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Coming Soon To a Major City Near You — Building Energy Efficiency Standards

Members of the New York City Council have introduced a proposal to impose mandatory building energy efficiency standards. The standards, which vary by building type and use, would apply to buildings greater than 25,000 square...more

The National Climate Assessment Projects Major Economic Impacts. The President Doesn’t Believe It. Must Not Be True.

Last week, the government released the Fourth National Climate Assessment. Not surprisingly, it’s largely consistent with the prior assessments...more

Deja Vu All Over Again — The Trump Administration Refuses to Provide “Good Reasons” For Its Change in Course on Keystone XL

On November 8, 2018, Judge Brian Morris granted summary judgment to plaintiffs on some of their claims challenging the State Department’s new Record of Decision for the Keystone XL project. Whatever our Tweeter-in-chief may...more

The UCS Wants to Preserve Existing Nuclear Plants — You Know that Means the Climate Situation Must Be Dire

The Union of Concerned Scientists just released a report, The Nuclear Power Dilemma. As Ken Kimmell, UCS’s President, said in a blog about the report, it: "calls for proactive policy to preserve nuclear power from existing...more

A Mixed Bag For Climate Litigation Plaintiffs

Last week there were two court decisions on cases in which groups of citizens are seeking court orders requiring the government to act on climate change. The biggest news was that the Supreme Court denied the stay requested...more

11/6/2018  /  Citizen Suits , Climate Change , SCOTUS

A Short Rant Concerning Transportation Sector GHG Emissions

The Energy Information Administration today released CO2 emissions numbers through 2016. While I could rant about the 21.4% increase in GHG emissions in Florida since 1990, as compared to the 23.7% decrease in Massachusetts...more

The Rubber Begins to Hit the Road on Adaptation

I gave up some time ago on the idea that focusing on adaption was just a means of weaseling out of necessary measures to mitigate climate change. As the extraordinary becomes commonplace, it’s evident that we’ve ignored the...more

11/1/2018  /  Climate Change , Sustainability

A Carbon Tax Twofer. A Meat Tax? No, Sir.

It’s probably not news that the immediate prospects for a carbon tax aren’t great. I still think that it’s going to seem impossible until, fairly suddenly, it actually happens. Hope springs eternal....more

We May Not Always Have Paris, But Perhaps We Can Do Better Than Paris

Earlier this week, the Climate Leadership Council released an analysis demonstrating that the “Baker Shultz Carbon Dividends Plan” would result in greater reductions in greenhouse gas emissions than the US committed to...more

Winston Churchill and Fuel Economy Standards

So the Trump administration has formally proposed to roll back CAFE standards for model years beginning in 2021. And California has announced its intention to start separately enforcing its own standards if the federal...more

Dog Bites Man: Scott Pruitt Edition

According to Greenwire (subscription required), EPA has acknowledged that it possesses no records providing a factual basis for claims made by Scott Pruitt that GHG emissions are not a primary contributor to global...more

Two Strikes Against Climate Plaintiffs; the New York Case Is Dismissed.

On Thursday, July 19, 2018, Judge John Keenan dismissed New York City’s climate damages law suit against five oil majors. The basis for the decision was the same as in last month’s decision dismissing similar claims in...more

Thanks For Proving Me Right, Rhode Island!

Late last month, when I reported on the dismissal of the California climate change public nuisance litigation, I stated boldly that we should not expect advocates to stop trying. I did not really think I was going out on a...more

The Dutch Government Also Doesn’t Like Citizen Climate Litigation

As a follow-up to my June 27 post about the dismissal of public nuisance claims brought by the City of Oakland and the State of California against five oil majors concerning their contribution to climate change, I note that...more

Still No Judicial Remedy For Climate Change — Don’t Expect Advocates To Stop Trying

On Monday, June 25, 2018, Judge William Alsup dismissed the public nuisance case brought by the City of Oakland and the State of California against five major oil companies. The suit sought payment of damages into a fund to...more

EPA Must Produce Any Agency Records Supporting Administrator Pruitt’s Statement that Human Activity Is Not the Largest Contributor...

June 1, 2018, EPA was ordered to produce documents, in response to a FOIA request, on which Administrator Pruitt relied in stating on CNBC that: “I would not agree that [carbon dioxide] is a primary contributor to the global...more

Has the Horse Already Left the Barn? FERC Tries to Limit Review of Climate Impacts

Last week, FERC rejected arguments that the Environmental Assessment for the New Market Project should have considered upstream and downstream climate impacts. It also announced as policy that it would not in the future...more

How Much Deference Will EPA Get On Its CAFE Standards Decision?

There’s been a lot of discussion regarding EPA’s decision to withdraw EPA’s Mid-term Evaluation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Model Year 2022-2025 Light-duty Vehicles. After pondering for a while, my question is how much...more

BLM Loses Another One: Resource Management Plans for Coal Leasing Areas Are Sent Back to the Drawing Board

Late last month, Judge Brian Morris granted summary judgment to plaintiffs on three claims alleging that the environmental impact analysis supported BLM’s Resource Management Plans for managing coal leases in the Powder River...more

ExxonMobil’s AG Claims Are Dismissed — What a Shock!

On March 29, 2018, Judge Valerie Caproni dismissed claims brought by ExxonMobil against New York Attorney General Schneiderman and Massachusetts Attorney General Healey. Boiled down to their essence, ExxonMobil’s claims were...more

Federal Common Law Climate Claims: Now You See Them, Now You Don’t

Just a few weeks ago, Federal Judge William Alsup ruled that claims brought by San Francisco and Oakland against certain large oil companies belonged in federal court, because they raise issues of federal common law. Last...more

Governor Baker Burnishes His Green Credentials

Governor Baker has sent some mixed messages to the environmental community in his first term. After promising during the campaign to increase environmental spending to 1% of the state budget, he’s made essentially no progress...more

A Trial on Climate Change Claims Against the United States? What Fun!

Yesterday, March 7, 2018, the 9th Circuit rejected the Trump adminitration’s request for a writ of mandamus ordering the trial court to dismiss litigation brought by 21 children alleging that the government’s failure to...more

BLM Changes Policy; A Court Says Its Reasons Aren’t Good Enough

As I’ve noted previously, the fight over the Trump Administration’s effort to change course on a number of Obama environmental initiatives is going to focus in significant part on FCC v. Fox Television Stations, in which the...more

Some Extreme Climate Events Would Not Have Happened But For Climate Change: Lawyers Are Paying Attention

Today’s ClimateWire (subscription required) contained a long summary of evidence that scientists are increasingly able to demonstrate that climate change is what we lawyers would call the “but for” cause of extreme weather...more

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