Environmental Law

  • New York Times icon

    Letters: Worries About Climate Change Should Spur Us to Action (09/21/2023)

    “Yes, Mr. Biden could declare a climate emergency, ban fossil fuel exports, cancel oil leases and stop fossil fuel investing abroad,” writes Professor Daniel Farber in his letter to the editor. “After being immediately halted by conservative judges, those emergency actions would go down in flames on 6-to-3 votes in the Supreme Court.”

  • Politico logo

    California goes on offense against Big Oil (09/16/2023)

    “Having California participate is a big deal,” said Ken Alex, director, Project Climate at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy, & the Environment. “These are difficult cases. They have five defendants who have endless resources; it’s not simple to prove what they need to prove in terms of misrepresentation.”

  • Cal Matters icon

    Lawmakers strike $106 million deal for fueling hydrogen cars, trucks — even though hardly anyone drives one (09/14/2023)

    Funding for hydrogen stations is “largely a waste of money” for an “industry that has not proved itself after well over a decade of subsidy in California,” said Ethan Elkind, director of the climate program at the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at UC Berkeley Law.

  • Politico logo

    California tries for a different path than Florida on insurance (09/10/2023)

    “All of the things that the California insurers are asking for, the Florida insurers are allowed to do and then some,” said Dave Jones, a former California insurance commissioner who now directs the University of California, Berkeley law school’s Climate Risk Initiative. “I do believe we’re steadily marching towards an uninsurable future, not only in California, but throughout the United States.”

  • LA TImes icon

    Lawmakers approve plan to strengthen oversight of California water rights (09/09/2023)

    The bill doesn’t actually give water regulators new powers, but it adds specificity to what was previously a vague section of the state’s water law, said Nell Green Nylen, a senior research fellow at the UC Berkeley School of Law’s Wheeler Water Institute.

  • AP logo

    California prison on generator power after wildfires knock out electricity and fill cells with smoke (08/30/2023)

    “We have seen climate-related, and certainly fire-related, impacts on jails and prisons across the globe with an increasing level and severity as climate change has picked up pace,” said Chesa Boudin, executive director of Berkeley Law’s Criminal Law & Justice Center.

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    California Group Exploring Viability of a Community-Centered Direct Air Capture Hub (08/30/2023)

    Researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment at the UC Berkeley School of Law are leading a project to explore the creation of a Direct Air Capture (DAC) facility that uses cutting-edge technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in California’s Southern San Joaquin Valley.

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    California Group Exploring Viability of a Community-Centered Direct Air Capture Hub (08/24/2023)

    “If designed well, deployment of a DAC hub in this region could provide important economic and environmental benefits to communities that have been affected by the impacts of climate disruption on the agricultural economy, and which are likely to experience negative impacts as a result of the transition from the reliance on fossil fuels,” said Louise Bedsworth, executive director of Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment. 

  • DC logo

    Center for Law, Energy & Environment receives $100K gift to inform climate policy (08/24/2023)

    “We feel this is just a really opportune time, especially in Sacramento where we have strong policy frameworks,” Executive Director of CLEE Louise Bedsworth said. “We have a lot of political support for taking action on climate and the environment. This seems like a really good time to be building this out.”

  • Politico logo

    Wildfires are about to burn California politicians (08/21/2023)

    “I do believe we’re steadily marching towards an uninsurable future, not only in California, but throughout the United States,” said Dave Jones, Director of Berkeley Law’s Climate Risk Initiative.