Environmental and Policy Focus
Sacramento Business Journal - Sep 3
A Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled the state’s 2006 climate change law, Assembly Bill 32, gives authority to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to create the State's cap-and-trade program. Under CARB's system, certain companies must either buy carbon allowances in special quarterly auctions or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions under required limits.
Reuters - Sep 3
In a high-profile case that split the environmental community, an appeals court on Tuesday ruled against a California oyster farm that challenged a U.S. Interior Department decision to end its 40-year lease on public land.
Biz Journal - Sep 3
Efforts to significantly reform Proposition 65, the state of California’s law requiring warnings for toxic chemicals in workplaces, will have to wait until next year. Negotiations stalled last week between Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration and different interest groups after stakeholders failed to find common ground on a number of proposed reforms to the 1986 voter-approved initiative.
Law360 (Subscription Required) - Aug 30
A federal district court in San Francisco upheld the constitutionality of an Alameda County ordinance requiring drug makers to pay for the environmentally safe disposal of unused drugs. In a summary judgment ruling, U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg rejected arguments by pharmaceutical companies and a trade group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, that the ordinance discriminates against out-of-state manufacturers in favor of local pharmaceutical firms in violation of the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Los Angeles Times - Aug 28
A coalition of more than 100 environmental and political activist groups is denouncing oil hydraulic fracturing legislation as too weak and calling on Gov. Jerry Brown to order an immediate halt to the controversial drilling practice.
