This blog post was co-authored with Dave Owen, at UC Law SF. The draft article this blog post series is based is here. This is the third in a series of blog posts on our proposal to reform wildfire law in the United States. The first post is here. The second post is here. Federally … Continue reading "Wildfire and National Forests"
Last week, AB 2385 (Petrie-Norris) died in the California Senate Appropriations Committee. Its demise is the latest frustration in the long saga to rebuild from the terrible January 2025 Los Angeles fires—and to apply some lessons learned about disaster recovery in the process. I’ve had a front row seat, as both an Angeleno and a … Continue reading "El Niño is Coming. Californians Still Need Bett…
One of the most dispiriting debates in housing policy and land use concerns the relative merits of deed-restricted affordable versus market-rate housing. YIMBY advocates argue building more market-rate units will eventual filter down and expand affordability; many on the Left argue that market-rate housing reduces the availability of land for deed-restricted affordable units. Eunisses Hernandez ……
This blog post was co-authored with Dave Owen, at UC Law SF. The draft article this blog post series is based is here. This is the second in a series of blog posts on our proposal to reform wildfire law in the United States. The first post is here. Why is fire such a hard … Continue reading "The Challenges of Wildfire"
Water problems are popping up all over. Literally so, in at least one case. In the Permian basin, geysers of toxic wastewater are erupting. The water was pumped underground as part of the basin’s massive fracking operations. Fracking produces five or six barrels of wastewater for every barrel of oil. High pressure underground is pushing wastewater into oil and gas basins as well as threatening dr…
This blog post was co-authored with Dave Owen, at UC Law SF. The draft article this blog post series is based is here. Every year brings another reminder of why fire is at the top of environmental and natural resource issues for the United States, and how our legal system struggles to adjust to fire. … Continue reading "Fixing Wildfire Law"
Earlier this year, the Institute for Progress (a pro-permitting reform organization) published a series of proposals for changing remedies for agency violations of NEPA. There are good reasons to think about the problem. If any NEPA violation can stop an entire project, that can incentivize efforts to fly-speck environmental review documents to strategically stop projects … Continue reading "NE…
Every time I walk by my mailbox these days I dread receiving my electricity bill for this summer, because it’s been hellishly hot and I know our bill is going to be higher than usual. I try to tell myself the good news: After installing an energy-efficient heat pump this year, our home has been … Continue reading "Paying More to Stay Cool, Super El Niño, Solar Politics"
Welcome to law school. You’re beginning your life in the law at a critical time. What we do together between now and 2035 will determine what your lives look like in 2050 and 2080, and what your children and grandchildren will see in the next century. So, grab your books, get yourselves ready, and be prepared to head for the legal trenches when you graduate. No time to waste!
Congressmember Andy Ogles of Tennessee is a zit on the face of American politics: a white nationalist and Islamophobe who started out as a flunkie for the Koch Brothers and lied about his credentials when he first ran for Congress. Unsurprisingly, he is also a climate denier, (in)famously stating during a 2024 House debate on … Continue reading "Don’t Mess With Solar"
Climate change is, apparently, passé. Democratic politicians are avoiding the topic and dialing back ambitious plans to reduce emissions. The President apparently doesn’t think it exists, and the government’s official position is that its effects are too uncertain to worry about. Denial isn’t the world’s best coping mechanism, but it works, at least temporarily. The problem is that, while some…
While transitioning away from fossil fuels and accelerating renewable energy deployment remains the ultimate goal, we need to minimize the climate impact of the existing oil and gas industry. According to the Global Methane Budget, human activity is responsible for roughly 60% of the 580 million tonnes of methane entering the atmosphere every year. The … Continue reading "Turning Methane Pledges …
It’s not every year that climate change looms large at the U.S. Supreme Court, but it will this coming term. The Supreme Court will begin its 2026-2027 term with a case brought by a Colorado county seeking millions of dollars from oil and gas companies for their role in exacerbating climate change. The justices announced recently … Continue reading "Climate at SCOTUS, Electrification Victories, M…
Last week, the Ninth Circuit decided Committee for a Better Arvin v. EPA, which is both a significant air pollution case and an interesting case study in how the Supreme Court has changed judicial review of agency actions. Applying what it considered to be the best interpretation of an ambiguous statute, the Court required tougher air pollution controls for the San Joaquin Valley. The dissent a…
