Environmental Law

The waiver was created to address California’s unique circumstances of not only pioneering and leading the country in the creation of air-quality and air-emissions control policy, but also of having very specific air-pollution challenges relating to vehicles, geography and industry, said Ted Lamm, associate director of the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment at the University of California, Berkeley. “It’s a bedrock part of the Clean Air Act.”

“Even with the right regulations in place, insurers aren’t known for embracing change,” said Dave Jones, California’s former Department of Insurance head who now runs the Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeley Law. “It’s a very conservative industry. You need to show them that an insurer is able to (make money doing this) before others will follow suit.” 

Ethan Elkind, director of the Climate Program at the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, UC Berkeley School of Law joins Forum to discuss the impact of Trump’s approach to the environment and how California could respond.

Professor Claudia Polsky, director of the Environmental Law Clinic, weighs in on toxic heavy metals found in fire retardant gathered from the LA fires. “To me this situation is disturbing if unsurprising.”

“It seems to me that the motivation for recommending reconsideration is more ideological than strategic,” said Professor Daniel Farber, faculty director Center for Law, Energy & the Environment. “Trying to overturn the science behind the climate finding is a fool’s errand.”

If Congress and the executive branch does decide to prioritize eliminating Biden’s gas-fired water heater rule, it could bring the application of future EPCA standards into question, said Sharon Jacobs, an administrative and energy law professor of University of California Berkeley.

Professor Daniel Farber, faculty director of the Edley Center on Law & Democracy at UC Berkeley Law weighs in on how the Trump administration’s agenda and policy reversals will impact California.

“For decades, oil and gas companies have been allowed to mislead the public and profit from their products while sticking others with the bill for climate change,” writes Dave Jones, director of the Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment. “That must end.”

Dave Jones, director of the Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, and former California Insurance Commissioner discusses the devastating effects of the ongoing Los Angeles fires and their impacts on California’s home insurance market.

Dave Jones, director of the Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) joins Forum to discuss how the fires will impact the state’s insurance industry and the future of insurance in a climate change-charged world.