Legal and Policy News

December 24, 2020 | Boiling Point: The coal industry comes tumbling down in the American West https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2020-12-24/coal-industry-comes-tumbling-down-in-the-american-west-boiling-point (credit: Sammy Roth)

Notable Excerpts:

“Navajo Generating Station, built half a century ago along the Colorado River near the Arizona-Utah state line, was the largest coal-fired power plant in the American West. It generated huge amounts of electricity for Los Angeles and powered the pumps that carry Colorado River water uphill to Phoenix, helping the desert city become a thriving metropolis. Its three 775-foot smokestacks towered over a gorgeous red rock landscape, belching planet-warming carbon dioxide and lung-damaging chemicals. On Friday, demolition crews toppled the smokestacks with a series of thundering booms.”
It’s not just Los Angeles that stands to benefit. Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Washington have followed California’s lead in adopting 100% clean energy goals. In Utah, Salt Lake and 22 other cities and counties are targeting 100% clean energy by 2030. In Wyoming — home to a bunch of coal plants with no retirement dates — several cities are pushing to reduce emissions.
“Intermountain is the last coal plant serving California, and it’s scheduled to shut down in 2025. I wrote last year about L.A.’s plan to replace the facility with a natural gas-fired plant that can eventually run on renewable hydrogen rather than gas — something that’s never been done before and isn’t guaranteed to work out.”

December 23, 2020 | Billions of dollars spent on fighting California wildfires, but little on prevention https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2020-12-23/billions-spent-fighting-california-wildfires-little-on-prevention (credit: Bettina Boxall)

Notable Excerpts:

“When COVID-19 blew a hole in California’s spending plans last spring, one of the things state budget-cutters took an axe to was wildfire prevention. A $100-million pilot project to outfit older homes with fire-resistant materials was dropped. Another $165 million earmarked for community protection and wildland fuel-reduction fell to less than $10 million. A few months later, the August siege of dry lightning turned 2020 into a record-shattering wildfire year. The state’s emergency firefighting costs are expected to hit $1.3 billion, pushing the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s total spending this fiscal year to more than $3 billion.”
“The numbers highlight the enormous chasm between what state and federal agencies spend on firefighting and what they spend on reducing California’s wildfire hazard — a persistent gap that critics say ensures a self-perpetuating cycle of destruction.”
“Climate change is exacerbating California’s wildfire problem. But it didn’t create it. There are a variety of reasons why wildfires have grown larger, more intense and more destructive in recent decades. A big one, experts say, is that 40 million people live in a fire-prone landscape that has been largely deprived of flame for more than a century.”
“‘When everybody knows what to do and they don’t do it, there’s something deeper going on,’ said Michael Wara, who helped draft a recent independent report on the costs of California wildfire that noted the state’s ‘long history of underinvestment in prevention and mitigation. The problem, he says, is largely institutional. ‘You developed firefighting institutions that are very powerful, where institutional advancement for people has to do with how well you perform the firefighting mission — not how well you reduce wildfire hazard,’ he argued. ‘So we have to create something new.'”

October 29 2020 | U.S. to Remove Wolves From Protected Species List https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/climate/wolves-endangered-species-list.html (credit: Catrin Einhorn)

Notable Excerpts:

“It was the second time in recent years that the federal government had tried to take wolves off the endangered species list; the last attempt, under the Obama administration, was withdrawn amid strong opposition.”
“Wolves’ numbers began to rebound after they were placed under federal protection in the 1960s, and in the mid-1990s, the Service took a bold new step, relocating 31 wolves from Canada into Yellowstone National Park. But with their recovery came old conflicts. Ranchers complained of lost livestock, hunters of decreased deer and elk.”
“But other advocates and scientists point to the ripple effects of restoring top predators to an ecosystem. Wolves, for example, help new trees and other critical vegetation grow by reducing deer and elk grazing. A healthier habitat supports myriad species. “Wolves shape the places where they live,” said Collette Adkins, carnivore conservation director at the Center for Biological Diversity.”
“The matter is complicated by a fundamental disagreement over the extent of the Endangered Species Act’s scope: Must it simply save animals from the risk of extinction in the wild, or must it restore them until they occupy an environmentally significant role in their ecosystems?”

October 28, 2020 | How investors are coming up with the green to save the ocean blue https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2020/10/28/climate-solutions-ocean-conservation/ (credit: Saqib Rahim)

Notable Excerpts:

“As part of an investment team at the Nature Conservancy, the U.S.-based environmental group, Weary threw the Seychelles a lifeline: a chance to refinance more than $21 million of its debt. There were just two conditions. The government had to spend the savings on ocean conservation work such as coral restoration and trash cleanup, and it had to designate 30 percent of its waters as special zones where activities such as fishing and drilling are highly regulated or off limits.”
“The approach offers investors a steady flow of interest payments — albeit slightly less than that of traditional bonds — and an opportunity to shine up their environmental records. Borrowing countries, in theory, should end up with stronger economies that boost budgets and make it easy to repay the bonds.”
“‘There is a growing financial crisis in many developing countries,’ said André Standing, an independent researcher in Kenya who has studied the impact of debt deals on small nations. ‘They’re using more and more of these type of bond arrangements to raise finance, which are very unsustainable and lacking transparency and accountability.'”
“Yet supporters say blue bonds can provide critical cash infusions for developing countries determined to rehabilitate ailing oceans, particularly given the ever-increasing risks from rising sea levels, warmer water temperatures and greater acidification. And conservation makes financial as much as moral sense, they contend.”

October 25, 2020 | How the waters off Catalina became a DDT dumping ground https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-coast-ddt-dumping-ground/#nt=1col-7030col1 (credit: Rosanna Xia)

Notable Excerpts:

“Not far from Santa Catalina Island, in an ocean shared by divers and fishermen, kelp forests and whales, David Valentine decoded unusual signals underwater that gave him chills. The UC Santa Barbara scientist was supposed to be studying methane seeps that day, but with a deep-sea robot on loan and a few hours to spare, now was the chance to confirm an environmental abuse that others in the past could not.”
“Regulators reported in the 1980s that the men in charge of getting rid of the DDT waste sometimes took shortcuts and just dumped it closer to shore. And when the barrels were too buoyant to sink on their own, one report said, the crews simply punctured them. The ocean buried the evidence for generations, but modern technology can take scientists to new depths. In 2011 and 2013, Valentine and his research team were able to identify about 60 barrels and collect a few samples during brief forays at the end of other research missions. One sediment sample showed DDT concentrations 40 times greater than the highest contamination recorded at the Superfund site — a federally designated area of hazardous waste that officials had contained to shallower waters near Palos Verdes.”
“Signs warning of tainted fish to this day still cover local piers. Recent studies show our immune systems may be compromised. A new generation of women — exposed to DDT from their mothers, who were exposed by their mothers — grapples with the still-mysterious risks of breast cancer.”
“It was unclear how much the DDT could move through the water at such depths, where there is little oxygen […] but the dumping was close enough to the Channel Islands that the upwelling of deeper water common in this area could stir up what enters the food chain. And if the barrels were indeed punctured, he added, some of the sludge could have leaked out on its way down to the seafloor.”
“Current monitoring shows that the local ecosystem, on the whole, is stable. But what’s unclear are these long-term unknowns, said Keith Maruya, who co-authored the dolphin study and retired last year as the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project’s head of chemistry. ‘It’s not like something’s going off the cliff. But what we don’t know is whether these things are going to have a longer-term, more subtle effect — are some populations really, really slowly going to be declining?” he said. “We don’t know the answer. Moreover, we don’t really have the tools yet to answer that question fully.'”

October 7, 2020 | California governor calls for protecting 30% of state land https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2020-10-07/california-governor-calls-for-protecting-30-of-state-land (credit: Associated Press)

Notable Excerpts:

“He directed state agencies to pursue actions that will remove climate-warming carbon from the atmosphere. Newsom, who made the announcement in a walnut orchard 25 miles outside of Sacramento, said innovative farming practices, restoring wetlands, better managing forests, planting more trees and increasing the number of parks are all potential tools.”
“The goal is to conserve 30% of the state’s lands and coastal waters in the next decade as part of a larger global effort. California is the first state to join 38 countries that have made similar commitments, Newsom said.”
“Newsom said the effort would build on the state’s legacy of protecting open space, the environment and biodiversity. This is the second major climate change directive from the governor since a string of massive wildfires broke out in mid-August.”

September 23, 2020 | Here is Newsom’s plan to allow only zero-emissions car sales in California by 2035 https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-09-23/gavin-newsom-california-plan-only-zero-emissions-car-sales-by-2035 (credit: Times Staff)

Notable Excerpts:

“It shall be a goal of the State that 100 percent of in-state sales of new passenger cars and trucks will be zero-emission by 2035. It shall be a further goal of the State that 100 percent of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles in the State be zero-emission by 2045 for all operations where feasible and by 2035 for drayage trucks. It shall be further a goal of the State to transition to 100 percent zero-emission off-road vehicles and equipment by 2035 where feasible.”
“The State Air Resources Board, the Energy Commission, Public Utilities Commission and other relevant State agencies, shall use existing authorities to accelerate deployment of affordable fueling and charging options for zero-emission vehicles, in ways that serve all communities and in particular low-income and disadvantaged communities, consistent with State and federal law.”
“To support the transition away from fossil fuels consistent with the goals established in this Order and California’s goal to achieve carbon neutrality by no later than 2045, the California Environmental Protection Agency and the California Natural Resources Agency, in consultation with other State, local and federal agencies, shall expedite regulatory processes to repurpose and transition upstream and downstream oil production facilities, while supporting community participation, labor standards, and protection of public health, safety and the environment. The agencies shall report on progress and provide an action plan, including necessary changes in regulations, laws or resources, by July 15, 2021.”

September 21, 2020 | Environmentalists plan lawsuit challenging Newsom over oil and gas drilling permits https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-09-21/environmentalists-lawsuit-gavin-newsom-over-oil-and-gas-drilling-permits (credit: Phil Willon)

Notable Excerpts:

“In a letter sent to Newsom on Monday, the Center for Biological Diversity accused his administration of being friendly to California’s oil industry and issuing new permits without proper environmental reviews. The organization plans to take legal action unless the Democratic governor ‘promptly direct[s] your regulators to halt permitting.'”
“The permits were issued after a November announcement by Newsom that he would temporarily block new hydraulic fracturing permits until those projects could be reviewed by an independent panel of scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.”

September 21, 2020 | Constant carbon pricing increases support for climate action compared to ramping up costs over time https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-00914-6 (credit: Michael Bechtel, Kenneth Sheve and Elisabeth van Lieshout)

Abstract: The introduction of policies that increase the price of carbon is central to limiting the adverse effects of global warming. Conventional wisdom holds that, of the possible cost paths, gradually raising costs relating to climate action will receive the most public support. Here, we explore mass support for dynamic cost paths in four major economies (France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States). We find that, for a given level of average costs, increasing cost paths receive little support whereas constant cost schedules are backed by majorities in all countries irrespective of whether those average costs are low or high. Experimental evidence indicates that constant cost paths significantly reduce opposition to climate action relative to increasing cost paths. Preferences for climate cost paths are related to the time horizons of individuals and their desire to smooth consumption over time.

Notable Excerpts:

“Although scholars have continued to assess the numerous ways in which climate change affects humans, animals and plants on Earth, governments have been hesitant to pursue policies able to successfully reduce emissions because of a costs–participation dilemma: to be effective, climate policy must raise the price of carbon and include most countries of the world. Realizing both of these objectives is challenging because climate action is voluntary and existing studies demonstrate that publics are averse to costs.”
“Previous work has explored the willingness of individuals to invest in energy efficiency improvements and public approval of costly climate policy initiatives. So far, there exists no systematic evidence on which intertemporal cost paths maximize public support for climate action.”

September 17, 2020 | What Trump’s Environmental Rollbacks Mean for Global Warming https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/17/climate/emissions-trump-rollbacks-deregulation.html (credit: Nadja Popovich and Brad Plumer)

Notable Excerpts:

“President Trump has made dismantling federal climate policies a centerpiece of his administration. A new analysis from the Rhodium Group finds those rollbacks add up to a lot more planet-warming emissions. Together, these rollbacks are expected to result in an additional 1.8 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by 2035. That’s more than the combined energy emissions of Germany, Britain and Canada in one year.”
“The Trump administration changed Obama-era rules that would have required new passenger cars, SUVs and pickup trucks sold in the United States to become less polluting over time. Instead of improving fleet-wide fuel economy by 5 percent annually for model years 2021 through 2026, automakers will now have to improve just 1.5 percent per year.”
“The administration also revoked California’s authority to set its own tailpipe emissions standards and to mandate electric vehicles. California’s special right to set stricter automobile pollution limits than the federal government’s dates back to the Clean Air Act of 1970, and for years the state has required that automakers sell a certain amount of electric vehicles. As of September, 13 states and Washington, D.C., have formally adopted California’s policies and are challenging the administration’s decision in court.”
“The Trump administration has also sought to revise or reverse two major Obama-era rules aimed at limiting leaks and intentional venting of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. In July, a federal judge blocked the rollback of one of these rules, concerning methane on public lands, but the administration is still pushing to repeal it.”

September 15, 2020 | Big Oil’s green makeover https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2020/09/15/bp-climate-change-transition/ (credit: Steve Mufson)

Notable Excerpts:

“Every so often, corporations confront questions of life or death. […] Now, BP, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, is aiming to ride the waves of disruption instead of being crushed under them.”
“Led by a new chief executive, BP is trying to reinvent itself as an energy company in the age of climate change. The company is shrinking its oil and gas business, revving up offshore wind power and developing solar and battery storage. It is even considering installing electric car charging kiosks at its U.S. gas stations, part of a drive to eliminate or offset its carbon emissions to a net zero level by 2050.”
“The need for a far-reaching corporate makeover as the planet warms is pressing, the company said. ‘There’s a fundamental belief about our business proposition: that the world actually demands more affordable clean energy,’ said Dev Sanyal, chief executive of BP’s alternative energy business and a member of the company’s executive leadership team. ‘Providing the energy the world needs the way that it wants it — that is a shift in our strategy.'”

September 14, 2020 | States and cities scramble to sue oil companies over climate change https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/09/14/states-cities-scramble-sue-oil-companies-over-climate-change/ (credit: Dino Grandoni)

Notable Excerpts:

“More than a dozen states, counties and cities, from fire-ravaged California to flood-prone South Carolina, are suing oil companies to hold them responsible for the damage they say their products have caused due to climate change.”
The litigation, bolstered by science and likened to cancer suits in the 1990s against Big Tobacco, has the potential to be a financial reckoning for an already struggling industry in the United States.”
“The latest to file suit is Connecticut, which on Monday alleged that ExxonMobil, the nation’s largest oil and gas company, misled the public on climate change for decades. William Tong, the state’s attorney general, said ExxonMobil’s actions left the state, with more than 600 miles of coastline, ill-prepared for sea-level rise and more intense storms.”
“Lawsuits are precisely the wrong mechanisms to determine the appropriate way to address climate change,” said Scott Segal, an attorney with Bracewell LLP, which often represents energy companies in Washington. “It is impossible to determine what emissions source results in what harm, meaning that causation is impossible to determine.”

September 12, 2020 | A Secret Recording Reveals Oil Executives’ Private Views on Climate Change https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/12/climate/methane-natural-gas-flaring.html (credit: Hiroko Tabuchi)

Notable Excerpts:

“We’re just flaring a tremendous amount of gas,” said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, at the June 2019 gathering, held in Colorado Springs. “This pesky natural gas,” he said. “The value of it is very minimal,” particularly to companies drilling mainly for oil.
“What’s our message going forward?” Mr. Ness said. “What’s going to stick with those young people and make them support oil and gas?”
“Young voters, female voters, Hispanic voters, really every sector except for older conservative male voters,” Ryan Flynn of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association said in the recording of the meeting, “their No. 1 issue when it comes to our industry is always going to be environmental stewardship, and concerns about what we’re doing with the environment.”
“We absolutely need to address young people’s, all people’s, concerns about climate change,” Mr. Flynn said. “We’ve taken criticism at times from our peers that we are engaging on these issues,” he said. “But it’s critical for the future of our industry.”

August 19, 2020 | Storing carbon in the prairie grass: Plans would pay landowners to keep the ecosystem in a natural state to fight climate change https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2020/08/19/climate-change-prairie/?arc404=true (credit: Mary Beth Gahan)

Notable Excerpts:

“As part of photosynthesis, plants pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in their stems, leaves and roots. Unlike trees, grasslands store most of their carbon underground, in their roots and the soil. And that makes them more reliable “carbon sinks” than forests, according to a 2018 University of California at Davis study. Because carbon is stored in the soil, it is not released back into the atmosphere when grasslands burn, as it is when trees go up in flames.”
“To create incentives for landowners to preserve natural land, Blackburn and the Baker Institute at Rice are leading a group of organizations as varied as the Nature Conservancy and Valero Energy to brainstorm ways to create a market for storing carbon in the soil of prairies, farms, ranches and grasslands in Texas and around the country. Funding is available to landowners for carbon stored in forests, such as California’s cap-and-trade market, and the same should be done for soil, Blackburn said.”
“The value of pristine grassland in the fight against climate change is not just its ability to store carbon, Blackburn said. Prairie grass helps the land recover from weather that is becoming more destructive as the planet warms, he said.”
“All native grasslands in the country together could sequester up to 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide each year, Blackburn estimates. The nation’s annual carbon dioxide output was nearly 7 billion metric tons in 2018, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.”

August 13, 2020 | California oil production limits stall in Legislature, leaving the issue to Newsom https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-08-13/setbacks-legislation-california-oil-gas-production-environmental-protections-newsom (credit: Phil Willon)

Notable Excerpts:

“Legislation to put in place minimum setback distances between the wells and residential areas, along with public places such as schools and playgrounds, failed passage in a state Senate committee last week. The proposal faced a rough go from the outset, with resistance coming from Republicans and some pro-labor and Central Valley Democrats, underscoring the continued political muscle of California’s billion-dollar oil industry — even in a deep blue state known for enacting aggressive environmental protections.”
“A recent study by researchers at UC Berkeley, published by the National Institutes of Health, found that living near oil and gas wells caused significant adverse health effects to pregnant mothers and newborn babies. A 2014 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council determined that more than 5.4 million Californians lived within one mile of at least one oil or gas well.”
“Siegel and other environmental advocates also criticized Newsom for allowing the California Geologic Energy Management Division, known as CalGEM, to issue close to 50 new hydraulic fracturing permits to Chevron and Aera Energy, a partnership of Shell Oil and ExxonMobil, since April. The permits were issued after a November announcement by Newsom that he would temporarily block new hydraulic fracturing permits until those projects could be reviewed by an independent panel of scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.”

August 10, 2020 | The $16 billion plan to beam Australia’s Outback sun onto Asia’s power grids https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2020/08/10/australia-solar-energy-asia/ (credit: A. Odysseus Patrick)

Notable Excerpts:

“The Australia-ASEAN Power Link, which is part-owned by two Australian billionaires and was endorsed last month by the Australian government, may be the most ambitious renewable energy project underway anywhere. And it could mark a new chapter in the history of energy: the intercontinental movement of green power.”
“The project, owned by a company called Sun Cable, is driven by geopolitics as much as physics. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has discussed a regional power grid for 15 years — Europeans have shared electricity for five decades — but the talks have been frustrated by political differences and infrastructure gaps.”
“From a technology perspective, it is feasible,” said Subodh Mhaisalkar, executive director of the Nanyang Technological University’s Energy Research Institute in Singapore. “The question is: Will it make economic sense?”
“Sun Cable, which has about two dozen employees, has chosen a solar panel supplier and hired a contractor to survey the ocean floor. It has given itself three years to demonstrate that the project is financially viable before raising the money needed for construction.”

August 4, 2020 | Oil company Allenco and its leaders face criminal charges over deteriorating wells https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-08-04/allenco-lawsuit (credit: Emily Alpert Reyes)

Arraignment Date: October 20, 2020

Notable Excerpts:

“Earlier this year, California regulators ordered Allenco to plug wells and decommission the drill site, which would permanently close the inactive facility. State Oil and Gas Supervisor Uduak-Joe Ntuk, formerly L.A.’s petroleum administrator, said the company had failed to fix leaking wells and effectively “deserted” the site.”
“In total, Allenco faces more than two dozen new criminal counts for allegedly violating state and local laws. The City Attorney’s Office said that the charges could be punishable with years in jail if the executives are convicted.”

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