulations to push adoption of electric vehicles and to allow California to forge path toward zero-emission cars. If all three...
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Reading the Tea Leaves: Biden’s and California’s Vehicle Regs at the D.C....
Transportation is now the source of 28% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, more than the electric power sector. The transportation sector is also a substantial source of nitrogen oxides and...
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What’s Been Killing U.S. Coal?
From 1960 to 2005, coal use grew more or less steadily by 18 million tons per year. It then tread water for a few years and began a steep decline in 2008, going from half of U.S. electricity to about...
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Livestock Operations Are Responsible for Over Half of California’s Methane...
U.S. Dep’t of Agriculture At a recent California Air Resources Board (CARB) meeting, a staff member responded to a question about why CARB’s program for reducing emissions from transportation fuels...
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Evolving Air Quality Standards
The goal of the Clean Air Act is to achieve national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), with the primary requirement being protection of public health. As our understanding of the health effects of...
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Four EV Trends
The automotive world is changing quickly. Most of the trends are mutually reinforcing. But one points in the opposite direction. The first and most obvious trend is the rise of EVs. In the twenty...
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The New Frontier of Methane Regulation
Methane is ready for its close-up. The first week of COP28, the UN climate talks taking place in Dubai, saw a handful of big announcements about how world leaders plan to tackle human-made climate...
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The Mystery of the Missing Stay Order
The steel industry applied for Supreme Court intervention on what they claimed was an urgent issue of vast national importance. Chief Justice Roberts requested an immediate government response. That...
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Centering Public Health at the UN Climate Talks
The climate crisis is a public health crisis, and it finally seems global leaders have recognized that fact. With the backdrop of the first-ever Health Day at the annual UN climate conference, air...
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The U.S. Supreme Court & Environmental Law in 2024
The U.S. Supreme Court building at dusk on Capitol Hill in Washington. As we begin 2024, it’s useful to identify and assess the many environmental issues that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to...
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The Unique Legal Context of EPA Methane Regulations
The government’s efforts to control methane have followed a complicated path, involving three different congressional actions: section 111 of the Clean Air Act, which allows EPA to regulate emissions...
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7 Reasons California Should Get Tougher on Methane from Dairies
Photo: USDA Even though California aims to decrease the emissions of methane, dairy operations are rewarded for creating, and capturing, more and more of the planet-warming super pollutant in the form...
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Interstate Pollution and the Supreme Court’s “Shadow Docket”
Later this month, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument about whether to stay a plan issued by EPA to limit upwind states from creating ozone pollution that impacts other states. As I wrote before...
View ArticleThe New Particulate Standard and the Courts
EPA has just issued a rule tightening the air quality standard for PM2.5 — the tiny particles most dangerous to health — from an annual average of 12 μg/m³ (micrograms per cubic meter) down to 9...
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Recentering Environmental Law: A Thought Experiment
In 1965, scientists sent LBJ a memo mentioning the risks of climate change. Imagine if history had been a little different. Suppose it had been this memo and a follow-up report, rather than Rachel...
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The Problems with the SCOTUS ‘Good Neighbor’ Arguments
Clean air advocates outside the Supreme Court ahead of the EPA ‘Good Neighbor’ arguments on February 21 (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for SKDK) Megan M. Herzog (former Emmett/Frankel Fellow at...
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