A group of California commercial fishing organizations asked the U.S. Supreme Court this week to reverse a Ninth Circuit decision that expands the scope of the “Chevron deference doctrine.” In the 1984 case of Chevron USA Inc. v. NRDC, the Supreme Court ruled that agencies must be given deference in their interpretation of ambiguous statutes […]
In early May, California became the first state in the country to require solar panels on all new homes, in an attempt to aggressively curb greenhouse gas emissions. The California Energy Commission (“CEC”) adopted updates to the state energy code’s building efficiency standards requiring solar photovoltaic systems on newly constructed residential buildings with three stories […]
The state, and several environmental organizations within it, have urged the Ninth Circuit to overturn a lower court that nixed their challenge to the Trump administration’s planned border wall. The appellants argue that the border wall, and all the construction activities that come alongside it, must first undergo environmental impact assessments. The appellate brief argues […]
On Tuesday (5/15/18), the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order vacating an incidental take permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for a pipeline project. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline project, backed by Dominion Energy, involves a 600-mile pipeline for natural gas. The proposed route starts in West Virginia and ends in […]
May 16, 2018 | Category:
NewsOn May 11, the U.S. Government asked a federal judge in California to toss out suits by Oakland and San Francisco seeking to hold the oil industry liable for climate change-related infrastructure damage. The government argued that the cities’ claims are more rightfully handled by regulators and lawmakers, who should set the climate and energy […]
For seven years, a handful of homebuilders offered solar as an optional item to buyers willing to pay extra to go green. Now, California is on the verge of making solar standard on virtually every new home built in the Golden State. The California Energy Commission is scheduled to vote Wednesday, May 9, on new […]
Popular Science, a popular quarterly magazine, published an article on April 4, 2018 calling out California for saying that everything causes cancer. In California Proposition 65 requires business with 10 or more employees to provide reasonable warnings about the use of any chemicals the state has decided “could cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive […]
Beverly Hills High School will soon begin to dismantle the iconic oil derrick next to its football field that has pumped crude oil for decades. Statewide, California oil production has been declining since 1986, when production peaked at 1.1 million barrels per day. In 2016, production was less than half that. Over the past 35 […]
A group of states, including California and New York, asked a federal judge this week to invalidate the US EPA’s recent choice to delay implementing an Obama-era update to the Clean Water Rule, arguing that the agency failed to follow proper notice-and-comment protocol when delaying the rule’s application. The rule, to be implemented by EPA […]
May 2, 2018 | Category:
NewsOn April 10, the board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California voted to invest $10.8 billion towards the state’s plan to build new water conveyance infrastructure in the Delta (commonly called “Water Fix.”) The total price tag is nearly $17 billion, so the news provided a level of certainty to the project it didn’t have […]
